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| My current classroom setup |
"We need to engage our students in learning," is a line that many school administrators will bark out at the beginning of each school year, and often repeat at every staff meeting. It is an easy line to dole out but much harder to practice. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has spent any time around teenagers to know that it is getting tougher to engage students in the classroom. Aside from taking their phones away, and risking the negative repercussion from angry parents, teachers are always open to alternatives to the battle of who or what will grab their attention.
Originally airing on February 12, CTV news did a report on a teacher in Delisle, Saskatchewan who converted his Grade 1 classroom into a standing classroom.In the interview, the teacher of this innovative idea, Mr. Justin Sauer, explained that he originally researched this topic for his own health improvement. Suffering from previous knee and hip injuries, Sauer found that most of his research could be transferable to his students (Bissonauth). The news report explained the positive results in the classroom. I am taking it upon myself to dive a little deeper into the topic. It is an interesting idea but I doubt the practicality of it in a high school setting.
If any teacher tried to implement this model in a high school setting, the response from the students would be in a somnolent, "Why are we doing this?"
This is a valid question as many high school students are quite content with finding a spot in the back of the room,ready for a poorly postured hour of class.
The biggest question I have is whether this type of classroom structure will meet my needs. What are my needs? To increase attention and focus, increase student engagement, and hopefully increase productivity and learning. If grades improve it would be my belief that attendance would increase, creating a cycle of success.
A look into the research motivating stand biased desks show that learning outcomes are not the driving force. Obesity and child inactivity rather, is the basis for most of the research on this topic. According to a 2014 report "The Evaluation of the Impact of a Stand-biased Desk on Energy Expenditure and Physical Activity for Elementary School Students," childhood obesity has detrimental health problems such as join problems, sleep apnea, type II diabetes, low self esteem and social problems (Brenden et al 9362). More importantly," Academically, children who are overweight or obese are also more likely to repeat a grade in school, exhibit higher absenteeism, experience peer victimization, be placed in remedial classes and show abnormal scores on behavior rating scales"(9362). While not directly stated, one could assume that a healthier class is going to result in a smarter class.
Other reports focused on similar variations of the same problem. Another report, "Evaluating a school biased Childhood Obesity Intervention for Posture and Comfort" looked at how standing could improve posture and indirectly combat obesity. The report "Not taking it Sitting Down,"by fitness parents Kelly and Juliet Starrett focused on student mobility and flexibility in the classroom. It becomes apparent with each article that if we can tackle the obesity and inactivity problems, we can improve in academic success.
The results in all studies that I explored were not surprising. According to Mark E Benden stand biased desks had a significant and positive impact on energy expenditures and the amount of steps students took (9372). It concluded that this environment change could help reach the 41 kcal/day increase suggested to change the obesity trend among children (9372). Juliet Starrett calculated that standing could burn 30000 to 50000 more calories per year based on their size, weight, and age. The calorie expenditure clearly had a positive result from standing desk classrooms (O'Hagan 3).
The one article that studied posture found that students in standing classrooms reported greater comfort for arms, neck, and legs. Sitting classrooms had greater comfort in feet, ankles, lower back, and wrists. The overall statistics on the subject suggest there was a larger discomfort in bodies overall in the sitting classrooms compared to the standing rooms (Brendon 58). It is clear to see that the physical benefits to standing classrooms are one good reason for considering a change of scenery.
The information in my research, while positive for health, does not specifically address my needs for academic success. Also, the research that has been done, looks only at elementary students, and not high school students. Can high school students be successful in a standing classroom? It is important to look at the differences in high school students and the barriers to gaining their attention.
In my experience, teenagers in the 11th and 12th grades don't have the same fidgeting problems as elementary school students. I am sure there are a few high school students who would benefit from the freedom of movement with standing desks, but they are not the majority in my classes. If anything, these teenagers are inactive by preference. For self aware teens they are in constant damage control mode. They don't want to move around, not eager to provide opportunities to be judged by their peers. They would rather interact in the stationary safety of their cell phones and social media. This is where the students are lost to the teacher who can't compete with Facebook, Twitter, Vines, YouTube, Snap-Chat, and texting.
Looking at the differences has changed my original thoughts about standing classrooms for high school students. High school students would benefit from standing class rooms with a highly structured and energetic teacher. If a teacher could develop their lessons to encourage movement, nay, force movement in their class, not only would students be moving but they would have little time to resort to texting. Admittingly, this would be a lot of work for teachers to continually challenge their lessons for movement, but it could have a positive impact.
Regardless of the subject, within reasonable moderation, there isn't a reason why teachers could not implement movement in their classrooms. The teaching tools and strategies such as Think -Pair-Share, jigsaws, or station based lessons could be implemented much easier with movement in a standing classroom. If a teacher had the "right fit"lesson, a timer could be used and movement could be scheduled in five or ten minute increments. The possibilities are endless with the right teacher at the helm.
My enthusiasm for stand-biased classrooms is genuine, thinking of the possibilities within my own class, but it would be irresponsible of me not to address the possible hurdles that teachers will face.
First, this is not for every teacher. Some teachers are good at teaching students their way in a similar way to the different learning preferences by students. It would be foolish to force this on teachers who aren't interest. Secondly, your class room and number of students dictate how much one can move around. Also, what do you do if you have a guest speaker, need to watch a video or need traditional tables or desks in your classroom. These are small inconveniences that would have to consider. Lastly, and an area that needs to be studied, does this model of classroom benefit students learning. A teacher could restructure their class, have students stand, encourage movement, but in the end it is pointless unless the students are learning.
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| AlphaBetter Desk - Stand or sit. |
At the beginning of this post, I was hoping to prove this new standing classroom idea as nothing more than an elementary fad. The more research, the more I started to warm up to the idea. In the end, I can see a lot of academic positives to this structure. I believe to do it well a teacher has to be on their toes. It would be my goal to get kids out of their comfort zone in hopes to put their focus on the class instead of their technology. If they are not in a comfortable sedentary mode, possibly more learning can occur. In order to do this, I would have to "move"out of my comfort zone. As a result, even the teacher would have opportunity to grown and learn something new.
Works Cited
Benden, Mark E. et al. “The Impact of Stand-Biased Desks in Classrooms on Calorie Expenditure in Children.” American Journal of Public Health 101.8 (2011): 1433–1436. PMC. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
Benden, Mark, Adam Pickens, Eva Shipp, Jase Perry, and Drew Schneider. "Evaluating a School Based Childhood Obesity Intervention for Posture and Comfort." Health 05.08 (2013): 54-60. Web.
Bissonauth, Nitish. "Grade 1 Kids Get Standing Desks in Saskatchewan Town." CTVNews. N.p., 12 Feb. 2015. Web. 18 Apr. 2015.
O'Hagan, Maureen. "Not Taking It Sitting Down." The Crossfit Journal March (2015): 2-4. Print.
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