A comfortable, colorful classroom may help motivate children to learn. Suggestions for decorating walls, making children's furniture, and organizing a private place are discussed. (DF)

The open classroom movement is in serious danger of being misunderstood because so few people know what it is really all about. (Editor)

Explains how Project Oriented Development Stations (PODS) provide a flexible facilities solution that can fit within any elementary school, and that combines custom furnishing with technology, curriculum, and hands-on learning. An explanation of the POD approach and an example of its development, usefulness, and funding is provided. (GR)

Educational spaces should change with the program and include differentiation of scale, a sense of turf, a focal point, differentiation of mood, directionality, furnishings, and equipment. (Author/DW)

Teachers are responsible for making sure that classroom space is used in the most effective manner. Ways in which a group of teachers cooperated to change a dreary, cramped old school into an exciting learning environment are described. (JN)

The following hypotheses were tested: (1) children who attend open classrooms have smaller personal spaces than children attending traditional classrooms, and (2) personal space is a socially learned phenomenon which may be increased or decreased as a result of watching proximate or distant teacher-child models. (Author/BJG)

With the advent of the informal or open classroom, a new area of concern has become important--classroom arrangement. In the past, classrooms were oriented toward the front, toward the teacher's desk and the blackboard. Education depended mainly on the pupil's interaction with the teacher and with printed materials. Nowadays, in informal…