Classroom Displays

Classroom Displays - theory and practice October 18, 2008

Posted by Linda in : classroom display , add a comment

Classroom displays advice to students

I am occasionally contacted by students, teachers or TAs, who want to read about some of the theories that underpin our use of classroom displays in schools. These are books that explore the reasons behind our use of displays rather than give us ideas for making them. There isn’t a massive amount of current research available but I have some standard advice I hand out to students and I thought the start of the new academic year might be a good moment to share it.

Classroom Displays Books

First, great, but you could struggle to find it as it’s out of print:
Display in the Classroom: Principles, Practice and Learning Theory (Paperback)
by Hilary Cooper (Author), Phil Hegarty (Author), Penny Hegarty (Author), Neil Simco (Author)
Publisher: David Fulton Publishers Ltd (23 May 1996)ISBN-10: 185346404 ISBN-13: 978-1853464041
This one actually looks at the theories but be aware it’s 10 years out of date!

Also:

Primary Practicals for CPD: Rules of Display - The Essential Guide to Nursery and Primary Classroom Displays (The Completely Practical Development Series)
By Lynn Taylor

These mention displays in passing:

Chambers, A (1995). The reading environment: How adults help children enjoy books.. York: Stenhouse.

Johnstone (1994). Teaching Modern Languages at Primary School Approaches and Implications . Scotland: SCRE.
Pgs 34-6
Smith, A & Call, N (2002) The ALPS Approach, Bodmin, MPG Books LTD.
Pgs 194 -199

Anything by Reggio Emilia
but you’ll have to really root around to find some direct relevance.

Lella Gandini, just about anything she’s written - she is cited in Tarr’s paper but she’s really talking about the Reggio approach.

Papers
Tarr,P (2004). Consider the Walls. Journal of the National Association for the Education of Young Children
Theory Into Practice
2007, Vol. 46, No. 1, Pages 40-47
(doi:10.1207/s15430421tip4601_6)

Children and Place: Reggio Emilia’s Environment As Third Teacher
Teresa Strong-Wilson
Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University
Julia Ellis, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta.

Look out for art theory and visual learning stuff too.

My best advice is to join the Classroom Displays flickr group, look at other people’s displays, decide what you like and try to analyse what’s good and bad about it, post your own efforts and ask for feedback. Get involved!!!

I write a regular classroom displays column in Learning Support Magazine that will help with the basics. You might like to subscribe, aimed at TAs, it’s a really useful magazine for anyone in schools.

There’s also my usefulwiki site classroom displays workshop

And of course the Classroom Displays bookshop

Your favourite classroom displays theory books

If you know of any other good theory books please add them in the comments. Let’s see if we can put together a really comprehensive list of classroom displays books.