Teacher interactions within the physical environment: How teachers alter their space and/or routines because of classroom character

Through questionnaires, observations and interviews, this study revealed the degree to which 31 high school teachers altered their classroom spaces and/or adjusted their routines to meet their pedagogical goals at a temporary school site. If conventional wisdom suggests that teachers' actions within their designed physical environments (DPE) affect student achievement, then it appears that their perceptions and alterations of their classroom spaces are important to consider. Evidence suggests that an appropriate awareness of the effects of the physical environment coupled with a clear definition of teacher project goals through a deeper collaboration with teachers, architects and facility planners will reveal more meaningful building design criteria.; Teachers in this study emphatically desired: (1) an appropriate amount of space to rearrange student furniture enabling them better interaction with students for planned activities, (2) an ability to control the location and amount of lighting during those activities and (3) access to adequate computing tools for their students. The ability to control noise, temperature and ventilation was also important to consider. Teachers' mediation of classroom spaces appeared to be closely associated with individual teaching goals rather than physiological responses to the environment although there was evidence of the importance of accommodating teachers' perceptions of their own physical well-being. This study also disclosed a noticeable social-cultural need for meeting places within the school for teacher peer interactions and equally negative responses to sharing teaching spaces with those with dissimilar tastes and goal aspirations. The significance of this study lies in its contribution to the knowledge base concerning teacher mediations within their classroom spaces.