A classroom is a classroom is a classroom? A study of the affordance of classroom design for classroom interaction

Abstract

All the essays in this volume are concerned with teaching and learning from different perspectives, as well as methods for studying these perspectives. In this essay, the classroom is in focus. I intend to present and discuss the teaching and learning activities that take place from the perspective of the classroom: what affordances (Kress 1993) are there in classroom design, and what implications might these affordances in design have for teaching and learning, with a focus on subject-specific language? These questions will be discussed using examples from classrooms I have worked in as teacher, from classrooms I have worked in as a researcher, and from other research on (class)rooms. I will discuss classroom design: how a school subject is understood from its design, what teaching and learning activities take place, and how participants interact. The analysis of interaction will focus on when, where, and how subject-specific language is used and what didactical consequences this has.