学級の集中度に対する担任の印象と教室プラン型

Abstract

The authors conducted a questionaire to municipal elementary school homeroom teachers to know their general impression of the degree of their children's concentration and the factors which could distract children's concentration during classwork. In this study, the data of 229 classes in 15 municipal elementary schools in Z-city, in Tokyo metropolitan area, are collected, and sorted according to the openness of their classrooms into 5 types as written below. 【FO】 Full-Open Type : classrooms with no wall between the classroom and the corridor. 【SO】 Semi-Open Type : classrooms with some movable partition panels between the classroom and the corridor, and cannot be closed completely. 【SP】 Sliding-Panel Type : classrooms with sliding panels as the partition between the classroom and the corridor, and can be closed completely. 【RW】 Removable-Wall Type : classrooms with removable walls between the classroom and the corridor, and are usually closed completely. 【ST】 Standard Type : conventional type classrooms with the wall between the classroom and the corridor First, the authors examined the influence of the 5 major factors to the degree of children's concentration during classwork. As a result, the followings were found. 1. The degree of children's concentration is influenced by the classroom plan type as well as by the numbers and ratio of the children in a class who are in need of special supports, and is neither by the teachers' teaching experience nor by the total number of the children in a class. 2. The degree of children's concentration does not simply correlate to the degree of physical openness of the classroom to the corridor, but is significantly lower in the type 【SO】 classrooms equipped with some movable partition panels for partially closing the classroom from the corridor than in the classrooms of other plan types. The authors further analyzed the frequency of conceivable factors' occurrences which distract children's concentration during classwork. As a result, it is found that the frequency of those does not become higher in proportion to the degree of physical openness of the classroom, except for the case of distraction by sound. The authors therefore conclude that; 3. To avoid the distraction by sound from outside the classroom, settings of physical devices for sound insulation and/or sound absorption would be effective. 4. To avoid the distraction by the sight stimulation, settings of physical devices for cutting off partial view of children would not be effective enough. The seat placement with children's back against the corridor and/or with appropriate distance from the corridor would rather be effective. 5. Distraction by the members' behavior of the class could be caused by the vagueness of the boundary and also by unevenness of the distribution of opening along the boundary. Further detail investigations are required in the future.