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What Classrooms Look Like In Other Countries

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Abax Kingfisher Pty Ltd

Taking a look at how other countries arrange their primary school furniture or high school classroom furniture might just give the inspiration needed to shake up your design. What’s so inspiring about taking a tour around the world is seeing how educators of all different abilities and social statuses adapting to the resources they have allocated to them. In all cases, there are exceptional teachers making the most out of their circumstances to ensure the educational outcomes of their students are being met.

We’ll start with Singapore, which year after the year is known for its highly successful schooling system. Singaporean classroom furniture, at first glance, looks very ordinary – they’re the same familiar rows of tables and chairs that form a stereotypical classroom. So what makes their system so effective? It would be a carefully constructed curriculum built around strict summative assessments, so that students always know what is being expected of them. The Singaporean system of “Teach Less, Learn More” encourages deep understandings and acceleration into difficult topics, challenging students to perform at their best. A similar style of learning is evident in countries like South Korea and Japan, who have a culture of “cram-schools” to provide further supplementary education so that students perform well in their regular assessments.

Another high performing country is Finland, but the Finnish system couldn’t look more different. The primary classroom furniture and high school classroom furniture rarely even looks like school equipment, if it were not for the bright colours. Students in Finland’s classes are encouraged to learn through completion of projects and open-ended tasks that test multiple subject disciplines at once. Thus, they have little need for lectures or passive learning activities, and their classroom furniture is versatile to match. Similar trends of moving tables, partitions and flexible seating arrangements are popping up in countries Canada and New Zealand as well.

Other countries are performing perfectly just fine sticking to a lecture style of instruction. In India, high school classroom furniture is often arranged in strict horizontal rows, with 30-40 students in each class listening to a lecturer who speaks solely from the front of the room. This style of education works due to a deep respect for teachers as sources of wisdom, and the best teachers are able to command the silence of the room through their intellect. Similar styles of classrooms are also used in China and Indonesia, countries with similarly high student populations.  

In developing countries in parts of Africa, schooling is also becoming much more modernised, and educational outcomes for students are steadily improving. Even while recovering from recent political unrest, countries like Burundi have established strict and comprehensive schooling reforms. Countries such as Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria all have free compulsory schooling for all children, and as a result literacy and numeracy rates are on the rise.

In all these situations, we see educators around the world making the most of the learning culture in their country, and imparting knowledge in an effective way no matter the conditions. It’s a great dose of reality to see teaching and learning happening so visibly on a global scale.

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