Characteristics of school facilities and their impact on educational process and students' work

• Main Author: Petrović Ivana P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Visoka škola strukovnih studija za vaspitače, Kruševac 2014-01-01
• Series: Sinteze
• Subjects: physical characteristics of space; physical factors of the environment; study; teaching
• Online Access: http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/2217-902x/2014/2217-902x1405041P.pdf
• ISSN: 2217-902X; 2560-3078

Much research suggests that educational process, learning and students' performance depend on a number of factors such as personal and professional characteristics of teachers, curricula, and the quality of teaching and extra-curricular activities. In addition, the quality of educational process is closely connected to material-technical conditions of the school and the quality of teaching equipment. This mostly concerns school facilities (school buildings, classrooms, cabinets, library, other facilities, courtyard and gymnasium), equipment, furniture and teaching aids. However, quality learning and work also require favourable physical, physiological, social and psychological conditions for study. This is the reason why this paper investigates students' opinions concerning the influence of certain characteristics of school facilities (wall colours, visual aids hanging on walls, teaching aids, furniture), and other physical aspects, including the size of student's groups on the quality of study and learning, as well as whether these opinions vary according to sex, age and year of study. The data was collected by a questionnaire comprising 25 items especially designed for the needs of this investigation. There were 116 respondents, students of the Preschool Teacher Training College in Kruševac. The findings show that certain features of the space and certain physical characteristics do have impact on students' work and performance, and therefore on the quality of teaching. They also demonstrate that students' estimates and opinions vary according to age and year of study.