Fostering Emotional Well-Being Through Learning Space Design

Today’s students are navigating a mental health crisis. According to CDC data, the percentage of high school students feeling sad and hopeless has increased significantly over the last decade-plus, from 28 percent in 2011 to 40 percent in 2023.

There are many factors responsible for this trend. As students are using social media more often, they’re experiencing cyber bullying and spending more time alone, resulting in feelings of isolation. Societal factors such as poverty, gun violence, and homelessness are also to blame. Citing data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, Truthout reports that more than two-thirds of U.S. children have experienced at least one traumatic event before age 16 that has affected their emotional well-being, such as violence, abuse, or neglect.

But it’s not just students whose mental wellness is waning. In a recent survey of teachers, 48 percent reported that declining mental health has affected their ability to teach, an increase of 6 percentage points from the prior year.

Creating Environments for Improving Mental Wellness and Learning

Students and teachers can’t focus on instruction and put forth their best effort if their emotional well-being is compromised. Poor mental health makes students twice as likely to fail a grade, and more than one in four students missed at least 10 percent of the 2022-23 academic year as a result of mental wellness.

Providing access to counselors and other mental health supports for students and staff is a critical first step in solving this problem, and SEL instruction that helps students develop self-regulation, social skills, and mindful techniques for controlling their emotions is also important. So, too, is fostering a welcoming and inclusive culture in which everyone feels safe, supported, and connected to the school community.

Making sure students and staff feel connected to others at school is a powerful strategy for improving their mental wellness, the CDC notes. As the organization observes: “School connectedness is the belief that others at school care about you, your success, and your well-being. When youth feel connected to their school, they are less likely to experience poor mental health.”

 In fact, research shows that students who feel connected are more likely to:

• Engage in healthy behaviors
• Achieve higher grades and test scores
• Maintain better attendance
• Graduate from high school

How Learning Environments Can Support Belonging and Success

The design of learning environments and other school spaces plays a critical role in fostering this sense of connection and inclusion that is so vital to the emotional well-being of students and staff.

Learning environments thoughtfully and intentionally designed to promote a sense of connectedness can significantly improve mental wellness. They’re a key strategy in addressing the mental health crisis among today’s youth. Here are some suggestions for designing school spaces that effectively achieve this goal.

For students:

• Provide flexible seating options, and give students plenty of choices for the type of seating they use for various activities such as standing desks, motion stools, and beanbag chairs or other soft seating options. This helps accommodate the differences in students’ preferences and helps them “find their place” in the classroom where they feel most comfortable and can relax and focus on instruction.
  
• Use classroom materials that are fully accessible and organized to promote student autonomy and independence.
  
• Create a culture of caring and celebration with the help of visual displays of student work, goal tracking, and positive affirmations.
  
• Create calming spaces with soft lighting, bubble tubes, fidget devices, noise canceling materials, floor boundaries, interactive sensory panels, and other tools to help students self-regulate and reset their behavior. For the best results, teachers and students should be explicitly taught how to use these skills and materials to ensure success.
  
• Use predictable routines and clear, student-friendly, visual schedules to reduce negative behaviors. When students understand what the expectations are for their learning, they are more likely to be successful, and their confidence soars. 
  
• Design flexible, collaborative seating arrangements that, when paired with instructional best practices, encourage cooperative learning strategies. This increases academic achievement and fosters social skill development at the same time. Agile classroom furniture, such as desks and tables on casters that can be easily moved around the room and quickly arranged into different configurations to support various group sizes, effectively supports this type of learning.
  
• Ensure that all staff are trained in school and district-wide initiatives and expectations to ensure successful and consistent implementation. 

For educators:

• Design wellness areas or lounges that provide a safe place to take a break while promoting relaxation and emotional recovery.
  
• Provide time for educators to collaborate and socialize with one another to grow professionally as well as connect with their peers to the benefit of their personal well-being.
  
• Provide educators with high-quality professional development opportunities and instructional coaching that is intentionally designed and applicable to their students, as well as consistent, actionable, and driven by attainable goals.
  
• Integrate professional collaboration spaces, such as a PLC Room that promotes idea-sharing and emotional support among colleagues.
  
• Provide access to the tools and resources that teachers and support staff need to do their jobs successfully, without having to buy or create materials for themselves.
  
• Guided by data and staff input, implement schoolwide procedures and initiatives that reflect shared values and beliefs and reduce unnecessary burdens such as heavy paperwork and documentation loads, unreasonable behavior management expectations, and so on.

Meeting Critical Needs

Mental and emotional wellness are foundational needs for both students and educators to excel in school, and well-designed learning environments that foster a sense of belonging and connectedness can promote better mental health and emotional well-being for everyone.

To learn how School Specialty’s Projects By Design division can help you design dynamic learning environments that support SEL and mental wellness, call (800) 305-0174, email projectsbydesign@schoolspecialty.com, or go to www.schoolspecialty.com/projects-by-design.