Research studies reveal that children learn better in environments that are conducive to their needs and learning styles. There are kids who have better concentration and focus in softly lighted rooms than in brightly lighted ones, and who achieve better in warm surroundings than in cool environments.

While there are children who are comfortable studying while listening to instrumental music, others respond better to rock music. Even the type of furniture used inside the classroom or at home can affect the effectiveness of learning. Some children can comfortably sit and study for hours on a wooden, plastic, or steel chair, while others can experience discomfort and become restless in such seats, to the point that their restlessness prevents them from effectively learning.

Students learn more and get to like the process of learning better when they are taught in ways that jive with their preferred learning styles. By accurately determining the students’ learning styles, the teacher can capitalize on them for greater learning effectiveness. Other researches have shown that gender has a lot to do with efficient learning. Boys tend to be more hyperactive and restless than girls. Seating arrangements sometimes contribute to this phenomenon. Students who were allowed to learn and/or takes tests in arrangements that responded to their learning style preferences achieved significantly higher test scores.

The increasing number of researches that delve on children’s learning styles and the effect of environment on their learning provide significant information on how to make our classrooms and even homes mere conducive to learning. It would be good if traditional classrooms can be rearranged or redesigned to allow for more elbow room for creative work and play, more quiet, and more softly lit areas, and with sections for controlled interaction. The teacher could perhaps allow students to pick a comfortable corner in the room, that would enable them to pay more attention to the lesson and make them perform better. Encouraging reading under natural daylight has been found o help underachievers learn better and pacify a restless class.

What is important when we allow such flexibility, particularly in classroom seating arrangements, is that the ground rules ensure proper behavior and order within the classroom or household and encourage the children to develop the habit of craving for more learning.