Embedded Files
By: Jasmine Puma 4/29/26
Classrooms with no sense of comfort can feel exhausting. Staring at the plain, seen-before “motivational” posters on the wall makes many students feel hopeless, as if they have nothing to do other than to avert their focus from the immensely boring lesson and the new curriculum they don’t understand. The bright overhead lights can feel harsh, especially early on a Monday morning when students have just gotten back from a weekend that passed entirely too fast. What’s the cause of this? It couldn’t be the classrooms you’ve been sitting in for the last six years of your life… could it?
Common flourescent lighting in schools.
Studies have shown that harsh learning environments actually do affect students' learning and focus in school, along with grades and motivation. Consortium.uchicago.edu says, “Classroom teachers and the learning environment they create can play an important role in supporting student motivation and broader noncognitive development.” The same website followed by saying, “Students reported having higher, more positive noncognitive factors—including motivation to do well—in classroom environments which the student perceived more favorably.” This proves the point that classrooms where students do not feel comfortable make them feel less comfortable and overall affect their learning, which leads to bad grades and makes them feel less motivated to bring their grades back up.
There are extremely simple factors that cause these feelings to occur in students. It can be as simple as an uncomfortable chair, seating arrangements, or even the lights on the ceiling. The harsh lights are bright and often make students feel more tired, especially early in the morning. PubMed Central provides the factor about seating arrangements by explaining, “With teacher-assigned seating charts, students lack a sense of comfort.” They also said, “For example, a student could get seated next to someone they are not comfortable around, and could be too shy to tell the teacher. Now the student is miserable and will only dread the class.” Have you ever been placed in an assigned seating situation where you know the people next to you, but you’re not friends with them? That can be pretty awkward and often makes students dread that class. While teachers say that it’s to “make students feel more comfortable with their peers,” there are studies that have shown assigned seating has few benefits. PubMed Central concludes by saying, “”According to The National Library of Medicine, “Offering students choices seems to be ethically responsible and may be an important component of a comprehensive classroom management system.” Students, especially high schoolers, deserve to have a choice in their seating arrangements.””
Seating arrangements are one factor, but another important and more popular reason is the lights. Whenever the teacher plays a video and has to turn the lights off, you often hear cheers or groans whenever it’s time to turn them back on. TCPI.com says, “Fluorescent lights were an efficient and affordable option for many years, but classroom lighting research revealed how their poor quality contributed to an overall decline in student performance.” Many teachers around the world are starting to replace these harsh overhead lights with LED lights or lamps, which are softer on the eyes while also proving to be effective for students’ learning. While teachers shouldn’t completely replace the overhead lights in classrooms so students don’t feel drowsy in the dark room and fall asleep, there are effective ways to reduce overhead lighting and still keep students engaged with the lesson.
Students working in rows
On the contrary, classrooms that feel cozy and make students feel welcome boost their learning ability and make them feel not only more motivated in class, but it helps them to grow relationships with their teachers. Students who feel heard and seen have been proven in schools, especially in EJHS, to feel more comfortable with the teacher and make them feel as if they can turn to them with school problems, such as low grades they want to raise or problems with assignments. If they associate a teacher with their uncomfortable classroom, it may make them feel as if they can’t turn to them with their academic problems. Amle.org helps prove this point by saying, “Effective middle-level classrooms provide meaningful relationships that promote student learning.” While these sources prove all the points mentioned before, EJHS students are the kids who really matter. How does Edgewood Junior High feel these classrooms personally affect their academic performance?
Percentage of people who feel like overhead lights affect their focus.
A poll was made to see how this personally affects each student. When this form was filled out, many students shared similar opinions about comfort in classrooms. 88.9% of students said that sitting in a group or choosing who they sit next to has increased their comfort in that classroom. On the contrary, 55.6% of students said that rooms with the overhead fluorescent lights on make them feel tired or unmotivated compared to rooms that have some lights off or LED lights/lamps.
Many students have also expressed that the problem keeping them from having these fun lighting options is the kids who don’t pay attention or fall asleep, which makes the teachers feel as if their students cannot handle the lighting opportunities. 8th grader Addison Clark says, “I like the classrooms with choice seating because everyone gets to be around people that they learn best with.” Many students agreed with this statement, and others claimed that rooms with dim lighting or even half of the lights off make it feel as if they can focus more. Turns out, harsh lighting and seating arrangements do a lot more damage than you think.
Overall, fluorescent lights are surprisingly one of the top reasons students feel they can’t focus and have an effect on test scores or grades. The combination of lighting and assigned seating is a bad one and keeps students from trying their best, while rooms that make them feel more comfortable boost focus and grades. Some teachers should consider this when decorating their classrooms for the next school year!
Page updated
Report abuse