TRANSFORMATION OF SCHOOL CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENTS TO HOME-BASED CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENTS DUE TO CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) PANDEMIC

Abstract

Educational spaces have an impact on young children’s spatial perception since preschool and primary school have been the first public places they have known. In school buildings, physical architectural parameters such as color, lighting, acoustic, ventilation and temperature have significant effects on students’ and teachers’ behavior, well-being and attainment. With the transformation of classroom environments in today’s COVID-19 pandemic situation, physical educational environments have suddenly become to being classroom environments at home. While there are important design decisions to be taken in terms of children's concentration, productivity and well-being in educational spaces, this condition is also valid in newly created home-based classrooms in which computer screen has a leading role. The aim of this study is to provide information on how these home-based educational environments should be created with regards to physical architectural and design parameters in the light of empirical and theoretical evidence. In order to achieve this aim, this study presents a model for creating home-based educational environments.