Dalarna University's logo and link to the university's website

This study explores mathematics teachers’ conceptions of how the physical environment in classrooms affects their students’ chances for learning. Semi structured interviews were performed with a few Swedish teachers with experience from tackling different physical settings when teaching mathematics. When analysing the interview transcripts preliminary findings are that: teachers appreciate flexibility and control over the physical settings in the classroom; inadequate acoustics are extra problematic in mathematical activities involving verbal interactions between students in small groups; mathematics task solving in peace and quiet is a common part of mathematics lessons and it easily gets disturbed by external noise.

In this paper, we develop an analytical tool for the role of the physical environment in mathematics education. We do this by extending the didactical triangle with the physical environment as a fourth actor and test it in a review of literature concerning the physical environment and mathematics education. We find that one role played by the physical environment, in relation to mathematical content, is to portray the content in focus, such as geometry and scale. When focusing on teachers, students, and the interaction between them, the role of the physical environment appears to be a precondition, either positive (enabling) or negative (hindering). Many of the findings are valid for education in general as well, such as the importance of building status.

The physical environment (PE) affects the teaching and learning in school. Research is conclusive that different characteristics of PE can be enabling or hindering learningactivities. Still, we need to know more about the role of PE in mathematics education to utilize what a good PE can offer and to avoid the hindering situations. The aim of this study is to characterize the different roles PE play in relation to the teacher, the student, the learning content, and their interactions. For this, mathematics teachers’ stories about their experiences of PE in teaching are analysed. The results show that teachers often try to prevent disturbances or distractions from insufficiencies in PE. The results also suggest that aspects of classroom PE, such as classroom layout, sustain classroom norms whereas other elements in PE can be an aid in breaking norms.