The Effects of Classroom Spatial Organisation on Four‐ and Five‐year‐old Children's Learning

S ummary . In a three‐year cumulative study, children's learning in 19 randomly arranged classrooms (R) was compared with that in 19 classrooms (S) in which space was deliberately arranged to promote learning. Time scheduling, equipment, materials and teacher‐child communication patterns were similar for all classrooms. Over 250 four‐year‐olds and 250 five‐year‐olds were observed in each setting (N = 1072). Creative productivity and skills, generalisation of number concepts, variety of oral language use and utilisation of listening and pre‐reading materials were significantly better for both four‐year‐old and five‐year‐old children in the (S) classrooms.