Incorporating nature into schools could have benefits for students. New research has found that children in classrooms with a “green wall” of living plants scored better on a test of attention.
“A green wall provides a low-maintenance and space-efficient indoor solution for bringing nature into the classroom,” Agnes E. van den Berg and her colleagues explained in their study, which was published in the journal Environment and Behavior.
“This is the first research to show that a green wall can support children’s cognitive functioning and make the classroom a more attractive place. These are important findings given that children spend a large proportion of their childhood in school. ”
The study consisted of 170 children in grades 5 to 7 at two Dutch elementary schools. At each school, one classroom was equipped with a living “green wall” while another classroom was not.
A few days before installing the green walls, the researchers had the students complete a variety of tests to measure their emotional, cognitive and social well-being, their evaluation of the classroom, and their attention. These tests were repeated two months after the green walls were installed, then repeated a final time after another two months.
The researchers found that children in the classrooms with the green wall ended up scoring slightly better on the Sky Search task, a test of selective attention. The test required the students to correctly identify as many “target” spaceships as possible on a paper filled with very similar “distractor” spaceships.
“The positive effects of the green wall on children’s selective attention are in line with previous studies showing that a natural environment can support and enhance cognitive functioning in both children and adults,” the researchers said.
The children had a mostly positive view of the green wall. Children in the classrooms with the green wall rated their room as more attractive than children in the control group. But some children did think the wall full of plants made the classroom seem too “crowded.” At the end of the study, only 4 percent of children said they thought the green wall should be removed.
However, the green wall appeared to have no measurable effect on the children’s emotional and social well-being.
