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Rethinking classroom design to improve learning

Nature Human Behaviour (2025)Cite this article

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Despite advances in applying cognitive load theory to instructional design, its principles have not yet been fully integrated into the design of physical learning environments. Recent work has synthesized embodied cognition with cognitive load theory, and suggests that learning emerges as a sum of mental operations and the physical context in which they occur1. However, the way in which classrooms are designed around the world — including in Brazil, where I work — remains largely disconnected from these cognitive principles. In many of the classrooms I visit, walls are often overloaded with colourful posters, unrelated visual materials and competing information, a practice that is culturally perceived as enriching but is potentially counterproductive from a cognitive perspective.

In schools, the persistent use of classrooms with colourful decorations and walls filled with posters, charts and unrelated visual material may inadvertently impair children’s cognitive performance. Research has shown that excessive visual stimulation increases extraneous cognitive load, and consumes working memory resources that should be allocated to learning tasks2,3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense, UNESC, Criciúma, Brazil

    Júlio César Claudino dos Santos

  2. Universidade Federal Fluminense, UFF, Niterói, Brazil

    Júlio César Claudino dos Santos

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  1. Júlio César Claudino dos Santos
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Correspondence to Júlio César Claudino dos Santos.

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dos Santos, J.C.C. Rethinking classroom design to improve learning. Nat Hum Behav (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02386-0

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