Daylight, views, and learning in high school students

Although research has shown that the human body has an innate connection to nature and that being in nature improves one’s overall wellbeing, most people spend most of their days inside buildings. Providing access to daylight and to views of the nature outside of these buildings allow people to maintain a connection to or reconnect with nature. The daylight exposure also helps people to sustain an appropriate circadian rhythm and has been shown to contribute to improved overall health and comfort; and when a person feels better, they generally function better throughout the day. While newly built schools have an abundance of windows and natural daylight-filled classrooms, many older school buildings have become overcrowded and forced school leaders to use non-instructional spaces as classroom space. Without the knowledge of how natural daylight and views of nature positively affect students’ wellbeing and, by extension, their productivity, the students are often placed into spaces with no windows—likely hindering their classroom performance. The objective of this research is to inform the design and educational communities and their decision-makers how daylighting through windows and the views they provide affect students’ productivity and learning capacity. Data for this study are retrieved from document review, (including historical data, peerand reviewed articles), observation, surveys, and interviews. Data retrieved from document review show that students with exposure to natural lighting inside the classrooms were more alert, attentive, and participated more than their counterparts who were in classrooms with no windows. They also completed activities faster and performed better on test grades overall. In the same instances, those in classrooms with windows to views of nature fared slightly better than those with windows facing other buildings and no views of nature. These were among other positive benefits noted from document review of prior research. Outcomes from this study showed that the exposure to natural daylight may make a slight difference in students’ learning capacity in the classroom. The observed behaviors of the students in classrooms with no windows only varied marginally from those who had windows and windows with nature views. The students stayed on task almost as much and were only slightly more inactive than the other groups, although they were less distracted by other objects like phones and fidget toys. More research is needed to explore any conclusively meaningful outcomes for the students such as how lack of daylight might disrupt the circadian cycle and energy levels, as these things can lead to other long-lasting health issues, poor performance, and a lesser amount of long-term success.