COMMUNITY
























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Being part of a community fosters a sense of belonging and purpose, which promotes emotional well-being and social connection.










When we engage in activities that offer a sense of community - whether it be contributing to shared goals or projects, collective conversation and decision-making, or creating and sharing spaces with others - a number of regions in the brain related to social and emotional processing are activated.

The most apparent effect is the release of “happy hormones” like oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin, which are triggered by positive social interactions and a sense of belonging. Collaborative and social experiences also strengthen the connections between the parietal and temporal lobes, which help us process our emotions and recognize social cues. These regions work with the medial prefrontal cortex, which helps us make decisions based on our interactions with others. Engagement in a community both enhances emotional well-being and builds the neural foundations for social awareness, empathy, and emotional intelligence.




“The principle that development of experience comes about through interaction means that education is essentially a social process.”02





Children spend a significant amount of time in school during the most important years for cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development. For young children, school does not only serve as a place to build intellectual skills. The school and classroom environment enables social interaction with teachers and peers, and can become a community that aids in the social and emotional development of students as well. 

A strong classroom or school community can make a notable difference in student engagement. When students feel valued and part of a community, or have a better understanding of how their education relates to a greater context, they may feel more motivated to participate and develop a greater sense of responsibility and purpose.





Loris Malaguzzi, the educational theorist that established the Reggio Emilia Approach, believed that education should be holistic, addressing a child’s physical, mental, and social well-being. He argued that children learn best when they interact and collaborate with their peers and feel connected to a community.
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“At the same time children’s socialisation acquires new meaning as they progress unceasingly through their apprenticeship with the external world, wishing to enter into other people’s thoughts, collaborate with them, and play together.”03





In the supporting teacher’s survey for this manual, nearly half of the participants indicated that social-emotional development was the highest priority. One teacher shared,

“Having students in groups allows them to collaborate and discuss the material they are learning. Sometimes they learn better from their peers than their teacher because their peers can put the content into terms they understand.” 
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Creating a sense of community for students can happen at both the school scale and the classroom scale. At the school level, a sense of community can be achieved through collaborative projects, shared activities, and thoughtful use of common spaces. Consider areas that multiple classes interact with each day - the hallways, lunch room, or playground. How can students participate in shaping these spaces? 


For example, spending a few hours with your neighboring class planting flowers outside a shared window view not only gets students outdoors, but creates a lasting, visible contribution that students will see every day. This small activity could help students feel a stronger connection to their environment and their peers. Additionally, collaborative murals and artwork can help students see the potential of collective effort. For a less permanent alternative, consider attaching rows of string to a frame and letting students weave ribbons with their names, drawings or notes into the frame. 
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At the classroom scale, a sense of community can be built when students share classroom responsibilities, like taking care of classroom materials, watering the plants or adding birthdays to the classroom calendar. These simple activities can help students feel invested in their classroom and one another.


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Additionally, the physical arrangement of furniture in the classroom can facilitate collaboration and positive social interactions. While rows of desks may indicate individual, quiet work, clusters of 3-4 desks signal group activities and allow the sharing of ideas. The architect Herman Hertzberger’s Montessori School in Delft is specifically designed to accommodate this range of activities and scales of social interaction. 


“The space should be articulated in the sense that you are sort of protected, but feel part of each other. It’s a sort of balance between concentration on what you are doing and being part of the whole.”09

In a small classroom space, these distinctions can be achieved with the use of furniture, bookshelves, or curtains. Even surface conditions like the color of a table top or shape of a rug can help differentiate one space from another, but help students maintain a connection to the rest of the classroom while doing individual work.




Creating a sense of community within the classroom supports the emotional well-being of students and encourages them to be active and engaged participants in their education.





INTRODUCTION LIGHT
NATURE
ACOUSTICS MOVEMENT
SECURITY
ORDER
COMMUNITY
OWNERSHIP
VARIETY
ACCESSIBILITY
 Hover Transition