EVALUATION OF CLASSROOM FURNITURE DESIGN ON POSTURE AND MOBILITY OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31848/arcade.v10i2.4576Keywords:
Affordances, Cognitive Ergonomics, Flexible Seating, Manual Material Handling, School Furniture.Abstract
This study presents a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) examining the interrelationship between classroom furniture design, postural biomechanics, and the mobility of elementary school students. Guided by the PRISMA framework, from an initial pool of 47 peer-reviewed publications, 14 studies met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed in-depth. The review synthesizes the findings into three core domains: macro-environmental demands, physical mismatch crises at the meso-scale, and cognitive ergonomics deficiencies at the micro-scale. Key findings indicate that the implementation of active learning requires dynamic classroom layouts; however, this is hindered by existing furniture standards that demonstrate an absolute mismatch and possess weights exceeding the safe limits of Manual Material Handling (MMH) for children. Furthermore, the analysis reveals a significant research gap regarding affordances, wherein previous furniture designs overlooked the visual cues necessary to guide safe lifting behaviors among children. This study concludes that future furniture design interventions must integrate cognitive ergonomics to mitigate musculoskeletal injury risks while simultaneously supporting a flexible classroom ecosystem aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4).
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