Gallery walk

This is an interactive learning method where students walk around in small groups, station by station (posters, drawings, tasks) placed in different parts of the classroom. As they circulate through the classroom, they observe their peers’ ideas and leave constructive feedback using notes, drawings, or symbols. The activity encourages appreciation of diverse perspectives. By engaging with multiple viewpoints, children learn that different opinions can coexist and that every contribution has value. This technique is good for getting children out of their desks, forcing them to connect and speak to each other, and teaching them to value others’ work/ideas in a visual, playful way, while making learning visible, social, and engaging.

Skill focus

Primary Skill Focus

  • Valuing People and Nature

Complementary/Secondary Skill Focus

  • Connectedness
  • Critical thinking
  • Emotional regulation
Age groupStudent numberDuration
6-10 years old studentsWhole class in 3-4 small groups25-30 minutes 

Proposed step by step implementation of the learning activity

  1. Preparation (teacher): Create five – six questions or prompts about the current topic of study and write each one on a piece of chart paper/create a poster. Give the posters to the small groups and ask them to answer the question on the poster, or fill/draw on the poster according to the question.
  2. Creation: Students create a piece of work in small groups of 3-4 based on the teacher’s prompt (e.g., a story illustration, a short environmental study poster). Hang or place the posters made by the students in various places around the classroom to create the stations. Images, or quotes may also be used.
  3. Walk: Students start walking in groups of 3-4. They spend 3-5 minutes at each station.
  4. Group discussion and Feedback: Students read or look at the work of the other groups, read the feedback from previous groups, discuss it, and leave their reflection on a post-it (depending on age and writing skills, this can also be a drawing, or using pictures/icons). Any student can have their own separate opinion. In this process, besides listening to each other and forming a common opinion, it is an important “civic” skill to understand, accept, and respect another person’s opinion. It is also important for children to learn that they can have a different opinion and that they can share it safely.
  5. Return: Everyone goes back to their own work and reads the feedback they received.
  6. Whole-class discussion and debriefing: Discussing the experiences based on the debriefing questions.

Rules in primary school:

  • We talk quietly in the “gallery,” whispering to each other in our small groups, like in a real museum.
  • Inside the group, we pay attention to each other’s thoughts and try to understand what is meaning.
  • We approach every displayed piece of work with respect.
  • It would be great if we are able to agree together on what we want to leave as feedback as a group. But is it not a must.
  • Everyone in the group can have a separate opinion, which the other members of the  group must respect. This separate opinion is also placed on the poster as feedback.
  • We move forward in the given direction when the teacher gives the signal.