learning spaces: the transformation of educational spaces in australia for the 21 st century

Learning Spaces: The transformation of educational spaces in Australia for the 21st century

An edited journal by

Clare Newton + Kenn FisherArchitect & Academic Education PlannerThe University of Melbourne Rubida Research [email protected]

To be launched October 29, 2009.

The TAKE series is an annual journal published by the Australian Institute of Architects and edited by each year’s Sisalation Prize winners. In 2008 the Sisalation Prize was won by Clare Newton and Kenn Fisher.

Past winners include:TAKE 8 Learning Spaces TAKE 7 Housing AustraliaTAKE 6 Beyond Beige- architecture for the elderlyTAKE 2 Housing Indigenous Australians


SNAPSHOTS OF WHO WE ARE

SNAPSHOTS OF OUR RESEARCH

SNAPSHOTS OF TAKE 8


FITZROY HIGH SCHOOL extension –2009 – McBride Charles Ryan

My daughters go to Fitzroy High School. The other day my youngest, in her first year there, said, “I love my school. I love my friends. I love my teachers.”

It is not like any other school I know. There are no school bells. They don’t have text books and yet they are effective learners. (It didn’t suit my son.)

Australian Research Council 2007-2010 – funded Linkage Project

5 researchers 9 industry partners 2 postgrad students

working at the intersection of education and architecture

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CHIEF INVESTIGATORS:

Clare Newton Architecture [email protected] Dr Dominique Hes Sustainable Design [email protected]

Dr Sue Wilks Education and curriculum [email protected]

Dr Kenn Fisher Educational planner [email protected]

Prof. Kim Dovey Urban Design [email protected]

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Clare Newton Architecture [email protected] Dr Kenn Fisher Educational planner [email protected]

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INDUSTRY PARTNERS: DEECD – Dr Peter Stewart Government Architect

Rubida Research – Dr Kenn Fisher Hayball

H2o Architects McGauran Giannini Soon

McBride Charles Ryan SBE Melbourne

Mary Featherston Design

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POST GRAD STUDENTS: Ben Cleveland Teacher

Ken Woodman Architect

We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist . . .

using technologies that haven’t yetbeen invented . . .

in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.

From pp Shift Happens by Karl Fisch

Providing facilities for an unknown future is a

‘wicked problem’ *

*• A "wicked" problem is one that is not truly understood

until you try and come up with a solution.• Why? The problem may be incomplete, contradictory,

subject to change, concealed, interactive, insoluble.• Coined 1973 by Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000230.html[May 26,2008

Action research Authentic Learning

Bloom’s Taxonomy Cognitive Skills Declarative knowledge

constructive alignment

CONSTRUCTIVIST PEDAGOGIES Feedback Rubrics

Multiple Intelligences

Pedagogy REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

Scope and sequence

BUILDING FABRIC Assemblies

DISPLACEMENT VENTILATION Mixed modes

Design and Construct Egress FENESTRATION

INTERSTITUAL SPACES Fluid spaces

Performance specifications PROCUREMENT METHODS

Sprinklered buildings REFLECTED CEILING PLAN

THERMAL CHIMNEYS Night purges Value Engineering

We speak different languages…

Action research Authentic Learning

Bloom’s Taxonomy Cognitive Skills Declarative knowledge

constructive alignment

CONSTRUCTIVIST PEDAGOGIES Feedback Rubrics

Multiple Intelligences

Pedagogy REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

Scope and sequence


BUILDING FABRIC Assemblies

DISPLACEMENT VENTILATION Mixed modes

Design and Construct Egress FENESTRATION

INTERSTITUAL SPACES Fluid spaces

Performance specifications PROCUREMENT METHODS

Sprinklered buildings REFLECTED CEILING PLAN

THERMAL CHIMNEYS Night purges Value Engineering


• school spaces and places are neither innocent nor neutral. they are an instrument of the political and social

• space has an impact on the performance of students and teachers and it both prohibits and establishes order. it commands and locates student bodies within society and determines what is acceptable

• as social action, space is a fundamental and all-pervasive source of power

• school buildings can formalise relationships and shape the performance desired by authority

• societal and institutional power is structured by architecture and architecture itself celebrates and monumentalises the structural networks of power

• furthermore, the design of schools emphasises the status of students and teachers in society

Pouler, P. (1994). Disciplinary society and the myth of aesthetic justice. Design Review: Challenging Urban Aesthetic Control. B. Scheer and W. Preiser (Eds.), London, Chapman & Hall.

KENN through his PhD research argues that….



SNAPSHOTS OF TAKE 8



Future Proofing Schools

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Hybrid Spaces for informal collaboration

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Australian Research Council 2010--2014 – application stage only

Federal government LINKAGE GRANTS….… are an effective way for industry to participate in research.

Contributions from industry must typically be at least 20 per cent of the total amount sought from the Commonwealth.

…help improve industry expertiseGrants often support postgraduate training

… but do take timeTypically research programs extend over 3 years

$$$$$ INDUSTRY

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ GOVERNMENT

Learning from 19th century school designs

Reference: Lawrence Burchell, Victorian Schools, A study in colonial government Architecture 1837-1900, Melbourne University Press, 1980, p160.

Reference: Lawrence Burchell, Victorian Schools, A study in colonial government Architecture 1837-1900, Melbourne University Press, 1980, p16.

Changing educational methods based on research into pedagogy have implications for school design

•Learn by doing/creating

•Interactive learning

•Student focused and personalised learning

•Kolb’s Learning cycle (concrete experience, comprehension, intention, experimentation)

•Authentic learning

•Multiple intelligences – Gardiner

•Bloom’s taxonomy

•Habits of mind

Drawing by Imogen Puller – Design 5A, 2006

BEST PRACTICE NEXT PRACTICE?

1 How does school design affect building performance and learning?

2 What are the cost benefits of current environmental initiatives?

3 Should high-tech initiatives be used alongside low-tech palettes?

4 How do stakeholders understand and use the learning environments?

5 What can students learn through engagement with the building?

These are some questions we started with.

What research has been undertaken focussing on the relationship between space and learning?

Many American studies have focussed on aspects of the environment and have looked at measurable outcomes

such as test scores related to comfort levels or quality of building.

‘ If the school moves up two categories, such as from poor to excellent, the average achievement scores can be expected to increase by 11 percent.

M Edwards, Building conditions, parental involvement and student achievement in the D.C. public school system, 1992

Students in the new school building significantly outperformed the students in the older building in reading, listening, language, and arithmetic. Further, faculty in the new building reported few disciplinary incidents and health problems than did faculty in the old building.

Research by Garret (1981), Chan (1982), Bowers and Burkett (1989), and Phillips (1997) reported by The National Academies, Review and Assessment of the Health and Productivity Benefits of Green Schools, 2006, p50.

A 2000 study by Stricherz did not ‘find that student performance rises when facilities go from the equivalent of a Ford to a Ferrari’ although he acknowledges achievement lags in shabby buildings.

The value of daylight in classrooms has been quantified in research by Heschong Mahone as resulting in a 7- and 26-percent improvement in student learning rates Heschong Mahone Group Inc, Windows and Classrooms: A Study of Student Performance and the Indoor Environment .

“... students will perform mental tasks best in rooms kept at moderate humidity levels (40 to 70 percent) and moderate temperatures in the range of 68 to 74 degrees F.Mark Schneider, Do School Facilities Affect Academic Outcomes? 2002,

A literature review by Higgens et al (2005) suggests the success of any new school is largely determined by the extent to which, and the ways in which, stake holders such as teachers, students and the community are involved in the school design process. They suggest the message is clear:

School designs cannot be imposed nor bought off-the-shelf. Success lies in users being able to articulate a distinctive vision for their school and then working with designers and architects to create integrated solutions. The open-plan classroom movement showed that purely physical design solutions that are not owned by their users or supported with effective systems and behaviour change will not work. (Higgens et al 2005: 3)[1]

[1] Higgens, S., Hall, E., Wall, K., Woolner, P., & McCaughey, C., “The Impact of School Environments: A literature review”, The Design Council, http://www.design-council.org.uk/ London: 2005.

In 2006, an interim literature review was undertaken on green school health and productivity benefits.

1. No studies yet on overall effects of green schools- difficulty of cause & effect and limitation of empirical measures in capturing all factors.

2. Moisture (visible dampness, mold growth in spaces or HVAC)3. Robust evidence on impact of air quality on health and growing evidence that

productivity is affected.4. Mixed evidence on light – generally adequate conditions in schools5. Sufficient evidence that lower noise = higher student achievement6. All studies found test scores improved as the physical condition of the school

improves but degree of improvement varies between studies.

More recently a new publication called Visible Learning by John Hattie (2008) overviews evidence-based research into achievement factors.

The National Academies, Review and Assessment of the Health and Productivity Benefits of Green Schools, 2006

Westminster Academy (2007) West London

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris www.bdonline.co.uk/Pictures/mediumlarge/r/o/f...

CABE made recommendations as part of the report

In brief:•Need for educational vision•Involve the right team•Careful evaluation•Whole-life funding mechanism are needed to avoid focus on capital costs•Mainstream best practice

In the UK, CABE published an audit in 2006 of 52 schools built under the “Building Schools for the Future” (BSF)? Program

•‘Too many mistakes of the past are being built under the BSF programme’

•Half of the 52 schools were rated as mediocre or poor and 19% as good or excellent

•The review did not include costs – figures not available for PFI (private finance initiative)

•PFI schools were 9 out of 10 worst schools and 3 out of 10 best schools

•Recent schools were getting better

•With few exceptions, schools performed badly on transformational change but well on daylight, ventilation, size safety, accessibility that are subject to regulations

CABE – Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment

CASE STUDY APPROACH eg –Hayball Architects – Wallan Secondary College Observation followed by participatory action – a form of embedded research

CURRENTLY

GREEN SPACE LEARNING SPACE

CURRENTLY

CURRENTLY

CURRENTLY

Ben –(teacher): How can middle school learning environments be designed to facilitate greater student engagement in learning?

Ken – (architect): What exactly do we mean by the term ‘flexible’ learning environment?

•Topic, questions, aims refined

•Literature review around each topic

•Observation in schools and of PD for teachers

•Theoretical perspectives and case study methodology

•Interviews, mapping of student/teacher movements

•Workshops between educators and designers

RESEARCH SO FAR

Grades 5/6 Unit - Wooranna Park Primary School, Mary Featherston

Images provided by Mary Featherston

The building


The building The fittings


The building The fittings The occupation

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Hayball – Dandenong Education Precinct



SNAPSHOTS OF TAKE 8


Australian Science and Maths School, Flinders University, Australia

http://images.whereilive.com.au/images/uploads/2009/08/10/29d1566bc67c59aa7a1aa0b24f48afbb_resized.JPG

The importance of leadership

Shared facility - UniSA, Council and Mawson Lakes School

Williamstown Secondary College – Green Star -5 stars.

- Visualisation tools

- CadCam technologies

- ESD imperatives

- Collaborations

- Systems thinking

- Bespoke possibilities

We are reaching some tipping points

Fawood Children's Centre, LondonAlsop Design

Kingsdale School UK

3rd year architecture student work

Relocatables in three states of Australia

FUTURE PROOFING SCHOOLS Prefabrication

Research application with IBM HYBRID SPACES

LEaRN Learning Environments Applied Research Network

Studio teaching INFORMAL LEARNING SPACES

Learning Environments Virtual Reality Online Simulator LEVROS

Current activities

Learning through prefabrication

Prefabrication for school design

An Australian perspective

Clare NewtonThe Faculty of Architecture, Building & PlanningThe University of [email protected]


Clare Newton Architecture [email protected] Dr Kenn Fisher Educational planner [email protected]

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learning spaces: the transformation of educational spaces in australia for the 21 st century

Documents

housing australia

school bells

beige architecture

wicked problem

dr sue wilks education

years sisalation prize

centuryan edited journal

intersection of education