School Design Studio

10 Trends in School Facility Planning

Every year, magazines in our field come out with Top 10 lists. I've written and presented a few myself. In presentations I usually use the drum roll for effect. Most lists provide more of the same straight line thinking into the future, or are trends directed towards decision makers in the field who are looking at making immediate short term decisions about facilities. Such is the case with our field's friend and leader Bill DeJong in a recent School Construction News report in this March/April 09 (p12) addition. In all fairness, its hard to get 10 juicy trends in a single page of a magazine dedicated to advertising tables, chairs and exterior brick for schools, but here are his solid short-term trends:

1. Declining Enrollments

2. Life Beyond No Child Left Behind

3. Anyplace, Anytime Learning

4. Flexible buildings

5. Global Focus

6. Modernizing Democracy

7. Green and Sustainability

8. Geographic Information Systems

9. Safety and Security

10, Replacement and Modernization.

Nothing here to write home about really, but these are the real short term trends for school administrative decision makers, things right in front of their noses.

Now for my extended thoughts:

Declining Enrollments: what is left unstated is how we transform how we think about "school facilities". Can we think beyond "the school" to thinking of a multi-generational learning center? One that is open to all? Yes we can! and some of us are. Often this flies in the face of No. 9 Safety and Security. So care needs to be taking in how the building is zoned, yet another part of the mix almost always left out of these safety discussions: how can adults that share such as facility be seen as caring adults rather than potential pedophiles? Yes we can! It just takes some clear thinking about how to create flexible, small communities within the building to support security for all, not just kids.

Anyplace, anytime learning: nothing new. DeJong states that in 15 years half of course work will be on-line, but doesn't have column space to explore implications for school planning (and design). Why do students have to be in the building all day long then? Can we imagine young people with some responsibility to get their work done in a self-directed manner, either in a more causal space within the building (another trend not discussed), or outside the building entirely? Yes we can! It means educators would have to work hard (as if they don't already) to help students of the 21st Century become self-directed learners such that when they reach high school age, they have developed sophisticated self-management skills. Easier said then done, but critically important for their success in the newly forming economy/market/multi-cultural world.

We can't understate the Sustainability angle. Again, left unstated by Bill is the ethical imperative of schools to take the lead in sustainability. They are teaching our young about the world, and it could be a rough ride not just for the planet, but also for human societies.

Global focus: clearly, the US is declining, but still out in front. Global competition is nothing new either. But, global cooperation and mutual understanding is so badly needed. Lets link up our schools directly to schools around the world more proactively like many schools have already begun to do. Lets share our experiences while learning science, math and cultural studies. Lets allow students to build relationships across the globe and make is a natural activity of schools. Distance education on steroids.

What trends have Bill and I missed? I'm sure there are several. Feel free to comment and add!

Training Teachers to Create Effective Environments for Learning

I have recently published a new peer-reviewed article academically entitled, "Teacher Environmental Competence in Elementary School Environments", for Children, Youth and Environments. Download TeacherEnvCompetence

Abstract
Teacher environmental competence, the ability to understand and effectively use physical instructional space for a pedagogical advantage, continues to receive limited attention in education. Exploring the perceptions of 20 teachers at five urban elementary schools, this study investigates teachers’ understanding and effective use of the physical environment to meet instructional goals. It examines organizational factors that contribute to poor environmental competence in school environments. The action research approach employed in this study includes a set of interconnected training, research and action activities. Once teachers were introduced to a means of communicating their environmental experience through the training component, they were able to articulate specific environmental concerns, see their interrelationship, and make judgments of priority. The paper suggests avenues for raising the environmental competence of educators within the context of educational reforms advocating for collaborative, learner-centered environments.

Citation: Lackney, Jeffery A. (2008). “Teacher Environmental Competence in Elementary School Environments.” Children, Youth and Environments 18(2): 133-159. Retrieved [date] from http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye.

I would characterize this paper as a reinterpretation and extension of my action research dissertation. Since practicing, the action research component has had to go underground a bit, and my reflective practice side has emerged. Out of this new work, I have rediscovered the critical importance of training teachers to more effectively use their teaching and learning environments, especially when sheparding a school into considering the impact of 21st Century learning on school design. From our stop/starts in bringing teachers along with the ideas of learning studios over classrooms, and collaborative learning settings over direct instructional space, I have realized the importance of spending quality time with staff to both tailor space to their immediate understandings, while designing space in such as way as to encourage positive progressive change. My answer has been to propose the concept of educational commissioning, an idea I first articulated on designshare a few years ago.

Innovative Case Studies in School Design

For the past eight years, I've been participating on a jury of Design Share's annual awards program that has included some of the most respected educators and architects in the field of school design in the world. We have been fond of calling it more of a Collaboration rather than a Competition as we are looking for the innovative design thinking. The 2008 award winners are posted on School Construction News.

Design Share I think is THE leading source of innovative school design case studies on the planet. The site now has over 400 case studies from 30 different countries.

I wrote a commentary on the very first Design Share Awards Program in 2000 that I think still holds today. As I stated then, "The Awards 2000 Program focused less on aesthetics and more on the creation of effective learning environments, making it unique among awards programs that traditionally recognize outstanding design. Our jurors rewarded schools that demonstrate thoughtful and rigorous evaluation of educational facility planning, management, and use. They looked for innovative design solutions that responded to current educational reforms, including small schools, learning communities, urban community schools, and charter schools."

If you have a project you'd like to have submitted, no matter who you are, planner, architect, parent, teacher or student (that would be cool), look forward to the 2010 awards. I would enjoy reviewing them!

Guerilla Educators engage young people in green school design

Readers to my blog may be interested in a blog site managed by my colleague and good friend, John Sole of Philadelphia, Guerilla Educators that "provides the vital links between educational facilities, architects, planners, designers and the teachers and learners who use those spaces".  John has been compiling quite a few good videos that document the process of engaging youth in green school design through project learning experiences.

One particular charrette I like is a 7 minute  compilation of charrette design processes and reporting out at York Suburban School District and Lankenau High School, in Philadelphia conducted with yet another colleague, David Schrader of SchraderGroup Architects. If there is any doubt that kids can be intimately involved in design of professionals, this video dispels that myth.

In a project-based service learning course, David and John work with 4th graders to help them understand green school design by developing a eight week course.

The Laws of Simplicity

John Maeda's site is "devoted to my ongoing thought processes regarding the topic of simplicity. I wrote and designed a book entitled The Laws of Simplicity to let the ideas take root." The book.

Here are John's 10 Laws:

1. Reduce: The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction
2. Organize: Organization makes a system of many appear fewer.
3. Time: Savings in time feels like simplicity.
4. Learn: Knowledge makes everything simpler.
5. Differences: Simplicity and complexity need each other.
6. Context: What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral.
7. Emotion: More emotions are better than less.
8. Trust: In simplicity we trust.
9. Failure: Some things can never be made simple.
10. The One: Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.

Starting Planning with Students

Recently, Randy Fielding, Jeff Lackney and John Sole from Fielding Nair International to the city of Regina in Saskatchewan, in what is considered to be by some as one of the worst crime ridden neighborhoods in Canada: North Central. The FNI team met with students, educators and other interested community stakeholders to begin the process of making Regina learning centres more effective places to educate students. The project, Scott Collegiate, will become part of what is being described as the North Central Shared Facility. This video depicts a site visit to Scott Collegiate High School and a meeting with the great students there.

Children's Participation

Henk van Beers has created a new blog dedicated to children's participation. As Henk describes his blog, "It will be a no frills blog with basic information and references only that will be updated regularly. I will continue with the approach I have used thus far, i.e. briefly explain why the link or information may be useful. New posts will always describe what the reference is about and why it may be of interest. The blog is a work in progress and I will continue trying to make it more user friendly." What blog ISN'T a work in progress! Great work Henk!

"Nudging" Freedom and Creativity

I had a strange dream last night that included all my fellow jury members in DesignShare's 2007 Awards Program. Of course, no one in the dream matched the folks on the jury, how convenient for me. Anyway, as I awoke around 4am I thought immediately of Bruce Jilk's article article in DesignShare, "Freedom and Creativity" to get me motivated for viewing yet another 100 projects over the next month. No, Bruce wasn't in the dream either, and incidentally, he's not on the jury this year either. And of course, it motivated me...

"Nearly all children are born with creative potential. The drawings, singing, play, and place making of young children is in evidence everywhere. As they move through their years of “development” many seem to lose this creative propensity. We have all seen it when we visit schools. The delightful, spirited kindergarten classroom seems to diminish, year by year until you get to the more somber rooms of the 6th grade and beyond. What’s going on here?"

What I neglected to say is that in my dream the master of ceremonies challenged us jurists to throw away our Powerpoints and be spontaneous! (Yikes! Yet another unconscious link to something I'd read just a day ago!) Wow, was I stressed. You mean I can't quote the research on learning environments you say?! Indeed, What is going on here?!

Bruce continues:
"For many reasons the teaching process in the US becomes more focused and controlled as students move ahead. This certainly is done for significant reasons. And with the fed’s passing laws that require testing this will become even more evident. (Who was it that said you don’t fatten a cow by weighing it?) The problem is that this also is limiting the creative channels of children. Typically we, planners and designers, respond to our clients by developing teaching environments that are supportive of this emphasis on focus and control. Recent security issues even push those concerns further. I believe this is what we are expected to do, but we can do so much more."

Have we been limiting our own creative channels? I suspect we must start with our own channels of creativity if we want to support creativity in others. You think so?

Bruce argues for us to not underrate the physical environment's impact on learning, "I would not argue that the physical environment can “outperform” the people environment in the learning process. However, I do feel the role of the physical environment is underrated. After all we really only know one type of physical environment for learning—the classroom. Except for very few options, we have nothing to compare it to. In education it takes more then one or two examples to convincingly “prove” anything. If someone wants to stop a new idea in learning all they have to say is “prove it” and end of discussion."

I've tried for years to "prove" that the physical environment is a critical determinant in the learning process. I still believe it is and I have about 500 research articles in my files here that point in that direction. (Notice they are all boxed up?) However, the better way is to simply to lead folks to the water - finger pointing the way - kind of like a Zen Master?

Bruce continuing to inspire: "Those of use who are responsible for creating these places to learn need to go beyond the task of accommodating the tried and true. And we need to go beyond providing for flexibility and adaptability, which I think, although important, is mostly an excuse for not really knowing how to do anything else. We need to create environments that actively nudge learners toward freedom and creativity. This is an Architecture of Persuasion. Historically there is much we can learn from Baroque Architecture in understanding this potential. Philosophically, I call this the Architecture of Intention. And scientifically it is supported by the research around “Emergence.”

Ultimately Bruce concludes: "Its about designing a learning environment in which the design “intends” for freedom and creativity to be integrated into the students’ daily learning experiences, and not “designed-out” in the name of focus and control. For me this is an attempt to expand the world of school design and open up new possibilities. It is not meant to be “the answer” to school design. It’s success can only be measured by how much you learn from it. I welcome your comments."

As I think about my interesting dream, I hope that I can learn to loosen the reins of my control on this creative process we call school design.

 

Bridging Classroom Expertise and the Bigger Trends

Bill Ferriter's post on Our Place in the Corner provides an interesting perspective from teachers regarding their place in the school reform world.

Responding to a previous comment regarding teacher's frustration with misplaced policies beyond the classroom, Bill states: "Far too often, a school's direction is set with little input from those who work closest to the children---and as a result, policies and practices in all but the most successful schools and systems are underinformed at best and just plain ineffective at worst."

Bill continues, however, "I've gotten to the point where I'm convinced that our profession is plagued by too much chest thumping and too little action.  We're quick to point out every flaw in our leaders but we do little to try to assert more influence over decisions.  We shun committee work, do little to understand the change process in organizations that are based on human interaction, and fail to raise awareness about work beyond the classroom door." 

"Decades of this inactivity (apathy?) has earned us a place in the corner when it comes to school reform.  No one seeks our opinion because we haven't proven that we can be articulate and well-informed advocates.  One of my favorite phrases is, "We have to make empowerment less risky and more rewarding before decisions will move from the principal's office to the classroom door." 

"That takes concentrated effort to stay "tuned-in" to trends in education and to build background knowledge on topics that fall outside of our day-to-day work.  With background knowledge comes credibilty---and with credibility comes opportunity.  We'll be "heard" far more when those "above" us recognize our ability to bridge classroom expertise with an understanding of what's possible at the school, district and state level."

I will add that, as one of those "outsiders", having a teaching staff ready and able to discuss and reflect on their own practices assists the us as designers to serving the needs of teaching and learning much better. Some of my best conversations with educators have come when teachers have a strong sense of how their work fits into the trends in education; they are empowered and as such are already on a road of continuous improvement. When reflective thinking like this happens, we are then freed up to create learning environments that can make teaching practices rock.

Can There be a Creative Tension Between the Realities of Teaching and Reform Ideals?

Whenever we as outside professionals and so-called experts are called upon to provide assistance in changing educational environments, an interesting dance occurs between us as the outsiders to the school culture and the insiders to that culture, teachers. "We've seen reforms come and we'll see them go. We'll outlast them including this one," or, "you're expecting us to change again?", or "we do these things already." In most instances, we all know that the truth is somewhere in the middle, and that is where the conversation needs to start. For the educational planning process to be effective and successful holding the Creative Tension between current reality and future possibility is key. Not only do educational planners/reformers need to listen to the stories of classroom realities, but teachers need to consider possibilities for change. Somewhere in the middle is the best fit solution for both students AND teachers.

For understanding more about the current realities of teachers in their workplace, the classroom, a new book review by Joan Y. Pedro of Mary Kennedy's new book Inside Teaching: How Classroom Life Undermines Reform in the April 26, 2007 edition of Teachers College Record helps those of us on the outside to understand more about what is going on inside classrooms that makes reform difficult if not impossible.

As Pedro states, "Mary Kennedy has produced a very interesting and thought-provoking book which captures the heart of teaching and the many drawbacks that teachers encounter in the classroom. The main aim of this book is to portray the way teaching “really” looks and to learn why reform efforts are not generally successful. Kennedy puts forth the notion that teachers are aware of reform efforts but that they are so burdened with the everyday orchestration of teaching and learning that reform is not always at the forefront of their thinking or practice. Kennedy carefully and in a very powerful way has produced research on teaching that is valuable in this age of reform, and which represents the constant struggle faced by educators as they seek to balance high-quality instructional practices with external calls for accountability that often come from corporate and public leaders."

Pedro concludes: "Teachers can gain many thoughtful insights into teaching, and reformers can gain a better understanding of how teachers operate and move away from their narrow lenses of how teaching should be performed. School reform needs good teaching and can be improved when we consider the complexities of teaching."