School Design Studio

Sir Ken talks in depth on Creativity and the Power of the Imaginative Mind

Sir Ken Robinson, who first made a splash on TED.com outlining his book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative now is having a chance to expand on his educational reform ideas for public education at the Apple Education Leadership Summit, a gathering in San Francisco of more than one hundred school superintendents from around the world. Watch Part One and Part Two of his talk on Edutopia.

Hazelwood School For The Multiple Sensory Impaired

The Hazelwood School for the Multiple Sensory Impaired in Glasgow, UK took top honors in the 2008 Design Share competition this year. The school was designed by Gordon Murry + Alan Dunlop architects.

 

 

 

   
Hazelwood School: Why Does Design Matter? from David Hutchison on Vimeo."an A+DS Educational Design Video production.

As Tiffany Green reports in her Design Share commentary, "Hazelwood caters to 60 students with multiple disabilities, aged from 2 to 19. Each student has a combination of two or more of the following impairments: visual, hearing, mobility or cognitive. The design focused on creating a safe, stimulating environment for pupils and staff. The architect set out to eliminate any institutional feel and worked to avoid conventional details, creating a tailored design that incorporates visual, aural and tactile clues. The school is set within a landscaped green adjacent to a large public park, as is surrounded by mature lime and beach trees . The building snakes through the site, curving around the existing trees, creating a series of small garden spaces and maximizing the potential for more intimate outdoor teaching (learning?) environments. The choice of materials was of great importance. The architect developed a palette of highly textured natural materials that are stimulating to touch and smell. Naturally weathering timber, reclaimed slate tiles and zinc were used on the exterior.

The school’s head teacher says: “When our children leave this school, they will not go into jobs or go and live in their own flat or house- they will always need to be supported. Adults who are blind and have learning difficulties can lead passive lives. But the more independence they have, the more choices they will be able to make and the more stimulating their lives will be.”

Ordrup School in Gentofte Denmark is Designed for Personalized Learning

Check out this wonderful video of the new elementary school at Ordrup school in Gentofte, Denmark that features authentic new paradigm learning environments, privacy niches and "cave space" for personalized learning, as well as, group learning. Going well beyond traditional school design with a teacher’s desk and a black board, Ordrup School in Gentofte, Denmark, has created a variety of rooms with space for differentiated teaching and creative thinking.

The school features true new paradigm learning environments with privacy niches and "cave space", heightened window seating to sit and look outside, green platforms with round, red holes where discussions can buzz and bubble and large upholstered tubes where you can hide with a good book or to spend some time alone.

Furnishings become objects that are interesting, and invite curiosity and imagination about their use.  They are specific, as well as, flexible because they are abstract enough to be used and interpreted in multiple ways (e.g., columns). They subdivide space, and also are child scaled spaces (like the green rings that provide cave space and form a wall).

The design, created by Bosch and Fjord, is based in three concepts, ‘peace & absorption’, ‘discussion & cooperation’ and ’security & presence’, that will separate the individual areas in distinct functions and create new rooms for learning. By separating the activities and creating varied rooms space is created for dissimilarity in both teaching and play where the learning situation will be optimized.

Obesity and the Design of the School Environment

"Spatial features of obesogenic environments studied on a broad, community level have been associated with childhood overweight and obesity, but little research has focused on the effects of the design of micro spaces such as schools on individual health behaviors.  This presentation aims to generate thinking and research on the link between school space and architecture and obesity prevention by reviewing and synthesizing available literature in architecture, environmental psychology, and obesity research, in an effort to propose promising ideas for school space design and redesign..."

This was the beginning of my abstract to a conference panel I was invited to put on by the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development entitled "Obesity and the Design of Microenvironment: Beyond Individual Behavior: Multidimensional Research in Obesity Linking Biology to Society in Pentagon City, Arlington, VA on October 10 - 12, 2007. My session was on "Engaging and Integrating Industry and Social Entrepreneurial Partnerships Into Empirical Research."

"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.

 

Boys can make the grade, if they're not bored - hint: try hands-on learning and some old fashioned competition

I've started many a presentation with my favorite little story about when my son, Nick, came home from school - kindergarten - and we asked him how did it go. His response, without hesitation was, "IT'S SOOOO BORING". Oh, boy! Those four words said it all. I saw 18 years of my life spent attempting to smooth over his experience in school which I knew only would get worse.

Then a year later, I started running a Tiger Den in Cub Scouts and learned first hand the difficulties of managing 10 boys for 90 minutes: a total nightmare. How did teachers do it! My respect for teachers went way up that year. Since then I and my fellow Akelas (parent teachers) have learned how to put some fun into our Scouting lessons: hands-on, well, actually, "bodies-on" full throttle activity learning - preferably in 20 minute intervals - even at 4th grade.

You can imagine how pleased I was to read that I'm not the only one trying to figure out how to engage boys in learning...Peggy Walsh- Sarnecki, in her article, "Boys Can Make the Grade, If They're Not Bored" writes that Salem High School is encouraging more competition in the classroom and finding ways to make lessons more hands-on, all rooted in studies that suggest physiological differences in the brains of boys and girls are the main reason an acheivement gap between genders exists in some subjects.

"This isn't about boys versus girls. It's about identifying who the students are and identifying their strengths and potential," said Richard Weinfeld, an educational consultant and the author of "Helping Boys Succeed in School." "As we're able to do more brain research, we see more differences between male and female brains."

Brain-based research is confirming that boys tend to be right-brain dominant, meaning they are better able to deal with spatial thinking and are more mechanically inclined. Testosterone tends to make them more aggressive and competitive - wow, imagine that!

Not only that, Walsh-Sarnecki reports, "In girls, the left brain, which deals with verbal skills, tends to be dominant. Physiological differences, research shows, also make girls' brains more inclined to regulate anger and aggression and more involved with emotion and memory."

A 2006 Vanderbilt University study found girls had an advantage over boys when tests and tasks were timed, something that's common in classrooms. The study showed boys fared better when studying interesting or challenging material in smaller chunks, and without hard and fast time limits.

What I find interesting is that if we take this whole gender difference argument to its ultimate conclusion, we need to look at the influence of teacher gender on learning. The Michigan Education Assocition reports that female teachers outnumber male teachers about 3 to 1; a ratio roughly the same in Plymouth Canton's secondary schools. And as Strean suggests, "women, with the best of intentions, teach classes in ways that are compatible with their learning styles."

The result asks Walsh- Sarnecki? "School might not be as friendly a place for boys," Strean said.

I can relate to that, my son just today started his day with a phrase I've now heard 180 x 5 years: "I'M BORED WITH SCHOOL".

The solution, Strean argues is to engage boys' learning styles - consider more physical activity tied to lessons and less reliance on the lecture-recite mode.

Try a Grammer Bowl competition. Once grammar became a competition, male student attitudes and their learning curves shot way up.

"It kind of turned into a sport when we did our first competition," Frankie said. "Now every time someone says, 'You're doing good,' I'm like, 'No, you're doing well.' It annoys me now."

Try using science fiction in literature class. The teacher who does finds his course is always full. "When you assign something you can read, and you do it in the traditional style, the kids kind of fight it. It comes as a task," Blakeslee said. "Basically I open it up to any way they want."  Walsh-Sarnecki reports that instead of writing papers, Blakeslee's students are more likely to be making movies, writing stories or playing trivia games about the books they read. The projects are not only creative, they're often more extensive than book reports.

Lest we fall into typical stereotypes, we must always remember the girls - and the exceptions...yet, these ideas are worth considering I think when it comes to engaging our boys.

And as Cheryl Somers, assistant professor of educational psychology at Wayne State University, argues in Walsh-Sarnecki's article, all kids could benefit from adding a little more movement in classrooms. Somers also is quick to point out that there are no differences in intelligence between boys and girls. While research shows some differences between male and female brains, research also shows that boys and girls are treated differently, from infancy on. Boys are bounced, girls are coddled. Boys fall down, girls are more protected, Somers said. "Kids come to school with these differences," Somers said. "No matter whether their parents are creating it or their biology is creating it, they come to school like this. So let's figure it out."

Textbook on Educational Facility Planning

Ken Tanner and I have co-authored the definitive textbook entitled Educational Facilities Planning: Leadership, Architecture and Management. Our essential goal in writing this book on educational architecture is to establish a common language, a Lingua Franca, for better more constructive communication among the various groups and interests involved in planning, designing, constructing, and using educational facilities. We have found that the communication divide between architecture and education, and in general between researchers and practitioners in both fields are as wide as they have ever been, despite sincere, thoughtful and tireless efforts of individuals in both disciplines – many voices of whom we have endeavored to capture in this book. Flowing from our fundamental goal of improved cross-disciplinary communication, are several purposes for writing this book. First, we aim to introduce ideas that encourage people who plan and design physical learning environments to become more responsive to students’ needs and community cultures. Second, we anticipate this book will provide a scholarly reference work for practicing educational leaders and architects that picks up where most guideline books leave off. Finally, we intend for this book to be the primary textbook for students of education architecture and planning who plan to either become school administrators, professional designers or educational researchers.

33 Principles for Educational Design

I have enjoyed reading your "33 Principles of Educational Design". It struck a chord with me because too many times I see designers jumping in and rushing for an 'architectural' result. There are some amazing opportunities out there at the moment, and dare I say it, 'most' are being completely wasted with a lack of proper pre-planning, consultation, and vision. It is very easy to read and understand, and this clarity is obviously intended for its value to educators. I wish that something like this could be distributed to all schools by their respective Departments, just to show what is possible, and what they should expect from their architects.

"Sam Aukland, Principal, Aukland Architecture"

12 Design Principles Based on Brain-based Learning Research

Jeffery A. Lackney, Ph.D.
Based on a workshop facilitated with Randall Fielding, AIA

1. Rich-simulating environments – color, texture, "teaching architecture", displays created by students (not teacher) so students have connection and ownership of the product.

2. Places for group learning – breakout spaces, alcoves, table groupings to facilitate social learning and stimulate the social brain; turning breakout spaces into living rooms for conversation.

3. Linking indoor and outdoor places – movement, engaging the motor cortex linked to the cerebral cortex, for oxygenation.

4. Public places containing symbols of the school community’s larger purpose to provide coherency and meaning that increases motivation (warning: go beyond slogans).

5. Safe places – reduce threat, especially in urban settings.

6. Variety of places – provide a variety of places of different shapes, color, light, nooks & crannies.

7. Changing displays – changing the environment, interacting with the environment stimulates brain development. Provide display areas that allow for stage set type constructions to further push the envelope with regard to environmental change.

8. Have all resources available – provide educational, physical and the variety of settings in close proximity to encourage rapid development of ideas generated in a learning episode. This is an argument for wet areas/ science, computer-rich workspaces all integrated and not segregated. Multiple functions and cross-fertilization of ideas are primary goal.

9. Flexibility – a common principle in the past continues to be relevant. Many dimensions of flexibility of place are reflected in other principles.

10. Active/passive places – students need places for reflection and retreat away from others for intrapersonal intelligence as well as places for active engagement for interpersonal intelligence.

11. Personalized space – the concept of homebase needs to be emphasized more than the metal locker or the desk; this speaks to the principle of uniqueness; the need to allow learners to express their self-identity, personalize their special places, and places to express territorial behaviors.

12. The surrounding community as the optimal learning environment – need to find ways to fully utilize all urban and natural environments as the primary learning setting, the school as the fortress of learning needs to be challenged and conceptualized more as a resource-rich learning center that supplements life-long learning. Technology, distance learning, community and business partnerships, home-based learning, all need to be explored as alternative organizational structures for educational institutions of the present and future.

Caveats
This list is not intended to be comprehensive in any way. A second caveat to presenting these design principles for brain-compatible learning environments concerns the need to use as many of these principles in combination in the design of a school building as possible. Many principles reinforce each other in providing a coherency and wholeness often lacking in buildings designed around a single concept/fad, like open schools or house concepts. School designs that incorporate a variety of these principles will by definition have the flexibility to accommodate a wide array of learning styles.

See the full paper originally published on Design Share.