Student Centered Learning - Implications for Design

In Oklahoma these days much is being discussed about the "Common Core" and its impact on students, teachers, parents and the community. Much of that discussion is beyond the scope of this blog; however everyone agrees that teaching and learning must be student centered and focused on preparing students for success.

But what does a "student centered" school look like and how are those facilities different than schools that used industrial age planning and design principals?

Design Characteristics of a Student Centered Model:

• Students have a home base or workstation to call home. This may be a work station, or similar private area for quiet thought and personal work.
• Classrooms are more limited and specialized with more learning and mentoring happening outside the classroom in collaborative group and/or flexible team areas. 
• "Learning Commons" include areas that were traditionally dedicated as circulation only. Corridors become functional, flexible, open areas with soft seating, tables, sofas and  wireless collaboration and productivity tools for team and individual learning. 
• Teachers are not isolated from each other in classrooms but share central work areas with dedicated work stations, conference areas and tools for collaboration, sharing of best practice techniques and accountability. By removing barriers for student and teachers shared goals, expectations and creative problem solving can be reached.  
• Flexible "lab" areas for Project Based learning. Areas contain varying work areas with resources for a wide variety of projects, construction, exploration,  brainstorming, presentations, etc. 
• The traditional media center space is redistributed across the facility in more dynamic ways to encourage the use of portable laptops, smart phones and interactive displays. 
• All areas are designed to include the latest advancements in efficiency and resourcefulness including natural lighting, insulation, ventilation, building security and maintenance.  
• Spaces are designed to encourage exploration, research, interaction, creativity and connections to others and the world.   

School districts around the country are increasingly turning to 21st century practices to better prepare students for their futures and to accommodate the realities of school funding and high expectations of the community. Student expectations are also changing due to the rapid advancement of information and communications over the Internet and the portability of access. A Student-Centered model may hold great potential to transform school environments for the future.
                                                                                                                                              
Darrell McAllister, AIA is the founding Principal of McAllister and Associates Architects. For more information he can be reached at darrell@mcallister-arch.com. 

Optimizing or Innovating? Re-thinking the Role of Schools in our Community

To help us answer that question I looked back at my 25 year career in architecture and evaluated school facilities from the 1980's, 1990's and 2000's. In each decade most of those schools had unique features that were improvements from the decade before.
1980's - Education was in a time of reflection and economic decline. Little national investment was made in schools and what was made often was in the form of renovations or remodels. Much of the experimentation of the 1950's thru 1970's had stopped. Schools were conservative, simple, efficient, traditional and local governments had to supplement national energy conservation programs to keep those initiatives moving. For our firm it was an era of common areas, pods of classrooms, team teaching and all design decisions related to durability and low cost.
1990's  thru 2000's - During this period the idea of green-building became more prevalent. LEEDS standards were adopted in 1998 and became prevalent through the 2000's to be the most influential movement to shape school design. High performance buildings promote the responsible use of natural resources while providing a healthy indoor environment.
While these changes and improvements in schools have yielded largely positive results, they tend to focus on a fairly narrow set of challenges that are the "building" systems. Designing and building a better container for teaching and learning.  In tomorrows context larger questions that we are asking are:

1.) What is a school?

2.) Can schools better reflect and connect to our communities to improve student mastery, purpose and autonomy?

3.) What are the common "Connection Points" for purposeful learning? 

a. Family

b. Social Purpose

c. Work

d. Politics

e. Arts

f. Recreation

g. Health

h. Worship

4.) How can technology add value and enhance those connection points? 

Old Learning Model

New Learning Model

In today's information age people are in control. Big business models are expiring and new more contextual and personal models are evolving that put people in control of their own destiny. Education must create something new to remain valuable in students lives. New analytical tools combined with the evaluation and recognition of social, political, technological and personal opportunities will yield new and innovative results.

Have school facilities improved in the past century? In some ways, they certainly have. But in other ways, especially in the craft and science of natural lighting and conditioning, we may have simply circled back to where we started. These patterns are largely reflections of the greater societal and technological trends of the 20th and early 21st century, but they have also represented the sincere dedication of education leaders to improve the quality of learning environments for children in America. It is our mission and desire to see continued questioning, evaluation of new contexts, multiple iterations of innovation and subsequent integration of new techniques and solutions that improve student outcomes.
                                                                                                                                              
Darrell L. McAllister, A.I.A. is the Founding Principal of McAllister and Associates Architects.