planning and designing education facilities in the knowledge age the need for a total redesign of...
TRANSCRIPT
Planning and Designing Education Facilities in the
Knowledge Age
The Need for a Total Redesign of Decision-Making Processes
Features of ‘Good’ Performance
Facilities provided will: not only support education delivery but will
also enhance learning outcomes, be responsive through time to the changing
needs of society and education, and represent an effective and efficient utilisation
of all resources available.
Part 1
The Link Between Facility Decisions, Education and Societal Trends
The Design and Planning of Education Facilities
• Is a product of a complex process that involves: – A range disciplines - often with competing
priorities.
– Consideration of a range of factors• that are not always complimentary
• that are often interrelated
• and change through time
Decision-Making ConsiderationsGovt. Legislation,
Policies and Initiatives
Societal Patterns
Education FacilityPlanning
CommunityValues &
Aspirations
Education
Instructional &DeliveryMethods
Curriculum &Curriculum
Needs
Student &Teacher Needs
TechnologiesImpacting on
Education
Resourcing
HumanResourcing
Issues
BudgetConsiderations
TechnologiesImpacting on
Construction andMaintenance
Site Issues
DemographicConsiderations
The Agrarian Period - prior to
the 1890s
Rural AreasOne room schoolhouseSimple furnishings
FacilitiesThe WealthyThe public edifice (the Grammar School)
SocietyRural-based, extended family,wealthy elite, autocratic governmentEducation •informal education dominant (apprenticeship to craftsmen), •formalised institutions supplied for the elite, •early schools focused on the 3Rs and were multi-age
Govt. Legislation, Policiesand Initiatives
Societal Patterns
Education FacilityPlanning
Community Values& Aspirations
Education
Instructional &Delivery Methods
Curriculum &Curriculum Needs
Student & TeacherNeeds
TechnologiesImpacting on
Education
Resourcing
Human ResourcingIssues
BudgetConsiderations
TechnologiesImpacting on
Construction andMaintenance
Site Issues
DemographicConsiderations
The Industrial Age - prior to 1970s
The Education System
• institutionalised learning & compulsory schooling
• emphasis on ‘usefulness’ of what was taught
• covert curriculum of obedience and conformity
Societal Patterns• Farm to factory shift• Nuclear family• Paternalistic government• Standardisation and
centralisation• Fascination with bigness &
synchronisation
Govt. Legislation, Policiesand Initiatives
Societal Patterns
Education FacilityPlanning
Community Values& Aspirations
Education
Instructional &Delivery Methods
Curriculum &Curriculum Needs
Student & TeacherNeeds
TechnologiesImpacting on
Education
Resourcing
Human ResourcingIssues
BudgetConsiderations
TechnologiesImpacting on
Construction andMaintenance
Site Issues
DemographicConsiderations
The Early Knowledge Age - An Era of TensionSociety• Rapid Change• Demise of the nuclear family• ICT• Globalisation
Education• Emphasis on the ‘individual’
and ‘whole-child’ - social values
• Process rather than content - to provide skills for the future.
• Expansion of curriculum
(Quality vs Quantity)
Education Considerations vs.
Financial Considerations
Govt. Legislation, Policiesand Initiatives
Societal Patterns
Education FacilityPlanning
Community Values& Aspirations
Education
Instructional &Delivery Methods
Curriculum &Curriculum Needs
Student & TeacherNeeds
TechnologiesImpacting on
Education
Resourcing
Human ResourcingIssues
BudgetConsiderations
TechnologiesImpacting on
Construction andMaintenance
Site Issues
DemographicConsiderations
The ResponseA model grounded in the
Industrial Age concepts of Uniformity & Conformity
Enrolment PlanningLevel of
AccessibilityLevel ofDemand
New Facilities/ NewSchool
Designing Planning (New & Refurbishing)
Form ofFacilities
Quantity ofFacilities
Quality ofFacilities
Type ofFacilities
Mode of DeliveryPreschool, Primary, Secondary, P-12
SizeOptimum Maximum
Capital Works Decisions
Minimum
The use of parameters/standards-maximum/minimum sizes-area per student-area per functional space-type of spaces providedthe ‘Space Schedule’
And we continue to tinker with this.
It no longer works - emerging societal and educational trends are not supported…...
Part 2: The Emerging Trends
What Our Decision-Making Systems Must Cater for if they are to:
–support education–be responsive to the future–represent effective use of resources
Societal Patterns
• Economic Changes - a threat to the ‘nation-state’– Rapid changes in information and
communication technologies– Accountability to the ‘shareholder’
• Globalisation - Gaining the Competitive Edge
• Integration - the team approach
• Emphasis on the ‘consumer-society’
– Knowledge & Innovation is paramount to success
• Social Changes– Diversity - in Family Structure, Ethnicity &
Beliefs– Emphasis on Community - to address social and
economic ills– Work is less permanent - flexible hours, contract
employment, casual, telecommuting
• Sustainability - Economic & Environmental– The growth of the aged population
Responses in Education
• Lifelong Learning - Education is an economic & social necessity
– Education no longer corresponds to chronological ages
Kindergarten
Preschool
Primary Schools
Junior PrimarySchoolsChild Care Tertiary Education
Secondary Schools Adult LearningSenior Colleges
Seamless Education - Lifelong Learning
Vocational EducationMiddle Schools
Birth Death
Junior SecondarySchools
• Accountability & Decentralisation– to the community and the taxpayer
• Recognition of Diversity
One-size / one model does not fit all
Some Education Facility Responses:
Integration of Schools and Community
Source: Brubaker, 1998, p. 185
• A variety of possibilities:
– Full Service Schools
– Schools as Community Centres
– Learning Communities
– School Without Walls
Some Implications:
The relationships generated demand a rethink of some fundamental issues:
– Locational considerations concerning siting of facilities (on and off-site facilities) within the community.
– Site requirements (associated with the extent to which the site will deliver fewer or more services).
Access and security issues. Relationships between facilities provided on site, in
order to ensure access and synergies between services are maximised.
Issues regarding management and governance.
School-Business Partnerships
• Sponsorship
• For-Profit Private Sector Involvement
Some implications
• Emergence of non-built solutions - an entire new system, with new considerations.
• Interconnectivity between the education facility system and other sub-systems of education.
• Issues of equity
Accountability & Decentralisation- Diversity-
• School-based Decision-Making
• Parental Choice
• Open Enrolment Policies
• Alternative Models of Schools
– Special purpose schools - alternative schools, magnet schools, schools of excellence
– Schools that are based on alternative operating structures based on pedagogical approaches
– Independent ‘Public’ schools
– Schools that operate alternative timetabling structures - year round schooling, block scheduling and extended school days.
An Example of an Innovative Timetabling Structure
• Kaunani School, a K-12 private school in Hawaii operates on a six-day timetabling cycle.
– Teachers are assigned a certain number of contact hours per day. How teachers organise their day is their responsibility; as long as they meet student contact hour requirements.
– Teachers generally work together to develop schedules that includes a combination of small discussion groups, longer laboratory sessions, larger group lectures, or other sessions that are appropriate for the specific course.
– For example:English teachers are required to teach 85 student-contact hours a day. This can be comprised of five one-hour classes of 17 students, or one one-hour lecture of 85 students, or any combination.
Some Implications
For Schools:– Each site requires an individual assessment to determine
the appropriate quantity and quality of spaces provided to support the education program.
For education systems: – how to effectively plan (in physical and financial terms)
for provision of a diverse range of education delivery models, generated at the school and community level, which have the potential to increase imposts at the systemic level.
– How to manage ‘movement’ between schools as a consequence of choice.
Education Pedagogies
• New learning theories and pedagogies have emerged as a result of new research findings
• Multiple Intelligence Theory
• Cooperative Learning
• Brain-based Learning
• Constructivism
Common themes
• The individual is the focus of the learning process
ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL
• The teacher is the facilitator of learning
Some Implications
• Traditional classroom designs are challenged in terms of:
• size
• configuration
• functionality
To Summarise…..• Planning and designing the ‘school’ of today…
and tomorrow has become EXTREMELY complex…..
And
• The ‘decision-making’ system that dominates no longer works……it is not responsive to societal or education trends
Optimum SizeMinimum Size Maximum Size
Size StandardsViability determined on a individual school basis - dependent on model of delivery,
educational focus, timetabling structures, extent of community use etc.
Capital Works DecisionsBuilt Forms Only
Design PlanningSubject to individual site demands based on curriculum offered, scheduling, organisationalstructure, degree of community use etc. Requirements may be met through constructionand/or leasedClassroom design influenced by:changes to teacher and student roles; emerging education pedagogies and learningtheories; increase in alternative & simultaneous groupings of students; emphasis onstudents experiencing; requirements for multi-functionalityCampus design influenced by:alternative groupings; school size research; developmentally appropriate groupings;integrated curricula
Property Management Issues:Non- Built Forms Only
i.e leasing costs & terms; appropriateness offacilities to meet requirements
Instigation of agreements
Quality of Facilities
Type of Facilities
Form of Facilities
Quantity of Facilities
Level of AccessibilityNo Longer Physically
Constrained
Mode of Education DeliveryExpanded to include diverse range of alternative
structures
Level of DemandNo Longer Based on:
.Defined Catchment Area
.Student-only demand
.Enrolment 'at school'
Built Mode ofDelivery*
Combination Built & Non-Built Mode of Delivery
Non-Built Mode ofDelivery
Key Influences
Financial ConsiderationsEconomic Restraint - Private/Public
PartnershipsImplications of costs of implementing
research findings, educationpedagogies, sustainability and ICT,
particularly for existing schools
Legislative Requirements & PoliciesDecentralisationParental Choice
Education Issues/Curriculum MattersDiversity
New pedagogies and learning theoriesResearch on Influence of Facilities on
Learning Outcomes(Perceptual factors,
Architectural factors)
Community/Social Values & AspirationsCommunity - School Integration -Social
Services & Lifelong LearningSustainability
Safe & Secure EnvironmentInformation Communication &
Technology
• We can no longer replicate
• Each school requires thorough planning processes that reflects the educational, operational and financial vision of the school community
Part 3
A New System for Decision-Making
The Fundamental Problem Society - the Education System -
Education Facilities - are in a state of imbalance
Now
Societal ChangeNo. 1
Education FacilitiesUnchanged
Other Systems
Other Systems
Education Systemunchanged
Societal ChangeNo. 2
Education Facilities -Unchanged
Other Systems
Other Systems
Education SystemResponds to Change
No. 1
Societal ChangeNo. 3
Education FacilitiesResponds to Change
No.1
Other Systems
Other Systems
Education SystemResponds to Change
No. 2
Societal Change
Societal ChangeGenerated by
Response
Education FacilitiesRespond
Other Systems
Other Systems
Education SystemResponds
Time Was
This Imbalance Needs Redressing - otherwise we may
build facilities that do not represent effective use of resources nor will they
necessarily support education in the future
The Answer
A Process focused on:
• Integration
• Coordination
• Cooperation
The system and its parts should be designed from the perspective of the whole system and in view of its embeddedness in its environment. The systems design notion requires both coordination and integration. We need to design all parts operating at a specific system level of the organisation interactively and simultaneously. This requires coordination. The requirement of designing for the interdependency invites integration.
(Banathy, 1993, p.13)
An Integrated Planning Approach
• Based on a reconceptualisation of the role and place of facilities within the education system.
– Facilities need to be an ‘integral’ component of education planning - not a separate system - which is considered as part of a ‘facility master planning process’ or when a ‘facility need’ is identified
• The interconnectivity and interdependencies between all components of the education system - curriculum, financial, human resourcing & facilities - and with other complimentary systems are acknowledged.
• Decision-making is education focused and occurs at the local level:– Involving school, parents, students, community,
business and public agency representatives.– Who access advice - from a range of experts which
include facility planners, human resource personnel, financial experts etc.
Where...
Where
• In the education system environment:– government sets:
• performance standards • establishes parameters that support maximum
flexibility of decisions at the site level• monitors parameters that guide local
decisions, to ensure capacity exists to support the system
It will be difficult to achieve…. there are barriers to overcome…
and it will take time...
It is possible though….
Education and Professional Development About...
• The issues society faces in the Knowledge Age
• The Education Facility System for:– Educators
– Policy-makers
– Business & the Wider Community
• The Education System (and sub-system linkages) for: – Educators
– Architects
– Facility Planners
– Bureaucrats
• School operational practices for:– Architects
– Facility Planners
– Bureaucrats
• Research that indicates facilities can enhance learning outcomes - for:
– All
And….we need to think a bit differently...
• A cost per student as the parameter for decision-making
• Development of Decision Support Systems (DSS) to support ‘integrated’ planning across all sub-systems.
• Area planning overlaying school planning, with areas determining priorities for expenditure of bulk allocation - ostensibly for capital- but not necessarily needed to be used for physical assets.
Until such time as we develop such a new decision-making system it is unlikely that the educational facilities we plan and design will ‘perform’ by:
• representing the most effective learning environments for users
• responding to societal and education trends • representing the most effective utilisation of all
resources, not just physical assets available to a school.