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Rosan Bosch | Wonder DIY – Build Your Own School Anywhere

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¿Qué es el Aula del futuro? - El Aula del Futuro (INTEF)

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El Aula del Futuro es un proyecto coordinado por el Instituto Nacional de Tecnologías Educativas y de Formación del Profesorado (INTEF) en colaboración con las comunidades autónomas. Este proyecto propone explotar las posibilidades pedagógicas de flexibilizar los espacios de aprendizaje en combinación con las tecnologías, para mejorar los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje a través de las metodologías activas.

Esta apuesta, que se inició en 2015, tiene su origen en el proyecto Future Classroom Lab, desarrollado por el consorcio de Ministerios de Educación europeos, European Schoolnet (EUN) desde 2012. Siguiendo la propuesta europea, el Aula del Futuro desarrolla el concepto de organización del espacio atendiendo al desarrollo de habilidades en los alumnos, más allá de la adquisición de contenidos. De este modo, presenta un espacio de aprendizaje zonificado y reconfigurable, dividido en seis zonas: Investiga, Explora, Interactúa, Desarrolla, Crea y Presenta, que tienen como finalidad favorecer y estimular los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje, haciendo del alumno el protagonista de todo el proceso.

Cada zona incluye mobiliario y medios tecnológicos específicos. El equipamiento incluye pizarras digitales y pantallas táctiles, dispositivos móviles variados, cámaras de grabación 360º, Gafas VR, mobiliario escolar específico con facilidades de conexión, materiales para facilitar la investigación y el pensamiento computacional, un pequeño estudio de grabación y un rincón tradicional de trabajo. Todo este material está organizado para favorecer que el profesor amplíe su papel de transmisor de contenidos al de moderador, orientador, organizador y, sobre todo, de guía de su alumnado en el proceso de aprendizaje, pasando así de una metodología tradicional, en la que el alumno es un mero receptor de contenidos, a una metodología activa e integradora, que permite que el alumno tenga un papel activo, a la vez que el docente atiende a los diferentes ritmos y estilos de aprendizaje, por lo que fomenta la inclusión educativa.

¿Por qué un Aula del Futuro?

Durante los últimos años el aprendizaje no solo se ha centrado en los contenidos sino que también ha evolucionado hacia la adquisición de competencias. Por otro lado, existe una gran variedad de tecnologías digitales que proporciona muchas posibilidades en un aula. El modelo de Aula del futuro combina metodología, tecnología y actividades en diferentes zonas.

Además, los centros educativos disponen de espacios que pueden permitir el desarrollo de este proyecto, ajustado a sus necesidades y contexto. Las aulas de informática, talleres, aulas ordinarias, bibliotecas y otro tipo de espacios son lugares que permiten su adaptación para explotar más las posibilidades que ya tienen.

Coordinación y Red Aula del Futuro

Para la dinamización de la actividad en el proyecto, cada comunidad autónoma cuenta con al menos un representante que actúa como embajador del Aula del Futuro y que se integra en la Red de Embajadores Aula del Futuro. Los embajadores son un referente del proyecto en sus comunidades autónomas y puedes contactar tanto con los responsables en el INTEF, como con los embajadores de tu comunidad autónoma, a traves del formulario de contacto de esta web.
Además, en la sección RED AdF, podrás consultar en el mapa los centros que han implementado y proyectado su aula del futuro, con información sobre el centro y su proyecto. Solo tendrás que pinchar en los pines que hay en el mapa.

El Aula del Futuro del INTEF

El Aula del Futuro del INTEF está compuesta por seis zonas de aprendizaje que permiten llevar a cabo actividades formativas encaminadas a obtener una visión completa del desarrollo de metodologías activas, ya que en cada una de las áreas se realizan diferentes tareas en las que se emplean distintas herramientas. La formación que se proporciona en el Aula del Futuro del INTEF está enfocada a la adquisición, no sólo de herramientas, sino de conocimientos metodológicos aplicables al aula basados en el empleo de metodologías activas en las que no sólo se utilizan dispositivos, sino que el uso correcto de los mismos permite la realización de actividades de aprendizaje y la puesta en práctica de situaciones de aprendizaje basados en Aula del Futuro.

Además de las actividades formativas, el Aula del Futuro del INTEF está disponible para los centros educativos que quieran desarrollar actividades puntuales en ella. Si a los docentes y equipo directivo de vuestro centro os interesa visitar el aula para recoger ideas, podéis enviarnos vuestra solicitud a través del formulario que tenéis a vuestra disposición en esta web.

Formación

El Aula del Futuro ofrece a los docentes distintas modalidades de formación, ofrecidas tanto por el INTEF como por las comunidades autónomas. En la sección de formación de la web podrás consultar la oferta formativa del Aula del Futuro, que incluye:

Cursos, jornadas y seminarios ofrecidos por las comunidades autónomas.

Curso tutorizado en línea "Aula del Futuro" para conocer y adentrarse en el KIT del herramientas y aprender a diseñar situaciones y actividades de aprendizaje.

Cursos semipresenciales Aula del Futuro, que cuenta con una variedad de temáticas y que se convocan anualmente.

Recursos y Experiencias Aula del Futuro

Para encontrar inspiración y ejemplos en los que apoyarse, la web del Aula del Futuro cuenta con dos secciones, Recursos y Experiencias, en las que podrás encontrar una amplia variedad de materiales que te ayudarán a:

Llevar a tu aula actividades adaptadas al modelo del Aula del Futuro, gracias a las situaciones de aprendizaje y las actividades disponibles en la sección Recursos

Ejemplos de otros centros para implementar el aula del futuro y ponerla en funcionamiento, que podrás consultar en la sección de Experiencias.

Además, si quieres crear tus propias actividades y realizar tu propio enfoque del Aula del Futuro, en la sección de recursos también encontrarás el KIT de herramientas, que te ayuda en cinco módulos a acertarte al Aula del Futuro y utilizar sus fichas y materiales. Recuerda que también podrás apuntarte al curso tutorizado en línea "Aula del Futuro", que te ayuda a explorar este KIT de herramientas y a crear tus actividades.

Por último, también podrás descargarte el logo del Aula del Futuro, si quieres utilizarlo en tus materiales y vídeos. Si ya estás montando un espacio Aula del Futuro y quieres señalizar las distintas zonas con sus logos, podrás solicitarnos un pack con los diseños para que puedas adaptarlos a las necesidades de tu centro.

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El aula del Futuro propone explotar las posibilidades pedagógicas de flexibilizar los espacios de aprendizaje en combinación con las tecnologías, para mejorar los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje a través de las metodologías activas.

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Future Classroom Lab learning zones

The Future Classroom Lab is formed by six different learning spaces. Each space highlights specific areas of learning and teaching and helps to rethink different points: physical space, resources, changing roles of student and teacher, and how to support different learning styles. Discover the different zones now!

Download the full document here (PDF)

Explore all the learning zones!

Do you want to have a tour to discover the Future Classroom Lab?

We have set up a virtual tour for discovering our Lab in Brussels, its learning zones and the available tools from out partners. Take a look!

Publications

EUN has made two publications to support schools interested in adapting their learning spaces:

Building learning labs and innovative learning spaces. Practical guidelines for school leaders and teachers. Including six cases studies (2019)

Guidelines on Exploring and Adapting Learning Spaces in Schools (2017)

Discover the publications and related case studies here

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The Future Classroom Lab is formed by six different learning spaces. Each space highlights specific areas of learning and teaching and helps to rethink different points: physical space, resources, changing roles of student and teacher, and how to support different learning styles. Discover the different zones now!

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Mentor Schools: Space to Learn New Ways to Teach - Steelcase

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"We've been encouraged to get out of our comfort zones and reevaluate how we teach. Before, I never would have thought I'd want couches and ottomans in my classroom. But now I'm excited about the opportunities they create," reports Jaclyn Nemes, an economics and financial literacy teacher at Mentor High School in Mentor, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb.

She's describing the impact of an innovative professional development program designed to inspire new ways of teaching to better meet the needs of the more than 7,700 students in this public school district. The transformation underway at Mentor is centered on exploring and embracing new pedagogies. But leaders also realized that success would require new spaces, new furniture and new technologies, and that teachers would benefit from learning, practicing and experimenting with how to use these new resources effectively. As a result, supported by a state grant and close collaboration with Steelcase, Mentor developed an ambitious facilities upgrade plan that included renovated classrooms as well as a new professional development center.

Inside this innovative facility, teachers are reimagining their traditional role as content deliverers and discovering ways to bring more active, project-based learning into their classrooms.

These days you'll rarely see teachers like Nemes stationed at the front of the classroom delivering a lesson. Instead, she's likely to be walking around, supporting students as they work through assignments at their own pace. Some may be perched on storage ottomans and delving individually into an aspect of personal finance using their laptop computers. Alternatively, small groups may be huddled around whiteboards, collaborating on the financial viability of rehabbing a rundown Mentor building for mixed-use real estate. Whatever the project, it's likely to be relevant to students' lives and centered on active problem-solving versus spoon-fed information.

These new active approaches are implicit in the district's mission: Inspiring students today to reach their potential tomorrow. "We're trying to change the way that our teachers teach and our students learn because we need to make them ready for what lies beyond high school," explains Mike Lynch, director of innovation and instructional technology. "We know that out in the world, you don't get fed information - that's not how things work".

"Education can no longer be about just measuring kids' understanding of content," he continues. "It's about how well can they collaborate and communicate. How good are they at critical thinking. Have we allowed them to be creative? If they can't express what they've learned in their own way, they're going to struggle."

Paradigm Center: Where Teachers Practice How They Teach

Adjoining Mentor's high school is a new 16,000-square-foot professional development center called Paradigm. Designed to be multipurpose and multiuse, it's a place where teachers, staff, students and members of the community can experience firsthand the benefits of flexible and inviting environments for learning and collaborating.

On any given day, 20-30 district teachers are here for professional development, learning and experimenting with the strategies and tools of active learning. Definitely not a passive, "sit and get" type of learning, teachers are instead situated in the same types of flexible spaces and using the same technologies that they're being encouraged to optimize in their classrooms. "At Paradigm, teachers have the time and opportunity to apply the content they're learning, to make it their own and use it in a creative way in a space that is supportive and flexible," reports Lynch.

In addition, Paradigm is a workplace for Mentor's administrative staff and a meeting place for the school board, parent organizations, booster clubs and other school-related groups. It's available to school districts beyond Mentor for their own professional development programs, and local businesspeople also can come here for meetings or events, large or small. Rooms can be easily scaled up or down with dividers to meet a variety of groups and needs, and nearby breakout rooms provide another choice for individuals or small groups.

Renovated Classrooms: Choices, Comfort & Flexibility

Mentor is mid-way through a plan to renovate the classrooms in all 10 schools in the district. "Essentially, every single space in the Mentor Schools K-12 will have been evaluated and renovated to promote active learning as a major emphasis," says Lynch.

Redoing 65 classrooms in the high school was a priority, and the results have been dramatic. "Before, when kids walked into our high school classrooms, they had one choice: 'Which hard desk do I sit at?' About 80-90 percent of our classrooms were set up in the same way - rows of desks," recalls Lynch. "We knew we needed to increase physical comfort. We also wanted to provide every teacher with at least three types of seating in their classrooms, so students would have choices. After all, who says students can't be comfortable and learn at the same time?"

Flexibility was another important consideration. Soft chairs, couches, ottomans and moveable chairs and tables are now classroom norms. And many no longer have a stationary teacher's desk. Instead, teachers move around to all areas of the room, rotating among individuals and groups at work. Whiteboards abound, and teachers and students frequently share content from their laptop computers by projecting it unto monitors. The district gives a laptop to every student and every teacher to use throughout the school year.

"In every way, we wanted to make sure the classroom environment totally supported the process of learning," emphasizes Lynch. To achieve that, he explains, instead of expecting all students to learn the same thing at the same time in the same way, teachers need the ability to divide their class quickly into different learning stations. "Maybe one group is at a technology station, working with content the teacher has previously posted. Others are maybe watching a video about the topic. At the same time, the teacher can be working personally with small groups of students at other stations in the room."

"There are so many ways to engage students that keep them moving and collaborating and thinking deeply," concurs Tracy Coleman, an advanced placement English teacher. "Our classrooms now not only invite collaboration, but they actually require kids to be face-to-face and communicate with one each other in a very natural way. There's no more getting up and sliding heavy desks. Kids walk in and there's already a sense that we're in this together, operating not only as individuals but also to understand different viewpoints and learn from each other. The result is a beautiful potpourri of ideas and perspectives. Even when they disagree, students are learning how differing perspectives on a topic can deepen their own understanding of it."

Assessing Experiences

One of the challenges of education is measuring success, observes Lynch. "Anytime you're dealing with human beings, you're dealing with a lot of variables. We're a high-performing district, but state assessments are just one measure. I'd say the best indication of our success is just walking around, observing and talking with people. You'll find that teachers and students generally feel better about the opportunities and spaces that they now get to work in, and they're taking advantage of the technology we have as a district."

Another indicator that Mentor is on the right track: Hundreds of visitors have come from all over Ohio and nearby Pennsylvania to see how teaching and learning are happening here. They arrive curious and leave inspired, having seen firsthand just how much progressive learning environments can positively affect both students and their teachers.

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Mentor Schools: Space to Learn New Ways to Teach - Steelcase

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"We've been encouraged to get out of our comfort zones and reevaluate how we teach. Before, I never would have thought I'd want couches and ottomans in my classroom. But now I'm excited about the opportunities they create," reports Jaclyn Nemes, an economics and financial literacy teacher at Mentor High School in Mentor, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb.

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Full article: ‘The best guess for the future?’ Teachers’ adaptation to open and flexible learning environments in Finland

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ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT
Finnish education has recently experienced reforms with respect to guidelines forming the curriculum framework for basic education and school architecture. Since 2016, all new schools incorporate open and flexible design, at least to some extent. The more open school design challenges the conventional organisation of space and pre-defined structures and interaction practices. This study investigates how teachers both adapt and are affected by new demands for pedagogy, team teaching and teacher-student relationships. Interview data of 21 teachers of six modern schools are reviewed through thematic analysis. The new school layouts provided some incongruence with the teachers' aims and their preferred practices. Although many teachers were dissatisfied with the new or remodelled space solution, they felt that their school had developed as a learning community, with improved collegiality, and good experiences of team teaching had increased. Shared vision, open discussion, commitment and enough time for preparation had helped in adaptation. Lacking arguments behind school transformation and the dismissal of ideas of school design hindered adaptation. This study suggests that teachers should have a greater voice in the school design process, and the needs of learners should be carefully considered, ensuring optimal physical and pedagogical context for effective and collaborative learning.

Introduction and the context

Reforms in curriculum and learning environments

Finland is undergoing a strong phase of school redesign where traditional walled-in classrooms and rows of desks are replaced for more flexible, multipurpose, informal and transformative open plan designs. Since 2016, all new or totally renovated comprehensive schools in Finland have incorporated open and flexible designs and principles, at least to some extent. This reform of school architecture emerged at the same time as the curriculum reform of Finnish basic education (Ministry of Education, 2014), issued in 2016.

The curriculum and school reforms also have links with the focus on so-called twenty-first-century learning skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, creativity and leadership (Binkley et al., 2012; Carvalho, Nicholson, Yeoman, & Thibaut, 2020; OECD 2017; Wells, Jackson, & Benade, 2018) and the influx of digital technologies. The remodelling of school and classroom spaces away from deskbound whole-class instruction settings towards spaces allowing flexible and versatile use of groupings and instructional formats is seen among the factors facilitating achievement of the aims of the new curriculum and twenty-first-century learning skills (e.g. Benade, 2015). What is often left outside of the scope of studies is, however, the pedagogical approaches needed to scaffold these kinds of multiple and complex requirements for learners.

In addition to the mere removal of walls and boundaries between spaces, physical school renewal typically also includes a reform of the learning and teaching culture (Saltmarsh et al., 2014). Openness "breaks" the material, social and cultural structure of traditional classroom and schooling, specifically by presupposing teachers work in collaborative work pairs or/and teams. The new spaces are designed usually for two class teachers and a special education teacher for a group of 40 to 60 students or four class teachers and special education and/or resource teachers for up to 100 students. Open spaces are likely to lead to changes in teaching practices towards more students working in small groups and one-to-one learning in contrast to frontal teaching because there is no distinct front, such as a teacher's desk or chalkboard, to teach from. School leadership is also assumed to be fluid and distributed among the leader-teams of a learning community.

For students, the opening of traditional classrooms provides more choices regarding the use of space, time, working groups and working arrangements and increased autonomy. Students typically have more opportunities for personalised learning and planning and making decisions concerning one's learning, which requires taking responsibility for monitoring one's work (e.g. Yeoman & Wilson, 2019). With increased project-based and collaborative activities, students need skills to stay committed to shared goals, to reflect their learning processes, and to recognise challenges that may hinder their learning interaction. All in all, open learning environments in themselves do not guarantee productive learning; rather, it is dependent on multiple issues, such as the teacher's adequate instructional support, such as scaffolding, and students' capacities and resources for productive dialogue and regulation of learning. Figure 1 depicts the central concepts and elements that are assumed to contribute to effective and collaborative learning in any kind of (institutional) learning environment.

'The best guess for the future?' Teachers' adaptation to open and flexible learning environments in Finland

Theoretical background

Education and learning as embedded in social interaction

Research setting

The study draws from the teacher interview data of an ongoing study undertaken in six primary schools in Finland that were either purpose-built or totally renovated to contain open and flexible learning environments. At the time of writing this article, 32 schools in Finland have been built around the concepts of an open and flexible learning environment. The six schools in the present sample were not selected based on any specific criteria. They are from different areas of Finland, from the capital area to northern Finland. Two schools had been built or renovated at a fast pace due to indoor air problems and mould. The length of the school transition period varied.

The school spaces involved multiple classes, none of the schools had traditional corridors or same-sized classrooms with designated desks for students or teachers' podiums, there were fewer walls than in traditional schools, and the schools consisted of open, versatile and technology-enhanced learning spaces. Students were able to take up various positions in a variety of places while normally forming several learning groups, and teachers worked in teams. The students did not follow exact timetables; instead, their learning consisted of larger modules across disciplines. Each school was a public school (in line with 99% of Finnish primary schools), and the students typically came from the neighbouring area.

The data of this article consist of 21 interviews with teachers that were conducted during the years 2018-2019 and ethnographic field notes of the researcher. The very first open plan school in Finland started in 2016; thus, teachers' experiences of teaching in these schools varied, from one to three years. All teachers had prior experience of teaching in traditional classrooms before entering new or renovated school spaces. A written consent procedure was followed where participants were informed of the goals and securing confidentiality and their data protection rights.

The researcher(s) observed the daily life of schools during a three-day to one-week period and collected and interviewed the teachers. For the data analyses, all interviews were video-recorded for later transcription. The questions were open-ended, and the interviews were similar to "natural" discussions focused on teachers' experiences and views and experiences of working in new learning environments. In all, 21 teachers were interviewed in pairs, small groups or alone, depending on their preferences and practical arrangements. The interviews lasted 30-150 minutes, depending on the group size or teachers' availability. In addition, ethnographic field notes and photos of the schools are used to provide contextual details of the settings. The themes teachers were asked about related to 1) school transformation, 2) their experiences of the new spaces and interaction practices, and how they used the spaces and resources in their teaching to support students' learning, and 3) possibilities and challenges of new open and flexible learning environments.

The data were analysed using thematic analysis (e.g. Braun & Clarke, 2006; Patton, 2015, p. 540-542) by identifying and analysing themes within the data. The analysis was data driven, and the themes were created while doing the analysis. The focus was on capturing the themes of the interviews consisting of one or several utterances that formed a coherent idea, narrative or opinion. The analysis was discussed with some other researchers; however, the final decisions what to include and leave out were made by the author. The interview language was Finnish, and the excerpts of the interviews were translated into English. The transcription was conducted carefully to maintain the conversational style and chosen words. However, some modifications were made (e.g. some filler words are left out of the excerpts).

The analysis focused on the semantic content of the data; that is, the experiences of and meanings given to open learning environments by the teachers, regarded as the "reality" for themselves (see Potter & Hepburn, 2012). The interviews were conducted in local contexts, and the answers belong to unique persons in specific situations. The aim is not to provide universal and generalised results but to reveal something about the teachers' opinions and experiences that also could tell something about the ongoing issues in general. These results do not represent the overall situation in Finland but provide examples of how teachers have adapted to the new learning spaces.

Analysis and results

School transformation as a bottom-up process

As described earlier, the new curriculum framework and new open and flexible spaces require and challenge teachers to collaborate more in developing phenomenon-based learning projects, modules across disciplines, engage in team planning and team teaching, and share responsibilities and to cultivate competencies in supporting students' setting of learning goals and more individualised learning projects. As the very first new schools started in 2016, all six schools were still undergoing the transformation phase, as all of them had operated only one to three years in their remodelled or newly built design.

Educational change takes place both at the organisational level and on teachers' individual professional development. The adaptation process of school transformation can be seen as consisting of design, transition and implementation phases (Blackmore et al., 2011). The narratives of the interviewees described the adaptation process as a journey, which had started in the school design phase immediately after the decision for a new school. The interviewed teachers' stories of the ramifications of settling into the new learning spaces showed that educational changes do not constitute a top-down process, but a bottom-up process, which both allows and requires teachers to develop school practices and themselves as teachers.

Arguments behind school transformation

The adaptation process consisted, at least, of some contradictory feelings of pain from the changes, uncertainty about what is excepted, also described as stepping out of one's own comfort zone, and enthusiasm to create and alter pedagogical practices. There was variation among teachers in the way they perceived and reacted to the possibilities of the new spaces. For some of the teachers, the explanations behind school transformation were unclear; they did not know who called for the new kind of school and why and who made the ultimate decision. In some responses, teachers thought that the explanation was that the new school could better serve the reformed Finnish curriculum by emphasising phenomenon-based learning and integration across different subjects. Teachers also longed for empirical evidence of the impacts of the new spaces and thought that the renewals were based on too-simplistic conceptions about what is critical in learning. Some teachers also thought that schools should have a more open door to the surrounding society, and the newly designed school was the best available response for preparing children for the unknown future.

You can interpret the new curriculum in many ways, but I think this open learning environment is a response to how a physical learning environment can also serve the new reformed curriculum and phenomenon-based learning. We did not have many pre-thought ideas, and the curriculum was changing at the same time as well. But we had enthusiasm to go and have a look at what a new learning environment can give for all of us. We were ready to take up the challenge and look to the future. (Teacher J)

You have to have a clear vision of what is the goal of renewing school spaces so radically. But for me, it is not. What is it? Sense of community? Renewal of teaching? Is the space the thing that enables you to do what is expected? (...) Where is the empirical evidence for these new schools? (Teacher E)

I do see the importance of phenomenon-based learning. However, it could be enacted in traditional classrooms as well; you don't need open spaces for that. Why in the world do we need these new spaces? (Teacher D)

First, we had to get rid of the pain of the change. We talked about the transformation, our fears and what we could wish from the new environment, what are good and worse scenarios. We compared the options. After this 'pain talk', we were able to plan our new school and we were committed to the transformation. (Teacher K)

We have to educate children for the future. But it is difficult to foretell what lies ahead. I think this open learning environment is the best guess for the future. (Teacher C)

Dismissed ideas of school design

Traditionally, schools have been designed by architects without any involvement of educational professionals. Nowadays, there has been a trend towards a participatory or co-design process, which has been believed to improve teacher practices and, in turn, benefit students' learning (Blackmore et al., 2011, p. 10; Sigurðardóttir & Hjartarson, 2016; Woolner & Cardellino, 2019). Some of the teachers were invited to engage in planning their new school. However, many of the teachers mentioned that it was not clear what their role in the design process was, how they were listened to and whether their opinions were appreciated. In one case, blueprints of the new school changed without notification of the teachers. The dismissal of at least some of the teachers' wishes and ideas concerning the school design hindered adaptation in the implementation phase.

We teachers were listened to in the planning phase; however, now it looks like it did not have any impact. It was only a formality. The bigger lines were drawn elsewhere on other boards. If you feel that your opinion counts, then you can feel a commitment to new spaces. Now it is the other way around. (...) I believe that architects do their best, but teachers and children are those who do the daily work in those spaces. (Teacher I)

As I remember it, when we were planning the school, the blueprints were very different. At that time, we were very satisfied with the blueprints, and we had only some little details to add or change. Suddenly, something happened to them. When there was the next meeting after three weeks, we got very renewed papers and blueprints. We were wondering where are all our previous ideas, but we never got any answer. (...) Afterwards we had black humour that whether it would have been better not to say anything. (Teacher B)

This school building is a compromise between the opinions of teachers, architects and policymakers who participated in the design process. However, in my opinion, a compromise is better than a viewpoint of one or two persons. (Teacher G)

Rethinking ideas of classroom

New schools challenged teachers to look at teaching practices differently. For most teachers, the idea of not having one's own classroom or being a sole teacher in a classroom was described as more or less a "psychological change" that teachers have to go through. Some teachers disliked the idea of making their own classrooms obsolete and were worried that if students and teachers cannot rely on stable spaces to work and interact with each other, this might lead to overly fragmented learning and dismissal of children's need for designated places. In addition, teacher-led practices were seen to be needed at times; for instance, for explaining and demonstrating concepts that are hard to grasp and master without the teacher's support. Many teachers preferred enclosed classrooms serving as a home base for children.

The idea that a corridor or dining room could be a learning environment is a big change. And that children are wandering in space without having any own private space. (...) In fact, you can't bring old things to the new one. You have to rebuild these ideas for yourself. (Teacher H)

There were many discussions about not having one's own classroom anymore. And we still have. Many of my students long for their own classroom and their desks; that's what they keep saying. I would like to step back a little to have a classroom and designated spaces for everyone. I think that the removal of desks does not improve learning, as the drivers for improvement are other things. (Teacher N)

For me, new space itself forces me to think differently. The new school challenges change many of my previous assumptions and ideas. You are forced to think of teaching in other ways that are not pre-defined beforehand. I noticed that the idea of the new school was very compatible with my ideas of teaching and step by step, the new space started to feed my own and my students' creativity. (Teacher M)

Developing the school as a learning community

Orientation towards the new school is also a collaborative process at the organisational level and optimally provided opportunities and tools to negotiate wishes and values, to express unspoken assumptions, insecurities and fears, and to come up with an agreement or shared vision of the future school. In almost every school, teachers together with principals created a shared vision of goals, values, dreams and preferred practices of their future school and, thus, at the same time, developed the curriculum of their school. In some schools, teachers signed a written consent for commitment to the vision. In later recruitment processes, new teachers were selected based on how compatible their pedagogical thinking was with the school visions. Creating a shared vision of which everyone can feel ownership is also a way to develop school as a learning community. Open talk, or pain talk as one interviewee described it, was also a way to challenge previous assumptions. The role of the school principal(s) was highlighted as important pioneers of the transition process and nurturing an open and motivating climate. Overall, many teachers were satisfied as they were able to create a new environment, and for some teachers, a chance to plan a new school and create its practices were considered as a privilege.

We started to create visions. It was, that we systematically spent our time thinking about what a new learning environment does and brings about. It was the beginning. And we continued speaking our visions, and when the school was built, everyone had a kind of understanding of our new school. We committed that vision on paper, and everyone working here is committed to acting in ways that are compatible with our vision. (Teacher G)

Our vision was 'We will go there together.' Our principal was a leader and he has led this process wisely. In difficult situations, we can always count on him and on our community, and no one is left alone. (Teacher H)

Our proverb, stated by our principal, goes: We all are apples. We cannot let anyone sour; instead, we hold on to everybody even though speaking about difficult issues is painful. (Teacher J)

We share enthusiasm with our new spaces. We have a good spirit of doing. We don't transmit old practices. We transform them. Not every teacher can be involved in developing a new school and its culture. (Teacher F)

Taken together, these responses of interviewees demonstrate how educational change to a new kind of school is a remarkable issue. It needs careful preparation consisting of joint discussion, co-planning and creating a shared vision of the new school to which teachers can commit. Redrawing boundaries among teachers, new spaces and materials, and teaching practices and creating new ones opened up possibilities that had not existed before, which motivated many teachers.

However, the reasons behind the school transformation were unclear for many teachers. For them, it was not easy to see why school spaces have to be renewed so radically, and they were unsure whether the renewal of the school building could be the response to the demand for renewing the teaching and learning culture. The responses also pose a question of who can have the strongest voice in planning new schools: teachers, policymakers or architects. All in all, it seems clear that for teachers, it is easier to be responsive to new spaces if they can feel ownership of spaces and that spaces resemble their needs and their students. A shared understanding of the aim, the meanings behind changes and the experience of being listened to are some key features for the renewal of school buildings and school culture.

Mismatch between the school's layout and teachers' preferred practices

The implementation phase consisted of transitioning into the new school building and putting the created school vision into practice. This has meant continuous negotiation of spaces and resources, developing new practices, and establishing rules and protocols of use. For some teachers, the new school itself was a certain disappointment, and it seemed to them that there was a lack of perspective for the ultimate users: teachers and students. Some teachers also felt that their pedagogical knowledge and experience were overridden by architects and interior designers. The role of the different spaces and materiality was considered either absent or too deterministic (see Yeoman, 2018). Overall, teachers were puzzled about how interior architects can decide the furniture without any experience of teaching.

A couple of days before entering the new school, two interior designers gave as education a vision I called 'furniture pedagogy'. They tell that when children learn math, they need these tables and these chairs and for project-based work, there are these sofas, etc. Of course, I understand that good and multiple furniture could be a good thing, but the idea that furniture itself creates spaces for learning and for different needs sounds simplistic and ridiculous. (Teacher A)

We have those little rooms called phone boxes. Children use them when they want to have a break and quiet down. This is okay, but they don't use those spaces for learning. (Teacher B)

The aim of the transformative and flexible environment is that the spaces are versatile and enable multiple learning methods for different needs. Teachers had been aware that in their new schools there would be open, flexible and transformative spaces. They had imagined how these features would operate in practice (see Wood, 2018) and how doorless and unwalled the spaces are. Teachers espoused both open and enclosed spaces, and they valued the high flexibility of transforming open spaces easily into various constellations and groupings.

After entering their new schools, some teachers stated that the school layout did not afford different learning practices and groupings as spaces were not flexible or transformative enough. Although teachers worked in teams, they also had to work in big spaces with teachers and students with whom they did not co-operate; for example, due to the curriculum or grade. This caused learning interaction that was frequently disturbed or interrupted and distractions and noise were reported to cause stress and concentration difficulties both for students and teachers. Teachers stated that they had to teach in the big open space, and it was considered impossible to transform into different partitions, and thus it did not support the use of multiple learning methods; in fact, some teachers said the situation was the reverse. Because of the parallel noise of the other groups, they reported that instead of multiple methods, they had to use teacher-led methods, in order not to disturb others.

In some schools, spaces were able to be divided into parts with acoustic curtains, but according to the users, the curtains did not block noise. Gislason ( 2009) has stated that the problem with acoustics and distractions could be solved by careful planning and timetabling. In this study, teachers reported that there were not enough spaces, and many groups were forced to study in the same big space. If the teachers and their students had to change space too often, there was a fear that learning becomes too fragmented. Some schools had already tried to overcome all these issues by reverting to building solid or glass walls.

We were promised that we would have transformative spaces. This meant that we would have easily movable walls. But it happened the other way around. Now the space should be transformative, but it is just an example of a big giant space that is acoustically disastrous. Everyone wearing hearing protectors is a sign that the architecture is insufficient, and many children and teachers are suffering. (...) My students have to change the place so often, that they have to create their learning space many times in a day and learning becomes fragmented. (Teacher F)

I will have to admit that my pedagogy in our big spaces is very primitive. We read learning books and fill activity books. You are not able to do anything creative and functional and not develop pedagogy because all the time you will have to take into account the others in the same space and take care that even your own students can concentrate on working. Thus, this kind of open learning environment, at least in our school, when there are a lot of students at the place at the same time, does not allow you to develop new pedagogy. For me, the salt of my work has been that I can find and develop new things into my pedagogical practices. But now it is the other way around.

We have this problem that it is impossible to arrange the spaces in order to make them peaceful for studying and teaching. In my opinion, this adaptability for silent work should be the premise and that you can open the spaces when needed. But the starting point was absurd enough. At least, according to my mind, concentrated and silent work should still be very important when studying. But if you are at the same time in five different lessons and you hear all the voices, it is very stressful. Stressful both for students and teachers, and at least for me it becomes very hard. (...) When I teach, I like to use playful methods like singing, reading, playing and listening. Now we have to do that in the open spaces. And I know that it disturbs other groups. Then I had to make a decision that I cannot apologise for my work. It is just that I can't do anything that I have to teach in open spaces. (...) But I don't know if it's right that in a way I have to feel guilty about my teaching. (Teacher B)

Spaces for privacy and creativity

There was also a concern about the lack of enclosed learning spaces and spaces for confidential interactions. Some teachers reported that students do not dare to discuss confidential and sensitive issues anymore, as they are not sure who can hear behind the curtains (see Goffman, 1981). Teachers also reported that children started to seek private spaces and develop strategies to protect those spaces (see Corsaro, 2003). One teacher described a situation in which children started to build a maths hut. It is possible that children wanted to have a private and enclosed space for themselves. It is also an example of how spaces afford creativity to their users.

This kind of open layout does not support confidential and sensitive discussions with students, as they know that anyone can come into the space at any time and or there can be an overhearing audience behind the curtains. That is sad, as I have seen these discussions be meaningful to children's development, especially for teenagers. We also have some enclosed spaces that we can reserve in advance, but these confidential discussions usually start all of a sudden. (Teacher K)

One day during the math class, the children asked me if they could build a math hut. I told them they can do so. They carry those capsules. They set two capsules opposite each other. There is space for 6-8 pupils and they can sit inside. It's quite dim inside, but it's still bright enough. After building the math hut, they do their own math tasks inside. They work very well there. In my opinion, the idea of building the hut is great when pupils can study inside. The pupils know the rules of returning the capsules back to their own places; if we don't continue studying the same thing in the next lesson, or we start studying something new, the pupils know they have to return the capsules. (Teacher M)

Team teaching and increased collegiality

Implementing new practices has also meant a commitment to team teaching. Usually teachers were able to were able to exercise some kind of choice with whom they wanted to work. Many teachers reported engaging much more than before in developing pedagogical ideas and practices together with other teachers and having to justify premises for pedagogical choice through new spaces. They had learned much from each other, and resources, materials and practices were more shared than before. Teachers also reported that tricky situations, such as clashes with students, conflicts between students or disagreements with parents, were easier to go through with colleagues. Teachers' collaboration and team teaching were also displayed as models of dialogue and collaboration for students. Teaching in open spaces made teaching more visible and public and, thus, using the same learning spaces enhanced the awareness of each other's strengths and increased overt sharing and adopting best practices.

All the teachers found positive issues for team teaching, and one teacher also said that it had required skills to work in new spaces where paired or multiple teachers were co-present all the time. Team teaching also demanded the management of professional relationships, compromises and trust. It also required the teachers to relinquish at least some of their prior autonomy of being the sole teacher in a classroom and to adopt and embrace shared practices and dialogues with colleagues, valuing and accepting the contribution of each team member and their unique ways of preferred action and goals. Many teachers highlighted how a lot of time is required for teachers to become a team. Trust between teachers became an important issue. Through collaborative culture and team teaching, the schools became learning communities in which everyone educates and can learn from each other.

The premise of co and/or team teaching is that the pair or team consists of teachers who get along together well and are willing to work together. Otherwise, it does not work. As its best, the other teacher(s) in your team is your support and shelter. Team teaching can reduce your workload and stress as you are not working alone but being a part of a working team. In practice, you are never alone. The help is around there. (Teacher M)

Tacit knowledge does not shift across walls. But in a team, it becomes visible. Now you can borrow or adopt something from your colleague. You don't have to 'steal' anymore. (...) We have had many good discussions on pedagogy. (Teacher B)

Before we used to discuss 'your class' and 'my class' and compare how someone's class is difficult and restless and some other's well behaving and achieving. In addition, we previously had clear answers who owns which place and so on and who is responsible and accountable for what. Now we have got rid of this kind of thinking and talking culture. Taking and sharing more responsibility has reduced individual accountability. (Teacher K)

Sharing space with others means that you have to give up your autonomy and trust in your colleague. You will have to trust your colleague. Without it, it would not work. However, trust has to be built; it cannot be pre-given. We need lots of time to build our team and trust between team members. You also have to accept the plans and enactments that your colleague(s) have made although you do not totally or even partially agree with them. You have to accept that the other's way to do teaching is as good as your own. (Teacher D)

Importance of teacher-student relationships

Teachers also reported that new spaces afforded more encounters with students and teacher-student relationships had been tightened. The new format afforded more informal encounters with teachers and students. Many teachers pointed out that teachers should have enough time to focus on their main goal: concentrating on students and their learning needs and goals and that navigating between spaces should not take too much time for that. Many teachers stressed that the most important thing, regardless of space, is the relationship with students.

I got a card from my students on which they had written that 'with you (means teachers) we can also discuss sunshine.' (Teacher M)

A child does not develop with an iPad but with an adult who not only teaches, but takes care of the children. (Teacher B)

Taken together, the implementation phase raised specific issues around the mismatch with the appropriate spaces for teaching and learning and for confidential interactions. Unlike previous research (e.g. Saltmarsh et al., 2014), teachers were willing to change their practices. They also found team teaching to be beneficial. Interaction between teachers and sharing pedagogical issues increased. The activities in the new schools also increased and deepened teacher-student relationships.

Concluding discussion

Collegial collaboration as the greatest source of support and assurance

This study sought to portray teachers' experiences of open and flexible schools and their ways of adapting to the changes that occurred in various aspects of their work. The six schools where the 21 interviewed teachers work are part of the modernising movement of school architecture in Finland. These schools were still undergoing the transformation phase, as all of them had operated only one to three years in their remodelled or newly built design. In their process of adaptation to a new kind of learning and work community, the teachers invariably mentioned collegial collaboration as the greatest source of support and assurance. On the other hand, adaptation had been hindered by a perceived mismatch between the school's layout and teachers' preferred practices and pedagogical aims and frustration or discontent due to a dearth of participatory discussion explaining the motives and justifications for school transformation and dismissal of the teachers' ideas in the school design process.

The interviewed teachers' stories about the ramifications of settling into a new learning space showed that educational changes like this do not constitute a top-down process, but a bottom-up process, which both allows and requires teachers to develop school practices and themselves as teachers. At the organisational level of the school, a pivotal factor for successful adaptation is a shared vision, which is communicated in a way that supports experiences of ownership and commitment, which allows enough time for preparation, an open discussion culture and sharing, and which nurtures collegial support. In the design phase, collaborative preparation optimally provides opportunities and tools to negotiate wishes and values, to express unspoken assumptions, insecurities and fears, and to come up with an agreement or shared vision of a future school (see Cardellino & Woolner, 2019). In the implementation phase, critical elements consisted of sharing and doing things together, which aided teachers in planning and teaching in teams and helped in the negotiation of spaces and practices. Teachers described that they could adopt a flexible attitude themselves, as they knew that everyone had to be flexible, make compromises and trust each other. A school culture of open communication supported teachers in navigating through conflicts and tricky situations. The school principals played a key role in leading the transformation process and nurturing an open climate and, especially, allocating time and resources for team planning.

Educational change took place not only at the organisational level, but also in the new open spaces, which called for changes in teachers' individual professional development. Adapting to new spaces necessitated the development of novel practices of planning and structuring one's classroom practices and commitment to team-teaching. Team teaching required the teachers to relinquish at least some of their prior autonomy as the sole teacher of a classroom and to adopt and embrace shared practices and dialogue with colleagues, valuing and accepting the contribution of each team member and their unique ways of preferred action and goals. The interviewed teachers reported engaging much more than before in developing pedagogical ideas and practices together with other teachers and having to justify their premises for pedagogical choices through new spaces. Working in teams required time, but by and large, the teachers were satisfied with team teaching and co-planning (cf. Benade, 2017). Whether working as teams of teachers mostly reduced or increased teachers' workload could not be determined based on the interviews. Teaching in open spaces made teaching more visible and public and, thus, using the same learning spaces enhanced the awareness of each other's strengths and increased overt sharing and adapting of best practices. Taken together, much like in earlier studies of school development of the learning community, the overall teaching culture is improved when changed practices increase teachers' collaboration, create shared responsibility, reduce isolation and support continuous professional learning (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012; Vescio, Ross, & Adams, 2008).

School layouts should support pedagogical practices

However, a more challenging aspect of adaptation at both the organisational and individual levels was that concerning the new physical spaces. The new school layouts were often seen to be in conflict with the teachers' aims and their preferred pedagogical practices, or at least there was frequently a mismatch between the affordances of the space and the teachers' wishes. Teachers espoused both open and enclosed spaces, and they valued the high flexibility of transforming open spaces easily into various constellations and groupings. Teacher-led practices were seen to be needed at times, for instance, for explaining and demonstrating concepts that are hard to grasp and master without the teacher's support. Thus, for these types of situations, the interviewed teachers would have preferred teaching and studying in enclosed, quiet and undisturbed spaces in which teachers can prompt and scaffold students' learning without distractions and engage in dialogue with them. According to the teachers, open environments were less likely to encourage and lead to confidential interactions between teacher(s) and student(s) than more intimate spaces. Enclosed spaces that were not prone to overhearing or interactions being stopped by an audience (Goffman, 1981), and facilities such as places to sit, desks or tables were seen to afford educationally desirable learning. Unlike the views of Yeoman and Wilson ( 2019), an overhearing or overseeing audience can also impede classroom education.

In contrast to reports in the prominent previous literature (e.g. Kariippanon et al., 2018; Saltmarsh et al., 2014), teachers expressed the willingness to evolve their practices. However, the majority of the interviewed teachers conceptualised the new spaces as big open spaces, which for all purposes were not flexible or transformable. When the big space was seen as impossible to transform into different partitions, the practices that the teachers could deploy were described as a step backward rather than a step forward. When the large open spaces were occupied by several groups of students studying different topics or subjects at the same time, the teaching practices needed to be highly teacher-directed in order not to disturb other groups and colleagues. Learning in big open spaces meant that the learning interaction was frequently disturbed or interrupted. Distractions and noise were reported to cause stress and concentration difficulties for both students and teachers. In some schools, to overcome these issues, the solution has been to revert to building solid or glass walls.

Teachers and students should have an active voice

Teachers' adaptation to the new space seems to have been hindered by the lack of a participatory process in the design phase justifying the motivation and rationales behind school transformation and the dismissal of at least some of the teachers' wishes and ideas concerning the school design. Many teachers thought that on the ideal level, the new spaces can better serve the Finnish reformed curriculum, emphasising phenomenon-based learning, integration across different subjects and interactive learning and teaching methods, but for many teachers, the experienced and implemented practice was different from the goals stated in the curriculum guidelines. On a global level, many school renovation processes have been based on quite simplistic binary oppositions; for instance, the presumption that traditional schools provide passive, teacher-led, one-way learning, whereas modern spaces facilitate student-centred, social, digitally mediated and creative learning (see Bois, 2011). Physical space is usually seen as providing an overarching setting in which the nature of learning could be changed in a relatively mechanical and straightforward way (e.g. Kariippanon et al., 2018; Wesley & Imms, 2016).

The findings of the present study, along with prior studies on new learning environments, suggest that it is important to take into account multiple social aspects and understand their transactional effects on each other in non-deterministic ways. Granted that the key idea behind new types of learning environments is to provide better educational experiences and outcomes, the needs of learners should be carefully considered, ensuring the optimal context for effective and collaborative learning. As stated in Figure 1 (p. X), successful learning depends on multiple elements, such as the teacher's scaffolding of the students' learning processes, effective behaviour and cognitive self-regulation, skill development and collaboration. Quality of education is acknowledged to be affected by instructional methods; thus, instead of binary oppositional statements diminishing the role of the quality of instruction and of teachers (see Biesta, 2015), it is critical to understand what different kinds of spaces are conducive to learning. As learning within any disciplinary field involves "ways of seeing, doing, and thinking and interacting across tools and representations" (see Leander et al., 2010), it is highly dependent on interaction, not just the space within which it takes place. Moreover, it is important to consider the needs of different learners and the critical aspects of space that are optimal for children who have difficulties staying on task, who suffer from neuropsychiatric disorders, or need greater stability or safety of the physical structure or more social or self-regulatory support to navigate in a community of learners.

The theoretical approaches, such as sociocultural theory and distributed cognition and affordances, can be highly informative for the creation of learning spaces to align the needs of both individuals and the interactive community, as they take into account both the physical and social construction. Learning is embedded and fostered within an ecosystem consisting of the learning environment and its material artefacts, verbal and embodied social interaction, and individual minds. Thus, the above-mentioned theories could be further utilised to understand the relationship between space, the intended aims and interaction in practice. This strongly suggests that teachers - and the prospective users including pupils and their parents - should have an active voice and ownership in the school design process from the conception all through the adaptation phase. According to Barrett and Zhang ( 2009, p. 4), "only when school is seen to support learning and create a positive experience, can we say it was designed successfully". In light of this study, it is highly recommended and crucial that new schools are co-designed by teachers who will subsequently be working there and that schools mirror the contemporary definition of childhood and effective collaborative learning rather than contemporary architectural trends or binary oppositions concerning optimal learning contexts.

All in all, when teachers are invited and engaged as participants in the school design process, compatibility between the aims of learning and needs of different learners is more likely to be ensured, the versatile nature of learning to take place in open, enclosed and flexible spaces is acknowledged, and the needs for leading and nurturing the learning community are taken into account, the new schools can contribute something that adds to what existed before. Then the new learning spaces can amount to - what one teacher described as - "the best guess" for the unknown and rapidly changing future for which children are being prepared.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland [318077].

Notes on contributors

Kreeta Niemi
Kreeta Niemi works as a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Teacher Education, at University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her current interest is in school reform underway in Finland, especially learning practices constituted in newly designed learning environments.

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'The best guess for the future?' Teachers' adaptation to open and flexible learning environments in Finland

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ABSTRACT ABSTRACT Finnish education has recently experienced reforms with respect to guidelines forming the curriculum framework for basic education and school architecture. Since 2016, all new schools incorporate open and flexible design, at least to some extent. The more open school design challenges the conventional organisation of space and pre-defined structures and interaction practices.

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Spaceoasis Ltd – Create Inspirational Spaces

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CREATE is the publication from Spaceoasis® showcasing the latest news, industry trends, interviews, technologies and case studies. Whatever your sector, there's something for you in CREATE.

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CREATE is the publication from Spaceoasis® showcasing the latest news, industry trends, interviews, technologies and case studies. Whatever your sector, there's something for you in CREATE.

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 Space design is the non-verbal vision of a school, and intentional design can help to get everyone pursuing the same purpose.

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 Space design is the non-verbal vision of a school, and intentional design can help to get everyone pursuing the same purpose.

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Leaders that are playing a central role in these conversations are seeing how excellent space design from the outside of the building, all the way to the classroom, leads to amazing benefits. These benefits include: showcasing the vision of the school in a nonverbal way, uniting teachers, students, and leaders, telling the story of the change and innovation taking place in the building, caring in new ways for the whole child, shifting teaching and learning, and finally, building leadership capacity throughout the organization.

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The classroom of the future according to Microsoft — Observatory of Educational Innovation

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The creative space where students can record, produce and edit as a team; the present zone where students can present their projects, a research space where, thanks to the flexibility of the area, children change from being passive listeners to active.

A corner is designed to build; here students can develop solutions to communication problems and present it to the classroom. Finally, it has an area that promotes self-reflection and informal learning. These spaces also have configurable furniture which allows the student and teacher to adapt it to their needs and activities. You can even move elements such as light to adjust to the type of learning.

In addition to this, seeks to integrate the entire educational community with training sessions, workshops, courses for teachers, counselors, students, businesses and families. Microsoft makes all of these efforts with the objective of being a different technological and educational environment.

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The classroom of the future according to Microsoft - Observatory of Educational Innovation

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The creative space where students can record, produce and edit as a team; the present zone where students can present their projects, a research space where, thanks to the flexibility of the area, children change from being passive listeners to active.

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20 Things Educators Need to Know about Learning Spaces

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20 Things Educators Need To Know About Learning Spaces
by TeachThought Staff

The 21 st century is challenging old notions of learning spaces.

The idea that students must be seated at desks working in rows is quickly becoming archaic. Technology and collaborative work environments are changing the design of learning spaces. Experts hope that the emerging paradigm will translate into improved learning spaces and influence future architectural design.

Stephen Heppell and expert panelists recently spoke in Australia about physical spaces in The changing face of Education. Heppell, an international expert in the fields of learning, new media and technology, is known for his "eyes on the horizon, feet on the ground philosophy".

He has moved countless organizations into the digital age.One such project, Ingenium, created a learning space that adapted to the needs of different types of learners. Kinaesthetic learners who might not benefit from traditional classrooms, for example, had ample space that allowed movement.

The panelists suggest that schools built in the industrial revolution are ill-equipped. Older spaces do not consider the entire spectrum of student success. In a digital age, our classrooms are falling short of preparing students for a global economy.

The hope is that a new definition of student success might include a broader scope of learning. Heppell proposes that changes in physical space will foster real student engagement and encourage ingenuity.
Physical spaces are central to creating a new paradigm for learning.
What might these physical spaces include or what might they look like?

1. Learning spaces should be comfortable. A new, yet simple, idea is that classrooms can be comfortable spaces where students feel at home. They might crawl up and read a book. Heppell proposes that we see few people reading in chairs outside of school, so it may be best to make cozy spaces in the classroom too.

2. A changing space with mood lighting. Lights with different colors might, according to some research, create a fresh perspective. Just like in any environment, change allows for a mental break and lighting can do a great deal to alter a space depending on the activity. As an adaptation, I have seen some classroom teachers bring in lamps from home to create softer lighting during reading times.

3. Allow different seating patterns and configurations. A variety of different furniture would allow students to work in different areas, depending on the project or time of day. Heppell's daughter teaches at Stepping Stones, which adapts learning space for children with disabilities.

4. Create Playful spaces. Bring the fun back into learning! Play helps teams work together effectively and creates meaningful learning engagement. Heppell mentions how Google gives employees space to be playful and play acts as a "powerful motivator" for learning.

One of Google's office features a colorful phone booth.

5. Notions of Time - Different ways of structuring time might be beneficial, instead of traditional scenarios with rigid schedules. Teachers might look at immersion in one subject at a time. Time lost moving students around the school might be minimized by using technology.

6. Encourage community involvement. Learning is a community effort. The philosophy that "it takes a village" to teach a child, resonates in that online communities can be used to support learning.Social media can be used to foster a sense of collaboration.The physical space of the school should also allow for other adults to participate in classrooms.

7. Shoeless learning. Yes, shoeless learning spaces. Accordingto Heppell, in Scandinavia and other countries children often learn with shoes off, perhaps because it reminds them of home and creates a relaxed learning environment.

8. Bring the outdoors in. Some model classrooms have allowed an indoor/outdoor space that becomes an extension of classroom learning. Spaces might include a door that rolls back or time to learn outside.Some studies have even found that teaching outdoors might improve grades.

9. Multipurpose spaces. Spaces that lend themselves to a variety of learning styles and activities are best. For instance, there might be an area for presentations, performances, or cooperative groups.

10. Bright spaces with plenty of light and air. For Ingenium, students preferred spaces that were colorful and special vents controlled air flow. For instance, if it started to rain, ceiling vents would close automatically.Teachers might inexpensively replicate this by bringing in a fan or being aware of the temperature of the room.

11. Technology accessibility. Classrooms that have a variety of media allow for different learning activities and might include a projector, a white board, digital cameras, laptops, satellite TV, video production, and even iPad accessibility.

12. Toilet accessibility. Believe it or not, according to Heppell some research suggests children try to avoid using the toilet during the school day. Having a bathroom attached to the classroom might be a way to increase concentration and help health as well.

13. Designing for a space where students bring portable technology. Some experts argue that the PC will soon become obsolete to cell phones and laptops. In " Learning Environments of the Future", Heppell parallels the example of calculators and ballpoint pens that were once banned in schools and are now encouraged as learning tools. Heppell believes that smartphones may the most powerful learning tool of all, as they allow for collaboration and are inexpensive.

14. Spaces that foster creativity, rather than productivity. Traditional spaces designed in the industrial revolution were designed to maximize efficiency. For the 21 st century, employers tend to look for teams that work organically in collaborative groups to solve problems. It would make sense to structure classrooms to reflect the needs of our global economy.

15. Tiered seating areas. Tiered areas allow for groups to convene to discuss ideas and communicate procedures. These areas are especially helpful in classrooms that employ groups regularly. They allow for a space for group instruction or presentations. The speaker can maintain eye contact and a steady volume, rather than projecting their voice. Tiered seating creates an intimate, small group discussion format. Similarly, "cozy" carpet would work well for younger children.

16. Storage areas such as cubbies and shelves. Organization is a key component of successful learning environments.A de-cluttered learning environment is free from distractions and allows the focus to be on learning. Students can move quickly through the space and easily access resources needed for various learning purposes.

17. Design for different learning needs. Rather than rows of computers facing a wall, schools can use cheap piping to conceal wires and face computers in different configurations. Layouts should adapt to the learning, rather than limiting the learner. Classrooms should be designed to allow accommodation for varied learning styles and learning disabilities. I remember taking a student with Autism to recess and being afraid of him hurting himself outside. Special foam recess areas using recycled tires, for example, might allow his time outside to be free while adapting to his safety needs.

18. Signage and displays. Small details, such as wall displays are important. For example, signage in the classroom should try to stay away from the negative. Lists of rules with DO NOT drink, eat or talk, can send a bad message. Instead, signs might include positive reinforcement. In addition, student displays can include a description of the thought process behind the work.

19. Virtual spaces. Online mediums such as skype and virtual portfolios, can be included as part of learing. Heppell argues that the future of education will turn to virtual formats.

20. Cloud Technologies. A recent article in Business Today discusses that LG has partnered with Microsoft & KIE (Kenya Institute of Education) to launch a model classroom that incorporates new cloud technology. The aim is to lower the cost of IT in schools. Cloud allows multiple users to share one main computer using Windows MultiPoint Server 2011.

Generation Y wants their learning to be playful and exciting. Classrooms should be spaces that students don't want to leave. Some communities are still hesitant about these futuristic looking learning spaces and have resorted to older, traditional physical spaces.

Hopefully, they will begin to embrace changes to better prepare students and move them in the 21 st century global economy.
This is a cross-post from content partners at opencolleges.edu.au; image attribution flickr user alexosterwalder

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20 Things Educators Need to Know about Learning Spaces

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20 Things Educators Need To Know About Learning Spaces by TeachThought Staff The 21 st century is challenging old notions of learning spaces. The idea that students must be seated at desks working in rows is quickly becoming archaic. Technology and collaborative work environments are changing the design of learning spaces.

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El centro educativo en (re)construcción: una guía sobre los entornos de aprendizaje

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El centro educativo en (re)construcción: una guía sobre los entornos de aprendizaje

Las aulas tradicionales con su pizarra, el profesor frente a ella y lo pupitres organizados en filas se remontan a los monasterios medievales. Pero como la sociedad crece cada vez más con un alto grado de tecnología y el foco cambia a las competencias clave y a una pedagogía en la que los estudiantes son el centro, el espacio de aprendizaje también necesita ponerse al día. En esta guía aprenderás que cuanto más verde es mejor, que las aulas no siempre tienen que tener paredes y mucho más.

Aprende sobre los entornos de aprendizaje

Los entornos de aprendizaje están cambiando simplemente porque los espacios diseñados hace décadas ya no reflejan las necesidades de los estudiantes. La publicación de la UNESCO Los futuros del aprendizaje 3 (2015) explica cómo los enfoques pedagógicos modernos como el aprendizaje invertido, el aprendizaje colaborativo, el aprendizaje basado en proyectos o la resolución de problemas basada en escenarios ha requerido cambios en la disposición del aula para permitir el movimiento y la flexibilidad.
Imagen: El Aula del Futuro, European Schoolnet
El proyecto KeyCoNet (2014) también recomendaba enseñar competencias clave mediante entornos de aprendizaje interactivo en los que los alumnos realizaran tareas prácticas. Mientras que los entornos de aprendizaje interactivos animan a los estudiantes a ser activos y autónomos, también requieren la colaboración entre ellos, por lo que podrían desarrollar competencias sociales y comunicativas.

Mientras, un estudio de la Universidad de Salford, Reino Unido (2015) descubrió que hasta el 16 % del progreso de aprendizaje de los alumnos de primaria en un solo año podría atribuirse a las aulas bien diseñadas. La luz natural, la temperatura, la calidad del aire, el color y el diseño individual de las aulas estuvieron entre los mayores factores físicos que tenían un impacto en el progreso de aprendizaje de los estudiantes.
Imagen: Grupo de centros educativos Simone Veil en Colombes, Dominique Coulon & associés (Foto: Eugeni Pons)
El Compendio de instalaciones educativas ejemplares de la OCDE destaca casos excelentes de diseños de instalaciones educativas de todo el mundo para inspirar e informar a las personas que toman las decisiones, a los educadores y a los arquitectos. Uno de los seis mejores centros educativos en el Compendio de 2011 fue Bertha von Suttner Schule en Schwechat, un centro educativo destinado a niños con una variedad de discapacidades físicas y desórdenes psicológicos y de conducta.

Provocar aprendizaje con un nuevo enfoque

Actividad: ¿Por qué el movimiento debería ser la prerrogativa de la educación física? ¡Inspírate con el cubo iMO-LEARN o la escalera de Ørestad Gymnasium y haz que el movimiento sea parte de la vida diaria de los estudiantes!

Más libros, diferentes libros: Las bibliotecas escolares no están obsoletas, pero con los actuales avances tecnológicos, deberían ser tanto digitales como analógicas. Además, el personal bibliotecario debería aceptar material de lectura popular como series de fantasía, cómics o revistas. Los niños pasan menos tiempo leyendo por diversión del que solían pasar, sobre todo los chicos, lo que supone un duro golpe a su comprensión lectora, según el informe PISA de 2012. Los textos fáciles e interesantes podrían servir como escalera hacia obras más complejas.
Imagen: Biblioteca de la escuela elemental Lishin, TALI DESIGN
Tecnología para todo el centro educativo: Los dispositivos electrónicos no deberían ser la única prerrogativa del laboratorio de informática. Si el precio es un problema, los centros educativos podrían considerar comprar ordenadores que empresas o grandes instituciones hayan retirado o coger prestadas tableta de una biblioteca pública. Una escasez de tomas de corriente también puede rectificarse con una regleta con protector de sobretensión. ¡La creatividad nace de la limitación!

Historias exitosas: La publicación sobre Explorar y adaptar los espacio de aprendizaje en los centros educativos incluye ejemplos concretos de transformaciones de centros educativos y aulas en ocho casos prácticos de centros educativos europeos. Uno de los consejos de los responsables escolares: "Crea un grupo de trabajo en el centro educativo, desarrolla una idea clara de lo que eres capaz de hacer, toma un enfoque de proyecto hacia el desarrollo del espacio, comparte tus ideas con los padres y madres y con el ayuntamiento para garantizar su apoyo e implicación".

Conoce el pulso del centro educativo

No hay una forma o un modelo para modernizar los entornos de aprendizaje de los centros educativos. Aquí hay algunas sugerencias:

Sé creativo con el mobiliario: Incluso el acto más simple de reorganizar el mobiliario existente rompe el paradigma tradicional de las filas y puede transformar la interacción en el aula. Piensa en una forma de V con filas de pupitres en ángulos rectos, facilitando la comunicación entre estudiantes; una forma de herradura, permitiendo al profesor hablar a los estudiantes en primer plano; una distribución de club, una mesa de conferencia, un círculo y más. Si es posible, trata de conseguir pupitres que puedan moverse de forma sencilla, ¡y a experimentar!

Autoevalúa tus espacios de aprendizaje: Muchos proyectos han creado herramientas de control o listas de verificación que puedan proveer un punto de partida útil. Uno de ellos es la Encuesta de usuarios del centro educativo: mejorar conjuntamente los espacios de aprendizaje de la OCDE, que consiste en tres cuestionarios de autoevaluación diseñados para estudiantes, profesores y responsables escolares. Los resultados de la encuesta pueden utilizarse a nivel escolar para apoyar la mejora continua y el uso inteligente o el reacondicionamiento de las instalaciones educativas.
Imagen: Fênix, Arquitetura Nacional (Foto: Marcelo Donadussi)
Deja que colaboren en tus renovaciones: Los estudiantes pueden ser valiosos participantes en el rediseño de sus espacios de aprendizaje; después de todo, son los que pasan más tiempo en ellos. Por ejemplo, el director escolar podría organizar un paseo de investigación, durante el que ellos o un arquitecto podría visitar cada espacio, hablar con sus usuarios y catalogar sus necesidades. Para los estudiantes, incluso contribuciones más pequeñas como pintar las paredes del centro educativo o elegir un patrón de baldosa alegre -como los cuadrados del tablero de ajedrez o el tres en línea- podría marcar una gran diferencia. Además, un sentimiento de pertenencia puede hacerlos más conscientes de la propiedad escolar.

Lectura adicional:

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El centro educativo en (re)construcción: una guía sobre los entornos de aprendizaje

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El centro educativo en (re)construcción: una guía sobre los entornos de aprendizaje Las aulas tradicionales con su pizarra, el profesor frente a ella y lo pupitres organizados en filas se remontan a los monasterios medievales.

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A collection of 12  videos by Mr Robert Dillon 

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A collection of 12  videos by Mr Robert Dillon 

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Learning Space Videos

1. Spaces for Quiet

2Showcasing the Learning Process

3.Redesigning Learning Spaces on a Budget

4. Promoting a Creative Spirit

5. Making Choices

6. Light, Color, Sound

7.Space for Collaboration

8.Developing a Designer's Mindset

9.Flexible and Agile Spaces

10.Design with, not for

11.Beyond Decorating

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Designing Places for Learning | Danish Kurani | TEDxGeorgiaTech

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Microsoft ha inaugurado #MicrosoftEDULab en su sede central en España como prototipo de aula educativa del futuro y r econocido como una de las Future Classroom Lab de Europa por el consorcio de Ministerios de Educación europeos.

Este espacio nace como un laboratorio de experiencias educativas de lo que serán las aulas capaces de integrar los elementos clave de los entornos de enseñanza-aprendizaje acordes a los requerimientos actuales y de futuro:

la pedagogía, la tecnología, los espacios físicos y el entorno colaborativo.

#MicrosoftEDULab ha sido diseñado y ejecutado por el equipo de 3g office (3g Smart Group), consultora de arquitectura especializada en creación de espacios corporativos y educativos en un entorno digital, quién realizó la definición conceptual del espacio, diseño y proyecto ejecutivo, respondiendo a las necesidades actuales del sector educativo y de Microsoft.

Este espacio se ha materializado en la creación de distintas aulas-laboratorio que muestran cómo potenciar la innovación en el aprendizaje y reflexionan sobre el papel que juega la tecnología en la transformación pedagógica.

Se convierte en un entorno de experimentación educativa, con sesiones formativas para docentes y talleres para alumnos fomentando la transformación digital de la educación, integrando a todos los actores de la comunidad educativa.

Un espacio que fomenta la interacción, la experimentación, el intercambio de ideas y la investigación y, en el que el alumno es el centro del proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje.

Zonas de aprendizaje donde el alumno es el protagonista

El concepto de organización del espacio atendiendo al desarrollo de habilidades en los alumnos más allá de la adquisición de contenido es una de las ventajas del modelo que presenta este nuevo espacio.

La organización tradicional del aula en forma de teatro, en la que el profesor ocupa el plano principal, cambia para hacer del alumno el centro de todo el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje y fomentar la interacción, la experimentación, el intercambio de ideas o la investigación, entre docentes y alumnos.

Para poder implementar pedagogías interactivas, se crean distintas zonas de actividad, que tienen como finalidad favorecer y estimular los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje:

1. Interactuar: Zona con las herramientas necesarias para que el profesor emplee la tecnología con el fin de mejorar la interactividad y la participación entre los alumnos.

2. Crear: Espacio con el equipo necesario para realizar una grabación que después podrán editar y producir en equipo para poder experimentar el proceso creativo completo.

3. Presentar: Espacio acondicionado para exponer y presentar los resultados del alumno o el profesor, fomentando la interactividad mediante el diseño y distribución de dichos resultados.

4. Investigar: El mobiliario flexible permite que los alumnos no sean solo oyentes pasivos, sino que participen activamente.

5. Construir (Makers): Rincón destinado a fabricar, elaborar y crear, empleando soluciones de comunicación colaborativas. El alumno podrá, por ejemplo, generar una idea y comunicarse con el aula para perfeccionarlo y pulirlo.

6. Desarrollar:Espacio que fomenta la concentración para el aprendizaje "informal" y la autorreflexión.

En cuanto al DISEÑO DEL AULA, todo el mobiliario Steelcase es configurable, de forma que el espacio siempre va a estar al servicio de los alumnos y de la actividad que se quiera llevar a cabo.

Y se han tenido en cuenta aspectos como la inclusión, mediante elementos físicos que facilitan que el aula sea utilizada por todos por igual o la biofilia, que proporciona un sentido de convivencia con la naturaleza, o los ritmos circadianos, incluyendo un sistema de iluminación que tiene en cuenta los ritmos y variables biológicas del ser humano y por el que se podrá ajustar la luz, dependiendo del momento del día, temperatura y tipo de aprendizaje y actitud que se quiera potenciar entre los alumnos.

#MicrosoftEDULab ha obtenido el certificado del consorcio de Ministerios de Educación Europeos, (EUN) European Schoolnet, como Future Classroom lab.

Dicho consorcio, inició en enero de 2012 el proyecto del Aula del Futuro, (Future Classroom Lab), junto con un importante grupo de empresas tecnológicas, entre ellas, Microsoft.

El objetivo del proyecto es reflexionar sobre la forma en la que las tecnologías pueden apoyar el proceso de reforma educativa, tanto a nivel de cada país, como europeo.

Tanto los colegios como los profesores que quieran inscribirse en el MicrosoftEduLab, podrán hacerlo a través del correo: microsoftedulab@microsoft.com

Sobre 3g office

3g Smart Group es un grupo multinacional de empresas de servicios de consultoría, ingeniería y arquitectura corporativa.

Asesora a sus clientes a conseguir ventaja competitiva a través del diseño y la gestión de sus espacios corporativos (Consultoría de Workplace, Workplace Innovation, Smart Working, Gestión de Proyectos, Gestión y Optimización de Espacios, Mejora de la Productividad, Facility Managment, Retail Services, Change Management, Health Check, Coworking, 3g Index, ework, Top Architects, Corporate Real Estate Services).

Inicia su actividad en el año 2000 en España y Portugal, consolidándose como empresa de referencia en el mercado Ibérico y latinoamericano. Durante este tiempo se han desarrollado más de 2.000 proyectos en más de 25 países.

PUBLICACIONES CASOS DE ÉXITO 3G OFFICE EN 10Deco
Gracias por informarte con 10Deco. Nos importan tus comentarios y sugerencias que puedes dejar aquí , a través de nuestras redes sociales @10Decoracion o en el correo info@10deco.com

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MICROSOFT inaugura en Madrid #MicrosoftEduLab, el aula del futuro.

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MICROSOFT INAGURA EN MADRID #MicrosoftEDULab Microsoft ha inaugurado #MicrosoftEDULab en su sede central en España como prototipo de aula educativa del futuro y reconocido como una de las Future Classroom Lab de Europa por el consorcio de Ministerios de Educación europeos.

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#MicrosoftEduLab muestra el futuro de las aulas según la visión de Microsoft para la innovación educativa - Centro de noticias

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El espacio, que abre sus puertas en las oficinas de Microsoft en Madrid, ha sido reconocido como una de las Future Classroom Lab de Europa por el consorcio de Ministerios de Educación europeos Nace como un laboratorio de experiencias educativas, que integra los elementos clave de los entornos de enseñanza-aprendizaje acordes a los requerimientos del [...elipsis]

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 Different zones in #LearningSpaces and how they might manifest themselves

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 Different zones in #LearningSpaces and how they might manifest themselves

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To maximize learning potential, classrooms should be open, comfortable, well lit, and visually stimulating. Strategic use of existing space can make a big difference, too.

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To maximize learning potential, classrooms should be open, comfortable, well lit, and visually stimulating. Strategic use of existing space can make a big difference, too.

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Learning spaces matter
For the first time, research has confirmed the positive impact factors such as good lighting, careful colour choices and a sense of ownership over the classroom space can have on children’s achievement.

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If you design learning with physical space and interaction in mind, it absolutely can.

Desks are a staple of the 'modern' classroom as we know it. Usually, these learning spaces are simple, and simply arranged: places for students to sit and read and write, lined up neatly in rows. While progress has been in the design of schools and classrooms, it's usually only in pockets of well-funded 'future schools' with very little application for the rest of us.

So what can we do? That's the point of this post. If you think of the following ideas as exactly that-ideas-then you'll realize that none of these are either good nor bad. They're ideas. If they are used well to solve a problem or promote a characteristic, they are being used well; if they don't, they're not. Many of these aren't immediately reproducible in your own classroom. They may not work for your grade level or furniture or budget or content area. But you can take it as an idea, learn from it, and use it (or not) accordingly.

So, the bit about 'classroom setups impacting thinking.' Learning is an ecology. Classroom design impacts classroom management impacts curriculum needs impacts lesson and unit design impacts teacher personality impacts technology needs impacts literacy strategies and teaching strategies, and so on. Each one of these possibilities will only work as well as you are able to adapt the way you plan instruction and design learning experiences. Yes, you can design a classroom using a Fishbowl approach-and not just to host a Fishbowl discussion, but for longer periods of time.

You can also set up a 'Google Room' or 'Maker Space' and not promote thinking at all, or have students performing stunning cognitive acrobatics sitting by themselves on a cold floor. The idea here is that new ways to set up your classroom can help you think differently about how and why you use certain arrangements, and then design more intentionally moving forward (even if you just stick to plain ol' rows).

In fact, if you think of rows and rows of desks as having pros and cons, causes and effects, you'll see that these rows lend themselves well to certain things (organization, paper passing, etc.), while not so well to others (collaboration, movement). You've already (perhaps unwittingly) adapted your instruction to whatever design you normally use. You plan with it in mind. If you take a new approach, you'll need to design with that in mind as well. And that's where the actions and behaviors that promote thinking-interaction, movement, study, making, collaboration, thinking alone, and so on-become a factor.

Note, we've placed an asterisk* beside those approaches that are more strongly suited to 'thought' than others. With that preface, on to some of the possibilities (there are many more!).

20 Ways To Setup A Classroom To Help Your Students Think

How this is structured depends on your space, content area, grade level, etc. But any content area can use 'making' as a primary teaching and learning strategy, and to do so, you'll need to create the spaces for that to happen. A mix of the 'Learning Labs' approach and the 'Google Room' may work well.

2. Geometric Mix

This approach takes a mix of forms-rows, groups, semi-circled tables. While the furniture in the pic above may be beyond your reach, you can produce a similar effect with a combination of tables and desks.

3. Differentiation Stations*

This is physical grouping, but based on areas of differentiation-background knowledge, reading level, an individual skill, etc. If instruction is tailored for a student in this way-with their Zone of Proximal development-there is more opportunity for thinking, teaching, and learning that 'fits.'

Also a teaching strategy, Fishbowls sees a group of students in the middle, and a group on the outside in a circle facing the group in the middle. You can also arrange your classroom this way permanently-or at least for an extended period of time. The 'fish' in the middle have one function (e.g., reading roles from a play, solving a problem, analyzing art, etc.) while the group on the outside participates in a #backchannel twitter chat with a love running log on a screen. Here, everyone can have a voice-and an opportunity for thought.

5. One Group + 4 Rows

This one is what it sounds like it'd be-one group complemented by 4 rows. This setup could be useful if the majority of the class is often working on one activity-or part of an activity, while the bulk of the class works on something else. It obviously can be used collaboratively as well.

6. 2 Groups + 2 Rows

Same as above, but more of the class is in a group this time, so the class is split more evenly.

7. Function Pods*

This one is similar to Differentiation Stations, only the idea here is less about differentiation and more about a task. Think literature circles, for example, where everyone has a role. The difference here is that the whole classroom is set up that way.

8. A 'Google Room'*

Think colors. Lots of colors. Shapes and textures, too. Diverse lighting sources. A lot of natural light, if possible. Areas to work alone, in pairs, or in groups. Sitting. Standing. Openness. Collaboration. May not be possible to realize completely, but you could use it as inspiration.

9. Two Sides*

You can also split the classroom into 'two sides.' This may be comprised of rows, but the room is set up in halves oftentimes facing one another. This can be especially effective for Social Studies classes, or other content areas that use Accountable Talk as a teaching strategy.

You can also have the two sides comprised of angled rows. This isn't a huge change from traditional rows, but it does offer a few advantages if you've got the room, namely that students are in the line of sight of one another more naturally.

10. Giant Oval

Usually, this is used for team-building activities, but it's possible to run a classroom this way for a full unit if you plan for it effectively. Maybe a steady diet of agree/disagree, debate, Socratic Seminars, and Accountable Talk, for example.

11. Teacher In The Middle

Picture a 'regular classroom,' but with the teacher (and their desk, if they have one) in the middle. Changes the dynamic of the classroom quite a bit. Whether that's an effective teaching tool or not depends on how you use it (the same goes with all of these, I suppose).

They're out there. Write a grant proposal, put your desk in the middle, and make it work.

13. Horseshoe

An oval with one end missing. Kind of. Not sure this would be very effective long-term, but for a reading activity or a write-around (which are terribly underrated as teaching strategies), it'd work swimmingly.

14. Two Circles

Circles allow students to face one another and encourage conversation. It's not ideal for small group work, but fordirectn instruction and literacy activities, it has potential. One giant circle may not work well for a daily setup, but two circles might. With two circles, the size is obviously reduced compared to one, giving you a bit more flexibility for classroom management.

This is less about the shape of the desks, and more about the workflow and lesson design. The idea here is to plan lessons and units that require students to work together with different groups for different reasons, and to keep them moving, whether within one class, one week, or the unit overall.

16. Middle Circle, Outer Square

Putting a square on the outside and circle on the inside-or even vice-versa-is really just a 'geometric variation' of the fishbowl, but the size of the circle can be adapted for daily use by a large cluster of students.

17. Learning Labs*

If you can recall back to the high school science lab-high desks, 'things' to tinker with, students standing and moving around small areas of collaborative learning space-that's the idea of learning labs. This can be used in any content area and any grade level, and doesn't even necessarily require hands-on manipulatives. Students standing around a high desk solving physics or geometry problems while 'mixing' isn't a management nightmare if you've planned a lesson with this approach in mind.

18. A Learning Studio*

This is one example non-traditional classroom setups-imagine a Starbucks mixed with a library mixed with a classroom mixed with a maker space mixed with a design studio. Probably wouldn't work if you have 35 students, but if you have less than 20, this kind of approach could change the culture of learning in your classroom.

19. Open Square

Similar to #10, this one came on twitter from , "I do an open square with the open side facing the board & I put a table in the middle for my materials."

20. Fluid

Change your classroom setups weekly. Let the learning goals dictate how you use your space-and how students use their individual spaces. A fixed learning space reflects a fixed mindset. It's not 'a lot of work,' it's adapting.
20 Ways To Setup A Classroom; 20 Classroom Setups That Promote Thinking; adapted image attribution Google, flickr user makerfestivaltoronto, bsfinhull

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20 Classroom Setups That Promote Thinking

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How can you design classroom setups that promote thinking and creativity? From learning studios to maker spaces, here are some ideas.

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Siro López. En busca de la Esencia - RTVE.es

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Siro López. En busca de la Esencia. La aventura del Saber online, completo y gratis en RTVE.es A la Carta. Todos los programas de La aventura del Saber online en RTVE.es A la Carta

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http://fcl.eun.org/

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El año pasado, European Schoolnet publicó la nueva versión del KIT de herramientas del Aula del Futuro (FCL), renovada y revisada para que sea más accesible a los centros y docentes que la utilicen. La estructura no se ha modificado y el KIT está compuesto de 5 módulos que nos ayudan a identificar las tendencias y a las partes interesadas, a diseñar el Aula del Futuro, a crear escenarios y actividades pedagógicas, además de ayudarnos a evaluar nuestro trabajo y producciones, una parte fundamental para la mejora continua.

Por nuestra parte, hemos traducido el KIT para que cualquier docente y centro educativo español pueda utilizar esta herramienta. Podéis encontrar el nuevo KIT en la sección RECURSOS del menú superior de esta página.

Esperamos que os sirva y os ayude a seguir avanzando hacia vuestra Aula del Futuro. Os dejamos como inspiración la visita viertual 360º que ha preparado nuestro embajador del Aula del Futuro en La Rioja, Guillermo Medrano.

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Nueva versión del KIT de herramientas en castellano.

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El año pasado, European Schoolnet publicó la nueva versión del KIT de herramientas del Aula del Futuro (FCL), renovada y revisada para que sea más accesible a los centros y docentes que la utilicen.

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TEDx - Danish Kurani - Designing Places for Learning

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School architecture. It's not sexy or in the front pages. But it could be the key to breakthrough advancements in education. Architect Danish Kurani explains why people learn best in the presence of good architecture, and unveils a fresh approach to building better schools.

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(This is adapted from a poster I presented at the 2018 Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) Conference, Université de Sherbrooke, June 20-22, 2018.)

Designing a Large, Active Classroom

As class size increases, instructors face an increasingly difficult challenge. There is clear evidence that more students are more successful in classes with active learning.[1] Yet the work required to facilitate active learning - logistics, providing feedback, supporting and interacting with individual students - increases with class size. And despite the importance of the design of learning spaces,[2] large classrooms often impede student-student and student-instructor interactions.

At UBC's Okanagan campus, I was invited to advise the architects and campus planners on the design a new 400-seat classroom.

Design Principle:
Eliminate everything that hinders
student-student collaboration and
student-instructor interaction.

My poster uses a giant 6-page "book" (you can see it drooping slightly in the center of the poster in the picture above) to highlight different features and characteristics of the design:

Student flow: Main entrances to the classroom are at the middle of the room. Students flow in and downhill toward the front. Sitting at the back takes deliberate effort. Students can discretely enter and exit without disrupting the class or the instructor.

Accessible seating: Fully 20% of seating - roughly 90 locations - are accessible to students using wheelchairs. They can sit in groups with their peers at prime locations, instead of being isolated or confined to designated seats.

Network of aisles: A network of aisles throughout the classroom allows instructors and teaching assistants to get face-to-face or within arm's reach of every student. Wireless presentation system allows instructors to teach from any location and project any student's device.

Group work with whiteboards: Students on narrower front desks swivel around to work with their peers on wider desks. With 150 whiteboards scattered throughout the room, groups can be collaborating within seconds of their instructor saying, "Grab a whiteboard and..."

Lighting: Separate front, middle, back lights create smaller classrooms for 250 and 100 students.

Prep room: Prep room is accessible from outside the classroom so instructors can prepare before and after class. Includes sink, glassware drying rack, storage cabinets, lockable flammable solvent cabinet, fume hood, chemical resistant countertops, first aid kit, demo cart.

Design Features Promote Collaboration and Interaction

The classroom is gently tiered so students farther back can see the front. There are 2 desks on each tier. The front desk is wide enough to hold a notebook and laptop. The rear desk is nearly twice as wide, allowing the front student to swivel around and work with their peers in the rear desk.

Swivel chairs on wheels allow students to easily move and work with others around them.

The front desk on each tier has a modesty screen. There are deliberately NOT modesty screens on the rear desks, allowing students on the front desk to swivel around to the rear desk without smashing their knees or having to sit awkwardly.

There are power outlets for every student under the desktop, leaving the work surface unbroken and smooth for notebooks, laptops, and whiteboards.

When the instructor or teaching assistant stands in the aisle in front of the front desk, they can speak face-to-face with the 1st row of students, and are within arm's reach of the 2nd row. From the aisle on the back of this set of four rows of desks, the instructor or teaching assistant is face-to-face with students in the 4th row and within arm's reach of the 3rd row.

Optimizing Visibility of the Screen

A slightly curved screen at the front of the classroom is large enough to display two standard inputs. A third projector can display a single image across the screen. The screen is about 7 or 8 feet above the floor, so the instructor at the front does not cast a shadow on the screen or look directly into the projectors (housed in a 2nd floor projection room at the back of the classroom.) The size and curvature of the screen ensure all but the very front-left and front-right seats have views of the screen within UBC's guidelines.

Does the Design Enhance Learning?

We are studying the impact of the design by comparing data collected before and after course instructors teach their courses in the 400-seat classroom, including

distributions of final grades and grades on in-class activities like peer instruction ("clicker") questions and group work sheet

drop, fail, withdrawal (DFW) rates

locations of the course instructor and teaching assistants at 2-minute intervals throughout the class period

what the instructor is doing (lecturing, writing, posing questions,...) and what the students are doing (listening, discussing peer instruction questions, asking questions,...) using the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS)3,4

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Dora Anderson, Heather Berringer, Deborah Buszard, Rob Einarson, W. Stephen McNeil, Carol Phillips, Jodi Scott, and Todd Zimmerman for the opportunity to help design to this learning space.

Blueprint and visualizations by Moriyama & Teshima Architects. Used with permission.

References

1

Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(23), 8410-8415. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319030111

2

Beichner, R., Saul, J., Abbott, D., Morse, J., Deardorff, D., Allain, R., ... & Risley, J. (2007). The Student-Centered Activities for Large Enrollment Undergraduate Programs (SCALE-UP) project, a peer reviewed chapter of Research-Based Reform of University Physics. College Park, MD: Am Assoc of Physics Teachers.

3

Stains, M., Harshman, J., Barker, M. K., Chasteen, S. V., Cole, R., DeChenne-Peters, S. E., ... & Levis-Fitzgerald, M. (2018). Anatomy of STEM teaching in North American universities. Science, 359(6383), 1468-1470. doi.org/10.1126/science.aap8892

4

Smith, M. K., Jones, F. H., Gilbert, S. L., & Wieman, C. E. (2013). The Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS): a new instrument to characterize university STEM classroom practices. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 12(4), 618-627. doi.org/10.1187/cbe.13-08-0154

active learning learning spaces research whiteboard

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Anatomy of a 400-seat Active Learning Classroom

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(This is adapted from a poster I presented at the 2018 Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) Conference, Université de Sherbrooke, June 20-22, 2018.) As class size increases, instructors face an increasingly difficult challenge.

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Designing Brain Friendly Spaces by Robert Dillon

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Designing Brain Friendly Spaces by Robert Dillon

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A community raised $6 million to construct an innovative 30,000-square-foot facility complete with makerspaces and learning labs.

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EDhub: Building a 21st Century Space to Transform Learning

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El trabajo colaborativo es clave para un aprendizaje activo. Por eso, las aulas deben ofrecer espacios polivalentes y flexibles, así como mobiliario acorde a la edad y la metodología que se emplee en ella.

Cada asignatura y método de aprendizaje necesita una combinación distinta de mobiliario y espacio. Del mismo modo que se aprende de formas diferentes, se debe disponer de diferentes espacios donde el aprendizaje pueda desarrollarse de forma eficaz.

Trabajo individual o colectivo

Las mesas Eclipse Apilable y Eclipse Abatible forman parte de la nueva línea Colaboratte de Singladura, diseñada para facilitar la creación de espacios de aprendizaje para las nuevas metodologías. Entre sus características, destaca un tablero de material compacto fenólico que le confiere un aspecto ligero, a la vez que garantiza su resistencia.

Estas mesas, además, permiten trabajar de manera individual así como formar grupos de hasta cuatro alumnos de forma natural: crea una mesa redonda al hacerlo, fomentando el trabajo en equipo y garantizando que todos los miembros del grupo tengan el mismo estatus. Además, su versatilidad permite hacerlo de una forma sencilla, rápida y silenciosa.

Están disponibles en dos colores (blanco y azul) que combinan con su estructura en gris acero, así como con las sillas Slim y Soft diseñadas para completar el conjunto.

Almacenaje

En su versión Apilable, la estructura de cuatro patas permite su apilabilidad en altura, lo que hace posible rediseñar el espacio de aula de una manera cómoda y sencilla. También ofrece la opción de incorporar una bandeja extraíble que se puede intercambiar en cualquier mesa y almacenar posteriormente en un armario.

La versión Abatible facilita su almacenaje en batería. Por eso, se trata de un modelo especialmente diseñado para espacios multifuncionales, pudiendo plegar la mesa de una manera sencilla y segura. Así, los propios estudiantes pueden encargarse de esta tarea.

Transformación en la escuela

De todo este mobiliario ya han podido disfrutar en la escuela infantil Giorgeta, en Valencia, después de elegir Singladura para su remodelación integral. El centro educativo valenciano, que cubre los dos primeros ciclos de Infantil, apuesta por las metodologías activas y también por que los niños puedan construir su propio aprendizaje. Además, su proyecto tiene como base principal el juego para potenciar el desarrollo motor, afectivo y social, al tiempo que favorece la creatividad y la imaginación.

Singladura se ha encargado de acometer la transformación, junto con Espacios Maestros, teniendo en cuenta las metodologías implantadas en el centro. "Somos conscientes de la importancia que tiene el mobiliario en el aula y de cómo debe ser en función del proyecto pedagógico", afirma Curro Ortega, director gerente de la compañía. En este sentido, la dirección de la escuela infantil valoró especialmente el profundo conocimiento que tiene Singladura del sector, así como el trato personalizado.

Partiendo de un trabajo cooperativo, en Giorgeta se tuvo en cuenta (tanto para la reforma como ampliación del centro) la importancia del mobiliario en el aula buscando que éste fuese lo más versátil posible para plantear cualquier dinámica con los niños. De igual modo, cubre todas las necesidades al poder cambiar de disposición o de espacio en función del trabajo.

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Mobiliario educativo para el trabajo colaborativo del alumnado

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El trabajo colaborativo es clave para un aprendizaje activo. Por eso, las aulas deben ofrecer espacios polivalentes y flexibles, así como mobiliario acorde a la edad y la metodología que se emplee en ella. Cada asignatura y método de aprendizaje necesita una combinación distinta de mobiliario y espacio.

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Para entender el proceso de modificación de los espacios que hemos emprendido, tenemos que remitirnos al curso 2014/2015, fecha en la que el centro entró en el proyecto Samsung Smart School. Esta iniciativa, creada por el Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, la Comunidad de Madrid y Samsung España, apuesta por el uso de las TIC para impulsar el cambio educativo en centros públicos de Educación Primaria.

Gracias a él, nos hemos formado en el manejo de las tabletas y, sobre todo, en el uso de nuevas metodologías mucho más activas en las que el profesor deja de ser el centro de la clase y pasa a ser un guía del aprendizaje. Así, pusimos en práctica el trabajo con ABP ( aprendizaje basado en proyectos), realizamos proyectos colaborativos con otros colegios y, finalmente, llevamos a cabo una importante transformación no sólo en las aulas sino también en distintas zonas del centro.

¿Qué necesitábamos?

Esta transformación responde a necesidades como la de modificar la distribución de las aulas en función de las actividades a realizar en cada momento para atender a la diversidad del alumnado y potenciar las distintas actividades realizadas de manera específica.

Por todo ello, optamos por sentar a los alumnos en grupos de cuatro ya que es la estructura más adecuada para trabajar por proyectos o de manera colaborativa, al facilitar que los alumnos se comuniquen, intercambien ideas o compartan materiales.

Además, diseñamos las aulas como espacios modificables, creando lugares para realizar exposiciones de trabajos y así fomentar que los estudiantes compartan experiencias, difundiendo sus ideas de distintas maneras.

Para llevar a cabo este proceso, el aula debía estar preparada para uso de las TIC, permitiendo que el alumnado crease material digital (vídeos, presentaciones...), buscase información y desarrollase todo su potencial y creatividad. Gracias a la infraestructura proporcionada por Samsung, ya se había avanzado considerablemente en este campo. En definitiva, se intentó crear un ambiente de trabajo que fuera cómodo y agradable para todos.

Espacios más dinámicos y funcionales

Además de crear zonas TIC, pensamos que era necesario favorecer el desarrollo de la atención plena y consciente en todas y cada una de los actividades, realizar prácticas de atención y concentración y entrenar la mente para facilitar el trabajo realizado. Como resultado, hemos creado los siguientes espacios:

Aulas: Se han creado 'aulas vivas' donde se encuentran zonas de lectura, desarrollo de la creatividad, investigación, de producción y edición de vídeos, espacio maker, de exposición, etc.

Zonas comunes del centro: Por ejemplo los pasillos, en donde se desarrolla el proyecto "leemos en todas partes". Estos entornos se han transformado y decorado para acercar, facilitar y motivar la lectura en los alumnos.

Sala mindfulness "Nos paramos a pensar": Se transformó un aula en un espacio para realizar prácticas de atención plena, tanto para alumnos como para docentes.

Aula de tabletas: Cada uno de los alumnos de 5º y 6º trabaja con la suya, pero considerábamos que todos los alumnos del centro debían utilizar esta herramienta en su proceso de aprendizaje. Como consecuencia, se habilitó un aula por la cual todos los estudiantes de 1º a 4º pasan semanalmente. En cada clase de Educación Infantil, para evitar desplazamientos, se ha creado un rincón de tabletas con esta misma finalidad.

Aula de programación y robótica: Su objetivo es acercar al alumnado a las competencias STEM, aunque también se pueden trabajar el resto de áreas (Geografía, Lengua, Historia...). Tanto la programación como la robótica son herramientas que nos ayudan a resolver cualquier tipo de problema y donde los resultados se ven rápidamente, sin necesidad que el profesor diga si está bien o mal.

Retos futuros

Aunque se ha avanzado significativamente, queda mucho trabajo por hacer de cara al futuro. Uno de los retos más importantes es el de conseguir una mayor implicación del alumnado en el uso, mejora y diseño de estos espacios, pudiendo incluso ser utilizados por sus familias y por agentes externos al centro. Queda mucho camino por andar.

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Cómo transformar las clases tradicionales en aulas vivas

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Para entender el proceso de modificación de los espacios que hemos emprendido, tenemos que remitirnos al curso 2014/2015, fecha en la que el centro entró en el proyecto Samsung Smart School. Esta iniciativa, creada por el Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, la Comunidad de Madrid y Samsung España, apuesta por el uso de las TIC para impulsar el cambio educativo en centros públicos de Educación Primaria.

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The past decade has seen a boom in the construction of trendy buildings with visually appealing interiors in schools and universities. Proponents highlight the potential of these flexible and technology-rich spaces, referred to as innovative learning environments (ILEs), to shape behaviours to enhance student learning.

Economic and technological changes have caused a reconsideration of the nature of teaching and learning. This narrative has been used to underpin the call to re-imagine school learning environments.

Critiques highlight the constrained, static design of conventional classrooms, which favours more traditional teaching practices. It is suggested this is not conducive to those learning experiences favoured in current policy.

However, this claimed relationship between space and teacher practice is flimsy. There is a lack of evidence to underpin it.

What evidence is there for this relationship?

Systematic investment in new learning environments is a matter of policy in many countries. In Australia alone, more than A$16 billion funded the Rudd government's Building the Education Revolution program. Current state government initiatives will soon increase this public investment.

The need for innovative classroom spaces stems from questions about how efficient existing classrooms are. Analysis by the Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change (ILETC) project suggests conventional or traditional classrooms account for about 75% of all spaces in Australian and New Zealand schools. It has been suggested most current classrooms are obsolete and unfit for today's learners.

A systematic review conducted for the project identified empirical studies that evaluated the relationship between educational spaces and academic achievement. Of the 5,521 articles retrieved (since 1960), only 21 studies evaluated impacts of the physical environment of primary and secondary schools on measures of student learning outcomes. In particular, the review highlighted how little is understood about the long-term impact of different learning spaces.

The review highlighted that the large and interconnected spaces of the open-plan movement from the 1960s to 1970s had questionable effects on academic outcomes.

Similar reviews highlighted the problems of top-down implementation, lack of teacher consultation and support, poor acoustics and overt focus on design over use that contributed to their varying impact. Radical spatial changes, like those in some Australian schools, were rarely evaluated and outpaced desired changes in teacher practices.

Key studies in the field often focused on the design and physical performance of buildings. A small number evaluated their use in teacher practice and effects on student learning experiences.

With few reliable and robust methods and metrics available, the current narrative for spatial change must be considered with caution.

What works

The review of literature suggests that, by themselves, new educational spaces are not a catalyst for direct improvement in learning. Typically, the beliefs, practice and technical expertise of the teacher mediated positive effects on measures of student learning. School culture and the contexts that affect learning influenced teachers' abilities to use the elements of different classroom layouts, rather than these spaces dictating their practice.

Stonefields School in Auckland, New Zealand, presents the archetype for the use of innovative classrooms to facilitate a collaborative learning culture. Its success is built on the creation of a co-operative space for teachers to engage in continuous professional learning. Collective teacher capacity ensures the elements of the space are used to enhance teacher practice.

Evaluation at the Gateway School in New York City indicates innovative learning environments are neither open-plan nor a series of differentiated classrooms and breakout spaces. Rather, classrooms and breakout spaces must be understood and designed as interconnected and defined activity settings. These complementary spaces provide opportunities to reinvent the use of communal or shared spaces outside the classroom.

The learning community at Glömsta School in Huddinge, Sweden, reinforces this concept of placemaking. Despite the design, which followed a top-down philosophy, the learning community identified a unique solution to a cluster of classrooms around a common space. Rather than the view of classrooms as primarily instructional spaces, they are used as a breakout setting to complement the activities that occur in the common areas.

Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie) in Brisbane, the Learning Environments Applied Research Network (LEaRN) and Brand and Slater Architects used evaluation as a fulcrum for strategic improvement. Longitudinal studies correlated different learning space designs to improvement in student perceptions and engagement that affected significant academic gain in English and mathematics.

The process identified removing the front teaching position by a combination of visual technologies (whiteboards and screen), which allowed greater teacher movement to actively engage with students and moderate their behaviour and focus. An unexpected outcome was the development of collective teacher capacity in the optimal use of traditional classrooms and innovative learning spaces to enhance learning experiences.

We need better evidence to inform classroom design

There is limited evidence to support the idea that making physical changes to classrooms boosts learning outcomes. The reason for this is schools are complex places.

The case studies emphasise the mediating influence of context and school culture. So, designs can't be imposed on the basis of current architectural trends or policy. Further evidence of how different physical layouts support best practice for teachers is required.

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Classroom design should follow evidence, not architectural fads

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The past decade has seen a boom in the construction of trendy buildings with visually appealing interiors in schools and universities. Proponents highlight the potential of these flexible and technology-rich spaces, referred to as innovative learning environments (ILEs), to shape behaviours to enhance student learning.

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(This was original published HERE for Richard Byrne at FreeTech4Teachers.com)

The images that we see of many "modern" classroom designs are filled with Pinterest-pretty decorations that aren't based in the what we know to be brain-friendly learning spaces. Ideally, schools would be taking time to study and design with intention spaces that support excellent learning. Unfortunately, the social pressure to decorate classrooms is strong, and decorating classrooms is an inch deep solution that elicits the dopamine flow that comes with likes on Instagram, Facebook, and Snap. These cute, neat, and fancy solutions rarely equal great learning. As educators, we need to make sure that there is a sync between instructional practices that provide experiential learning, technology tools that support creation, and optimal learning environments. To accomplish this, consider the seven tips below to keep the focus on intentional design.

Know the Verbs
Design requires a human-centered lens that allows you to understand the true purpose of a space. When teachers and leaders know the verbs of their space, they have a deeper level of intentionality. Is your space designed to explore, investigate, and discover? Is your space designed to create, make, and tinker? This clarity makes decoration seem like frosting instead of missional.
Declutter the Parameter
Too many design initiatives move straight to the furniture, but the parameter of the room can have a greater influence on student learning. Posters and clutter can be distracting and lead to less engagement. Students rarely consciously notice the mess, but it impacts their comfort in the space. Having too much in a classroom can limit its flexibility as well. Try removing ten or more items from the space to let it breathe for students and their learning.

Focus on Student Feedback
So many spaces are designed FOR students as opposed to WITH students. Even if students aren't a part of the initial design, they can be a part of the next iteration. Students need to be asked about the space. What is supporting their learning? What is inhibiting their learning? We often solve for problems that aren't issues for students, and no matter the age, we have to drive changes into the learning space that are based on feedback.
Create a Maker Culture
If we keep designing makerspaces, isolated from classroom learning, with no plan to close them in lieu of a maker culture, we are building this decade's computer lab. We need to instead think about creating a culture of making in every classroom. This doesn't mean that we are putting 3D printers in every classroom, but maybe we are adding cardboard and low-tech creation items in all spaces. Allow students to showcase their learning in a variety of ways. Don't limit making to space or specific time of the day.
Develop a Color Palette
Research continues to emerge that an intentional color palette enhances learning. Too many spaces look like a bag of skittles exploded with every color of the rainbow represented in the rugs, furniture, and items on the wall. Designers are looking for a base color with a couple of accent colors. Classroom decorators, though, are adding flare and pop, and this rarely helps with the focus or calm of a space.

Provide Choice with Coherence
Twenty-five of anything is the wrong answer. The idea that we would bring 25 yoga balls, 25 pedal bikes, or 25 desks into a modern learning space definitely lacks the level of design that we should be seeking. It is essential that students can choose the seating that meets their learning task and their learning style, but adding neat items to the classroom for novelty will get the undesired effect of students focused on furniture instead of their future.
Mind Brain Research into Space Design
The more decorated classrooms that appear on Instagram and Pinterest as model spaces to pursue for teachers, the more we wander from what we know about best practices in learning. Research may not get us likes and retweets, but it is essential that we are considering the principles of design that promote learning. Only with this information in the forefront of our efforts can we truly build student-friendly spaces.

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7 Tips for Moving from Decorating to Designing Classrooms

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(This was original published HERE for Richard Byrne at FreeTech4Teachers.com) The images that we see of many "modern" classroom designs are filled with Pinterest-pretty decorations that aren't based in the what we know to be brain-friendly learning spaces. Ideally, schools would be taking time to study and design with intention spaces that support excellent learning.

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What you put on your classroom walls can affect your students' ability to learn.

The walls in Kenita Sutherland's classroom are lively but not overwhelming.

Heavily decorated classrooms can bombard students with too much visual information, interfering with their memory and ability to focus, a new study finds.

This is just the latest study to examine the relationship between classroom environment and students' executive functions, which include skills like memory, attention, and self-regulation. While teachers have good intentions when decorating, many classrooms end up being "sensory-rich" in a way that "could hamper children's learning gains rather than help," according to psychologists Pedro Rodrigues and Josefa Pandeirada, who coauthored the study.

To understand how decorations affect learning, Rodrigues and Pandeirada recruited 64 children between 8 and 12 years old to perform attention and memory tasks in two groups. For the high-decoration group, the walls of the room were covered with numerous pictures of ordinary objects and scenes, such as cars, musical instruments, and trees. Walls in the control group's room, on the other hand, were bare.
© Kendra Caralis
The children performed a series of tasks designed to test their attention and memory. In one attention test, for example, they observed a laptop screen, pressing a button if an X appeared and doing nothing if a K appeared. In a memory test reminiscent of the electronic game Simon Says, the children observed nine blue squares that changed to yellow in varying sequences, which the children attempted to repeat. A total of four tests were given-two for memory and two for attention.

Compared to children in the bare-wall room, children in the high-decoration room performed worse on all tests, which suggests that too much visual stimulus can be a distraction.

"Overall, the results from these studies indicate that children could have difficulty in ignoring visual distractors when these are embedded in the surrounding environment," the study authors explain.

Classrooms Should Be Engaging, Not Distracting

That's not to say that every wall must be bare. In 2015, a team of researchers in the U.K. analyzed 153 classrooms and found that students benefited most when the walls had some decorations. "The displays on the walls should be designed to provide a lively sense to the classroom, but without becoming chaotic in feel. As a rule of thumb, 20 to 50 percent of the available wall space should be kept clear," the researchers wrote.

Display student work. Students not only feel a greater sense of responsibility for their learning but are also more likely to remember the material (Barrett et al., 2015).

Feature inspiring role models. Putting up images-and short stories or quotes-featuring heroes and leaders can help students gain a greater sense of belonging and aspiration, especially when their backgrounds and interests are represented. Strive for inclusion, but avoid token or stereotypical representations-they can be damaging to students' self-esteem (Cheryan et al., 2014).

Avoid clutter. Keep at least 20 percent of your wall space clear, and leave ample space between displays so they don't look disorganized. Resist the temptation to keep adding decorations-it's better to swap them out than to keep adding more (Barrett et al., 2015).

Visual aids-like anchor charts, maps, and diagrams-are OK. Posters that reinforce a lesson, rather than distract from it, can boost student learning. But don't forget to take down ones that are no longer helpful (Carney & Levin, 2002; Bui & McDaniel, 2015).

Avoid displays of student scores or grades. Many teachers use data walls to motivate students, and while they can work for high performers, they can backfire for struggling students, leading to feelings of shame and demoralization (Marsh et al., 2014).

Let in natural light. Don't cover up your windows with decorations unless you have a problem with glare or outside distractions. Students who are exposed to more natural light in their classrooms outperform peers who get less natural light in math and reading (Cheryan et al., 2014). If you don't have windows, making sure the room is well lit can boost achievement (Barrett et al., 2015).

Balance wall colors. You don't have to stick with four white walls-try having a single feature wall painted a bright color, with the rest being muted (Barrett et al., 2015).

So what do researchers say teachers should do?

Developing Brains

While decorating walls is a favorite pastime for many teachers, young children may not respond as teachers hope.
Courtesy of Amy Mileham
"Our findings could be related to the fact that children's cognitive capacities are still under development, including executive functions responsible for the filtering of irrelevant information for a given task," explain the study authors. A teacher may have little difficulty ignoring a wall full of decorations, but young students may find themselves unable to look away and focus on a lesson.

Children aren't born with fully developed executive functions-they have to develop these skills over time, according to Harvard's Center on the Developing Child. Children who have adverse experiences-such as neglect, abuse, or violence-or learning disabilities are at greater risk of impaired attention and self-regulation skills. So classroom distractions may be harming the students who need the most help.

The Third Teacher
© Nichole Murray
This study is the latest in an emerging field looking at classrooms as the third teacher-after parents and the teacher-which views the environment as essential to supporting learning. The idea is hardly new; approaches such as Reggio Emilia and Montessori put it at the forefront of pedagogy, giving classrooms a prominent role in shaping how students learn. Recent studies have shown evidence for the role that classrooms play in learning: A 2014 study, for example, found that young students spent more time off-task when classroom walls were highly decorated, while research on flexible classrooms shows that optimizing physical characteristics of classrooms such as light, color, and seating options can improve academic performance by as much as 16 percent.

The takeaway: Classroom walls should feel warm and lively but not overcrowded-keep 20 to 50 percent of the wall space clear, and fill the rest with student work, inspiring pictures, and learning aids.

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What you put on your classroom walls can affect your students' ability to learn.

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The problems that plague education around the world aren't the result of a lack of attention or care. Parents, business leaders, political leaders and educators in countries everywhere are dedicated to improving how they educate their people. Every year, billions of dollars are spent on education initiatives in curriculum and teaching practices.

This investment has enabled incremental improvements. But our potential for better education remains limited by the physical spaces themselves, most of which receive little investment and attention. When it comes to thinking about the places where learning happens, we are woefully behind-and it's stifling our progress in all other areas of education.

Many of our schools were simply not built for the needs of today, and none were built for what teachers and students will need in the years ahead. As we update what we teach and how we teach it, we're going to need physical environments that reflect a rapidly changing landscape where learning can be collaborative, personalized or adaptive. Still, some leaders are reluctant to update school buildings that were designed for the way schools operated 50, 60 or 70 years ago.

Now is the time for education leaders worldwide to rethink how schools are designed. The first step is to examine what's already been done and identify what works and what doesn't. At , we've partnered with innovators like and the Imaginarium to study student and teacher experiences in learning spaces.

We've looked at schools from around the world and even assessed our own projects to pinpoint common mistakes and successful architecture. Here are three things we've learned that school leaders must get right when tackling school design for the future.

1. Inclusion

A few years ago, New York City asked us to design campuses for a new network of schools- EPIC High Schools -that were geared to better serve the city's Black and Latino youth. My first thought was: "How do we get to know these students and teachers and give them a voice in the building process?"

We decided to kick off the project by hosting design workshops for students, school leaders, parents and locals. By setting up open-house style forums at public libraries in Brooklyn and Queens, we allowed everyone to come by and discuss the school vision and the campuses where it would come to life.

These conversations helped students and teachers realize how cookie-cutter their traditional schools were, and how the physical environments limited what was possible for them. Every community and school is unique, yet almost every school building is the same. It's a part of the education discussion that is seldom addressed. But in our workshops for EPIC there was always a lightbulb moment when people understood how important-and obvious-the issue of space design really was.

These kind of candid conversations are essential for architects. We have to do more than check off the "Outreach" box. Our workshops with the EPIC School learning community were fun and interactive. In one workshop participants were given a game to play, with a chance to design their ideal campus. In the game, they could use blocks representing socialization, collaboration, discovery, health and recreation, and culture to build the school of their dreams. Inclusive sessions like this allow people to share their personal perspective and even critique the architectural design. For us, the result was more than just getting everyone on board - it improved our design in ways we couldn't have imagined on our own.

2. Prototypes

When the Imaginarium Lab at Denver Public Schools wanted our help in reimagining elementary school buildings, we started by building two classroom prototypes. Our architects worked closely with teachers from High Tech and Columbine Elementary to redesign their classrooms. Once the prototypes were built, teachers and students were brought in to test out the environments, including the custom furniture, multi-modal learning tools and interactive games.

Creating a new place of learning is a big deal. So it's important to prototype the different environments you're imagining. Prototyping should not just be a model but a working model that you can learn from. Beta-test your prototyped spaces with learners and see how they react, ask them how they feel, and find out what they would improve.

Prototyping in Denver produced two significant outcomes. It established a feedback loop that enabled the district to better calibrate designs for upcoming schools. At the same time, it gave the educators a first-hand experience with smart design and its impact in the classroom.

We were surprised at how much we could help empower teachers and students through the design process alone. Now, when there are capital upgrades on the horizon, the school district can turn to the prototypes for a working model.

3. Adaptability

Through all of the learning spaces we have designed over the years, the one common thread we encounter is adaptability. When designing something like a school-something that's supposed to ideally stay in use for decades-adaptability is the cornerstone that everything else rests on.

No process of inclusion and prototyping or innovative design will be able to accurately predict the future. Change is rapid and ubiquitous in our schooling practices and technology. Today's campuses must flex for many possibilities and be open to whatever may come next.

To develop solutions for adaptable places of learning, we've looked beyond schools in search of spaces that change frequently or unpredictably. We've studied performance stages, urban marketplaces and contemporary art galleries. Not stopping there, we've also looked at the latest in construction techniques, and examined disruptive technologies such as advanced robotics, artificial intelligence and material ecologies.

All of these explorations have taught us something about the way learning spaces could be designed for maximum flexibility. What we've found is that there are two primary ways to design for this kind of adaptability. The first is to avoid building or buying things that are meant to last a hundred years. By accepting the fact that you will need to adapt your space in the next 10 years, you can design smartly.

The second is to use a kit-of-parts, prefabricated building system that allows for updating or replacing of individual spaces when needed. At Kurani we're creating the first system of this kind. We call it the "" and we're continually developing what can and should go into it.

However school designers get there, baking in the utmost adaptability can't be over-valued. Planners and architects 10 years ago would have never known to include open classroom spaces for virtual and augmented reality-or built in the hardware requirements for this kind of learning. And we can't know what we will want to do 10 or 20 years from now. All we can do-and what we should do-is design spaces that understand change is inevitable.

There's no perfect design for a school building. So as education leaders turn their attention to lagging school environments, the search should begin with a simple question: "Do I have the right process and team in place to do this?"
Editor's Note: Interested in learning even more about what's important when designing and opening new schools? We asked two dozen experts who have collectively opened more than a thousand school about what they've learned through their experiences, and they shared these 100 Tips & Insights for Opening Great New Schools. Danish Kurani is the Founder and Chief Designer at Kurani, a school design firm. Follow them on Twitter: Stay in-the-know with all things EdTech and innovations in learning by signing up to receive the weekly Smart Update

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Three Ways to Design Better Classrooms and Learning Spaces

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The problems that plague education around the world aren't the result of a lack of attention or care. Parents, business leaders, political leaders and educators in countries everywhere are dedicated to improving how they educate their people. Every year, billions of dollars are spent on education initiatives in curriculum and teaching practices.

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Rosan Bosch en uno de sus diseños para una escuela danesa. Kim Wendt

Rosan Bosch (Utrecht, 1969) es uno de los rostros más visibles de la innovación educativa a través del diseño de nuevos espacios y mobiliario. Con más de una decena de colegios construidos en Dinamarca y Suecia (de ellos, nueve son públicos) o en ciudades como Abu Dabi, Bosch apuesta por la eliminación de las aulas con filas de pupitres mirando a una pizarra, por el derribo de los muros en las escuelas y por los espacios diáfanos en los que el niño decide dónde quiere aprender.

Su máxima es que los estudiantes tomen decisiones desde el principio y escojan lo que más les interesa, porque en el mundo actual, según la propia diseñadora, "ya no vale trabajar bajo las directrices de un jefe; el mercado demanda perfiles que sepan pensar de forma independiente y tomar la iniciativa sin miedo a equivocarse".

Bosch estudió en un colegio Montessori, un método desarrollado a principios del siglo XX por la doctora italiana Maria Montessori basado en la idea de que los más pequeños aprenden de forma natural si se les permite seguir sus instintos. Pero su interés por la innovación educativa no le viene de ahí, sino de la desmotivación con la que sus propios hijos volvían de la escuela.

Pregunta. ¿Cómo puede influir el diseño en la forma de aprender?

Respuesta. Tal y como están concebidas las aulas, los niños llegan a clase, se sientan en un silla y se limitan a escuchar y a hacer lo que les dice el profesor. Es antinatural tener a estudiantes tan pequeños inmóviles en sus pupitres sin la posibilidad de desplazarse libremente y encontrar el entorno en el que se sientan más cómodos. Los seres humanos somos diferentes y nuestro cerebro funciona de forma distinta. Hay niños que necesitan total tranquilidad para procesar nueva información y otros que lo hacen mejor de forma colaborativa. La escuela moderna tiene que adaptarse a esa realidad y el diseño del espacio puede cambiar el modo de pensar, funcionar y reaccionar. Este tipo de estructuras más flexibles incentivan al niño a tomar sus propias decisiones. No se trata de poner ruedas a las sillas y a las mesas, sino de permitir la libertad de movimiento de los chicos. Es muy difícil cambiar la mentalidad de la comunidad educativa, y el espacio físico ayuda porque crea una nueva realidad.

Estancia de uno de los colegios públicos suecos diseñados por Rosan Bosch Studio. Kim Wendt

P. Se habrá encontrado con detractores que piensen que dejar al niño decidir puede perjudicar su disciplina.

R. Los niños no son animales salvajes que necesiten reglas rígidas. Una vez que les explicas que disponen de diferentes estancias para la lectura en solitario, para el debate, para el trabajo en grupo y también para escuchar las lecciones del profesor, lo entienden perfectamente y se adaptan. El formato del niño fijo en una mesa tiene mucho que ver con la disciplina y poco con el aprendizaje. El sistema tradicional les entrena para escuchar largos discursos sin aburrirse, y eso resulta imposible hasta para un adulto, que no aguanta más de 20 minutos de charla sin desconectar. Esos niños van a vivir en una sociedad totalmente diferente. Las nuevas generaciones tendrán que adaptarse a trabajos que aún no existen y detectar sus carencias. Se necesita gente que de forma independiente pueda aprender nuevas habilidades y conocimientos. Ser pasivo y actuar solo bajo las directrices de terceros ya no funciona.

P. ¿Por qué cree que es prioritario un espacio que favorezca el trabajo en equipo?

R. El mundo se ha vuelto global. Ahora se trabaja con personas de diferentes culturas. Mis reuniones de trabajo, por ejemplo, son a través de plataformas online con colaboradores en Dubái o Michigan. En los exámenes de la escuela no se mide el liderazgo, ni la capacidad de aprender por uno mismo o las fórmulas para colaborar de la mejor forma posible. Tampoco cómo buscar información y contrastarla o saber concentrarse cuando hay muchas distracciones. Todo eso no se evalúa en el colegio y son capacidades básicas en el mundo real.

En España, es especialmente difícil innovar porque la gente tiene miedo al cambio. El sistema educativo español no enseña a hacer preguntas y eso se nota cuando los graduados van a trabajar al extranjero. En el caso de nuestro estudio, se tienen que acostumbrar a una forma muy diferente de trabajar que requiere más autonomía e iniciativa. Lo cierto es que todos los que aceptamos llegan con experiencia internacional y dominio de varios idiomas.

P. Después de más de diez años dedicada a las galerías de arte, ¿cómo dio el giro hacia la educación?

R. Cuando mis dos hijos comenzaron la escuela estaban deseando aprender, todo les generaba curiosidad. Poco a poco, cada vez volvían a casa más desmotivados, hablaban de la escuela como un lugar aburrido y solo les contentaba planear qué harían en su tiempo libre. Fui a hablar con la profesora y me dijo que lo sentía pero que estaba sola con 30 niños y que no disponía de más recursos. Me explicó que había niños que seguían la clase y otros que se distraían. En ese momento ya me había dado cuenta del diseño y su poder de seducción, así que decidí emplearlo en la educación. Empecé a trabajar con pedagogos, profesores y padres. El proyecto de transformación tenía que ser integral.

P. ¿Cuál fue la primera escuela con la que trabajó?

R. Fue en el año 2006 en un colegio de Gentofte, un pueblo cercano a Copenhague. El ayuntamiento puso en marcha en 1999 un proyecto para transformar doce escuelas públicas y yo me encargué posteriormente de una de ellas, la Ordrup School. Durante tres semanas nos colamos en las aulas para ver la forma de trabajar y de moverse de los alumnos y profesores y detectamos que el problema principal era la rigidez del espacio. Permitimos a los niños sentarse en el suelo y trabajar a la luz de una lámpara, colocar post it con sus ideas debajo de las mesas o leer en solitario en tubos circulares. Los profesores, que al principio se mostraban reacios, se dieron cuenta de la importancia de contar con diferentes espacios para la concentración o la colaboración entre los niños y ahí jugaba un papel esencial el mobiliario y su distribución en el aula.

P. ¿Le resultó complicado contar con la colaboración de los profesores?

R. Todo cambio resulta doloroso y al principio todo parecía abocar a la catástrofe. Para que los profesores se sientan cómodos, tienes que trabajar con ellos, y cuando empiezan a ver los resultados, son los primeros en entusiasmarse. Estamos acostumbrados a pensar que los profesores no se reciclan, que durante toda su trayectoria manejan los mismos contenidos y no tienen necesidad de actualizarse, algo que no sucede con otras profesiones como los médicos. Ha llegado el momento de remover los cimientos de la educación, tenemos que ser justos con lo que los niños merecen.

En el caso de este colegio, los resultados fueron excelentes, los niños venían entusiasmados a clase con ganas de explorar las nuevas formas de aprendizaje; las filas de pupitres habían desaparecido. La transformación del espacio físico es el primer paso para poder cambiar la metodología de enseñanza y para que todo esto suceda hace falta la colaboración de los profesores.

Un grupo de niños en una de las mesas orgánicas diseñadas por Rosan Bosch Studio, en la que los alumnos deciden a qué distancia quieren trabajar. Kim Wendt

P. Las fotos de sus escuelas denotan grandes inversiones económicas. ¿Qué le diría a los colegios que quieren cambiar pero no disponen de tantos recursos?

R. El objetivo no es crear espacios bonitos, sino que contribuyan al cambio. Se pueden hacer proyectos low cost encargando mobiliario a carpinteros locales. No hay un fórmula única, cada escuela tiene que trabajar para encontrar la suya.

P. ¿En qué otros proyectos de innovación educativa ha participado?

R. Fui asesora en el proyecto Building Schools for the Future, impulsado en el año 2000 por el Gobierno británico para remodelar todas las escuelas de secundaria del país antes de 2020. Fue muy enriquecedor participar en coloquios con expertos de diferentes partes del mundo, pero la parte negativa fue la desilusión que generó en el profesorado la paralización del proyecto como consecuencia de la crisis en 2010.

En otros países como Estados Unidos, los proyectos en los que participa Rosan no debaten sobre la conveniencia de que los niños permanezcan sentados o no. Allí las discusiones están ya en otro nivel. Es el caso del colegio Academy for Global Citizenship en Chicago, donde están desarrollando un programa en el que los niños deben pasar el 25% de su horario escolar fuera de la escuela para estar en contacto con el mundo real. "Tienen que pagar en comercios y calcular las vueltas o conocer cómo funcionan los mercados de alimentos. Aprender a desenvolverse desde pequeños", explica Rosan. Las paredes y los techos del edificio serán de cristal, para saber si llueve o no o si las temporadas de calor se extienden más de la cuenta. Es un centro educativo sostenible donde los niños tienen que ser conscientes de lo que le pasa al planeta.

Rosan Bosch inauguró la pasada semana su primer trabajo en España, una nueva estancia para los niños de tres a seis años en el colegio privado Liceo Europa de Zaragoza. En los próximos meses tiene previsto abrir un nuevo estudio en Madrid.

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"El mobiliario sí importa en la escuela"

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Rosan Bosch (Utrecht, 1969) es uno de los rostros más visibles de la innovación educativa a través del diseño de nuevos espacios y mobiliario.

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Learning Spaces

Designing Learner-Centered Spaces

Learning spaces must become learner-centered.

Editor's note: The following is excerpted from a chapter of the book, " Learning Transformed: 8 Keys to Designing Tomorrow's Schools," published by ASCD in June. The authors and publisher have given their permission to republish portions of chapter 4, "Designing Learner-Centered Spaces."
Ninety-nine percent of teaching spaces were anticipated either in an image of an ancient Syrian palace school 4,000 years ago or in the Greek amphitheater: rows or rings of seats meant to focus the attention of the many on the one. But education is not about transferring information from one to many; it is about learning within the student. When printed books were new, transferring information was vital, but today, information is ubiquitous and readily available, and students can pick it up when and where they want. Instead, the classroom ought to focus on assimilation and application of knowledge to new contexts. The teacher becomes the guide on the side, instead of the sage on the stage, requiring wholly new learning spaces and teaching techniques. - Design Empowers Learning Eric Mazur
The United States is home to nearly 100,000 public K-12 schools, which cover about 7.5 billion total square feet and 2 million acres of land (Bendici, n.d.). Approximately $2 trillion of net worth is invested in these school facilities, making this investment the largest educational investment in the nation. With the average age of schools in most districts between 30 and 50 years old, a large portion of this investment is now at risk due to age and lack of adequate maintenance (Nair, 2014). In the United States alone, in addition to the routine maintenance which totals hundreds of millions of dollars each year, over $12 billion is spent annually to renovate and build new schools (Abramson, 2012).

With their average age in mind, most of today's learning spaces were originally designed and built for teacher-centric learning environments, coined by Alfie Kohn (1999) as the "cells and bells" model. In this analogy, students occupy cells until the bell rings and then move down the hall to another cell to do the same. The process repeats until freedom is granted at a particular time.

Sound familiar?

School buildings, the nation's largest educational investment, are traditionally built for this "cells and bells" model. This type of design, however, is in direct contrast to what we know about how students learn, how tomorrow's teachers will need to teach, and all that we understand from educational research about the impact of learning space design.

All you have to do is look around and see the amazing changes that are taking place in workspaces around the world. Many people have become enamored with what places such as Google and Pixar have done to improve working conditions for their employees-and these companies have exhibited great success while their workplaces are very unconventional. These types of workplaces have embraced the mantra that a creative work environment motivates and inspires innovation. These types of changes are both exciting and innovative. To get better results, they intentionally incorporated elements that foster creativity, collaboration, flexibility, and communication. This is more than a great concept that has become a reality in the workplace; we believe it should be common sense as well. Who wants to go to a job all day and sit in a hard chair at a desk in a creatively stifling cubicle, while being rained on by effervescing light? No one. That's certainly not our idea of an ideal workspace, and we would wager that most school leaders feel the same way. As expectations related to producing better outcomes change, businesses have capitalized on a design trend that has led to improved results.

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designing learner centered spaces design empowers learning k–12 schools research naturalness individualization stimulation cemetery effect shifting pedagogy collaboration

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Designing Learner-Centered Spaces -- THE Journal

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Learning Spaces Learning spaces must become learner-centered. Editor's note: The following is excerpted from a chapter of the book, " Learning Transformed: 8 Keys to Designing Tomorrow's Schools," published by ASCD in June. The authors and publisher have given their permission to republish portions of chapter 4, "Designing Learner-Centered Spaces."

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THE THIRD TEACHER:79 WAYS YOU CAN USE  DESIGN TO TRANFORM TEACHING+LEARNING

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THE THIRD TEACHER:79 WAYS YOU CAN USE  DESIGN TO TRANFORM TEACHING+LEARNING

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The third teacher

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Flexible classrooms remain an area of interest-and periodically contention-for our community of educators. Photos of color-coordinated learning environments dotted with cozy nooks for reading and sprinkled with throw pillows tend to provoke mixed feelings, and lots of pointed questions.

How do you fund a flexible classroom, anyway? Do teachers pay for all of this? Can small spaces crowded with 30 or more students really accommodate a variety of seating options? Should I expect new behavioral problems to arise from giving students so much leeway in where to sit and work? Are there any examples in high schools? In science labs?

And then, always, the most critical question of all: Do flexible classrooms even work-do students who have seating choices perform better academically?

We created this flexible seating package as a way to provide a focused response, and to help you get started if you're considering giving it a try. The package looks at promising, recent research on flexible seating; provides tips for crowdfunding your classroom; and surveys the most popular options for seating, lighting, storage, and fixtures of every kind.

And because our audience demands authentic, reproducible models and strategies, we asked dozens of teachers in flexible classrooms across the country for their best tips, lessons learned, and photos-and then distilled the answers into two articles, one for K-8 teachers and one for high school teachers.

Over the next several months, we're going to be adding additional pieces, the first on classroom management in flexible environments, and then later an FAQ that covers a range of miscellaneous questions that come up around things like fire codes, test season, and even lice infestations. When we dive deep, we dive deep. Enjoy.

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The A to Z of Flexible Classrooms | Edutopia

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Flexible classrooms remain an area of interest-and periodically contention-for our community of educators. Photos of color-coordinated learning environments dotted with cozy nooks for reading and sprinkled with throw pillows tend to provoke mixed feelings, and lots of pointed questions. How do you fund a flexible classroom, anyway?

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Rosan Bosch: “diseñar un mundo mejor empieza en la escuela”

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Rosan Bosch: “diseñar un mundo mejor empieza en la escuela”

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Hace unos meses hablábamos en este blog de las escuelas Vittra, una treintena de centros educativos suecos con una filosofía innovadora del aprendizaje basada en el rediseño de los espacios educativos.

Recientemente, una de las artífices del modelo Vittra ha estado en Barcelona invitada por el Museu del Disseny en el marco de las II Jornadas Diseño para vivir. Se trata de Rosan Bosch, arquitecta que impulsa la innovación educativa a través del diseño de nuevos espacios y mobiliario para escuelas.

Si habitualmente ponemos el foco de la innovación en nuevos modelos pedagógicos y en la irrupción de las TIC en las aulas, no menos interesante y decisivo para el aprendizaje es repensar el espacio educativo. Muchos centros, también en España, ya lo están haciendo. Y es imperativo si tenemos en cuenta de la Universidad de Salford (Manchester) que afirma que el entorno físico donde se desarrolla el aprendizaje puede variar el rendimiento de los alumnos hasta un 25%.

Para Rosan Bosch, "diseñar un mundo mejor empieza en la escuela". Y es que el diseño, presente en todos los ámbitos de la vida cotidiana, determina de forma muy sutil nuestra forma de ver (y de aprender) el mundo. El entusiasmo de Bosch es incuestionable. En Barcelona comentó: "trabajo con la motivación, diseñando espacios ¡ uau!", en línea con el discurso que defienden los expertos en neuroeducación que defienden que "el cerebro necesita emocionarse para aprender".

Pero, ¿en qué consisten los espacios educativos que propone la arquitecta de Utrech? En sintonía con el nuevo paradigma educativo que apuesta por las pedagogías activas, el espacio debe evolucionar "hacia entornos más placenteros, más abiertos, flexibles y, en definitiva, capaces de integrar el aprendizaje con la dimensión sensorial y emocional". Para Bosch, es innegable que "el entorno físico influye en el estado emocional y en el comportamiento de alumnos y docentes".

Si entramos en una escuela Vittra, veremos que las aulas prácticamente no existen: pequeños y mayores circulan libremente y trabajan en sofás, sentados en cojines o, incluso, tumbados en el suelo. Por ello, el diseño interior se cuida al milímetro, para ofrecer espacios diáfanos (la mayoría de paredes son de cristal), cómodos y motivadores, que no 'encierran' ni a los alumnos ni a sus ideas.

La transformación es profunda y, evidentemente, requiere cambios de organización en los centros. Pero Bosch defiende que "pequeñas modificaciones en el color, la luz o las formas pueden hacer la diferencia". El objetivo se centra en la diversión (reivindica la importancia del juego como impulsor de aprendizaje), la creación y la compartición; el espacio físico debe "servir" a estas tres premisas.

Bosch también confiesa que habla mucho más con los alumnos que con los docentes: la idea es involucrar a los más pequeños en su proceso de aprendizaje y también en la toma de decisiones. "La motivación que nace de uno mismo es motor de aprendizaje; ¡el diseño de espacios es clave!". El resultado de todo ello merece la pena: "escuelas de donde los alumnos no quieren irse", sentencia Rosan Bosch.

Nuevos espacios para aprender

Descubre los proyectos de Rosan Bosch

Iniciativa Hack the school de la Fundació Jaume Bofill

Escuelas Vittra (Estocolmo)

Jesuïtes Educació

Centro de Formación Padre Piquer

Colegio Montserrat

Innova Schools

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Rosan Bosch diseñar un mundo mejor empieza en la escuela - Innovación pedagógica

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Hace unos meses hablábamos en este blog de las escuelas Vittra , una treintena de centros educativos suecos con una filosofía innovadora del aprendizaje basada en el rediseño de los espacios educativos. Recientemente, una de las artífices del modelo Vittra ha estado en Barcelona invitada por el Museu del Disseny en el marco de las II Jornadas Diseño para vivir.

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Rosan Bosch

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Designing for a better world starts at school: Rosan Bosch at TEDxIndianapolis

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Did you know that even the most basic characteristics of your physical environment - so the air, light, colors, and materials that surround you - have a strong effect on how you feel and how you think? This connection has great significance in school settings. The important decisions made about a campus design in turn impact how students perform and learn. They also affect teaching practices and capabilities.

As we consider the many ways to improve schools, it's time to add space design to the list. While school leaders and architects should be thinking about how the physical environment can support a particular curriculum and group of end users, the first step in design is to understand how fundamental elements will influence everyone on campus. Here's ten common ways that architectural features impact schools.

1. Noisy floors lead to poor concentration and comprehension.
Students in carpeted classrooms have higher test scores in math and language than students in rooms with hard floors. Background noise also affects learning, particularly for young children who require optimal conditions for hearing and comprehension.
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Image: School District 38 Richmond.

2. Daylight significantly boosts student learning progress.

In classes with the most daylight students progressed 20% faster in math and 26% faster in reading compared to students in classrooms with the least daylight, and these results did not vary by grade.

Source: Heschong Mahone Group, Inc. Image: Stian Rodven Eide, Flickr.

3. To stay focused, we need views of the outside world.

Ophthalmologists recommend distant views and views of nature to provide needed breaks from close work and restore students' ability to concentrate.

Source: California Energy Commission. Image: Springfield Public Schools.

4. Learning progress is affected by level of control occupants have on windows.

Operable windows in classrooms promote student progress, associated with 7-8% faster learning.
Source: National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities. Image: Chuck Choi.

5. Poor indoor air quality leads to millions of missed school days a year.

American children miss more than 10 million school days each year because of asthma aggravated by poor indoor air quality.

Source: American Lung Association. Image: wallpapers.red.

6. Colors have an ability to boost creativity and attention to detail.

Red is the most effective color at enhancing our attention to detail, while blue is best at boosting our ability to think creatively.

Source: University of British Columbia. Image: rgbstock.com.

7. New spaces lead to feelings of safety, pride, and enjoyment.

Student attitudes become more positive after a move to a new school building. Students who "felt safe" increased from 57% to 87%; "felt proud" increased from 43% to 77%; "enjoyed going to school" increased from 50% to 61%; and "bullying" decreased from 39% to 16%.

Source: National Foundation for Education Research. Image: Rosan Bosch.

8. Higher quality buildings are correlated to better student behavior.

The higher the quality of school construction and design, the lower the incidence of vandalism, absenteeism, suspensions, expulsions, violence, disruptions, tardiness, and smoking.

Source: US Department of Education. Image: Milton Academy.

9. Low ceilings equal low creativity.

In rooms with higher ceilings, people are 25% better at seeing connections between seemingly unrelated subjects.

Source: Journal of Consumer Research. Image: Leigh Simpson.

10. Poor facilities chase teachers away.

Studies in Los Angeles and Milwaukee public schools show that poor school buildings have a negative effect on teacher retention.

Source: National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities. Image: Kurani.

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10 Reasons To Re-Design Your School Space

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Did you know that even the most basic characteristics of your physical environment - so the air, light, colors, and materials that surround you - have a strong effect on how you feel and how you think? This connection has great significance in school settings.

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Ideas brillantes para transformar el patio de tu escuela

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Dive Brief:

Dive Insight:

As the workforce shifts to favor more open and collaborative environments, schools are also moving toward classroom redesigns that will best prepare students for those workplaces. But differing budget realities between schools and districts lead those like Dillon to worry that learning spaces could become yet another frontier in the educational equity debate.

Creating a space that incorporates student voice doesn't have to break the bank, though. Dillon encourages educators to think about the core things that need to happen for their space, which will vary by classroom and subject, as well as who will be using that space - whether students or teachers. Color, sound, accessibility, light and other "micro-decision" factors should be top-of-mind.

He cited one example: A counselor needed a place for students to de-escalate, and wanted a community feel because groups of students use the space. Their space was redesigned to add a fluffy pad, a swing and a bench (as well as additional decor) for around $800 total. One way to save money is to opt for IKEA furniture, which is more affordable and should last long enough until the next classroom redesign is needed in 5-10 years.

Additionally, he talked about deciding how long to let students learn on their own. T he crest of the wave when the volume starts to come down after pleasantries are exchanged at the beginning of a task can be a tempting place to interject, he said, but you have to allow time for the second wave to happen for ideas to really start to be exchanged.

"What you do in your space will be great," Dillon told the crowd, adding that if they can "parlay" it for a whole department or grade level or school, it can lead to much greater change. He cautioned, however, they must also be sure to think deeper than just decor, recounting a story of a young student unsure of how to tell the teacher that the decorations in the space were at a level that was distracting.

He closed with a challenge: Find three subtractions, two additions and one augmentation (slight change) in your classroom that you can make.

Top image credit: Roger Riddell/Education Dive

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Innovative classroom design requires shift to 'designer' mindset

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As the workforce shifts to favor more open and collaborative environments, schools are also moving toward classroom redesigns that will best prepare students for those workplaces. But differing budget realities between schools and districts lead those like Dillon to worry that learning spaces could become yet another frontier in the educational equity debate.

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Classroom Design

4 Design Ideas to Create an Engaging and Comfortable Classroom Environment

Teaching isn't just about transferring knowledge to students. It's also important to create an atmosphere in which kids feel understood, comfortable and supported on their educational journey. And while this can seem like an overwhelming task when considering the many things that teachers need to contend with on a regular basis, there are many helpful tech-based apps and programs that can help you achieve your classroom goals quickly and easily. From interior design apps to smart lights, check out these four ideas for how to make your classroom more comfortable and engaging for everyone who uses it.

1. Balance Colors with Accent Walls

Every kid is likely to have his or her own favorite color, but there is evidence to suggest that people tend to respond to specific colors in particular ways, regardless of personal preference. In the classroom, bright, vibrant colors on the warm side of the spectrum, like yellow or orange, can be stimulating and energizing in all the right ways.

By painting an accent wall at the front of the room, you can help capture and channel some of this energy, while the kids are focused on the teacher in front of it. Not sure how to go about choosing the right shade? Consider investing in a mobile app that will allow you to take a picture of your classroom, and virtually paint the wall or walls to find the right shade. You can even test the colors on your students to involve them in the process.

Helpful Tech Gadgets to Try

If you have a smartphone, download the app Paint My Place for free. Take a photo of the classroom, and play with colors from several brands to find one that matches colors already in the room for a cohesive look, while adding that crucial pop of color.

Money-Saving Tips

Though factors such as size and complexity will affect your final cost, you can expect to spend between $400 and $800 per room for professional painting.

The app itself is free and to save money, consider painting the wall DIY. Parent volunteers could easily complete this upgrade within a few hours.

2. Make The Most Of Natural Light

Whenever possible, bringing natural light into the classroom can make for a warmer, more relaxing environment. Healthcare facilities use natural light and outdoor views as a way of reducing stress in patients, and while too much distraction from the outdoors can be a bad thing in the classroom, skylights are often a good way of balancing those priorities in school settings.

It can be difficult to add in more windows to an existing building, so consider supplementing with smart lights. Smart lights can be programmed to go on at specific times of day, when the natural light filtering in isn't quite bright enough. Paired with some daylight-spectrum light bulbs, you'll be able to keep the lights bright all day long.

Helpful Tech Gadgets to Try

Smart LED bulbs can be screwed into existing light fixtures, then programmed with a free app. Set them to turn on when the natural light in the room is at its lowest, and program the color to daylight to keep colors and light consistent throughout the day.

Philips makes a color ambiance starter kit that can allow you to adjust the color perfectly in the classroom for about $199 for four bulbs and controller.

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4 Design Ideas to Create an Engaging and Comfortable Classroom Environment -- THE Journal

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Classroom Design Teaching isn't just about transferring knowledge to students. It's also important to create an atmosphere in which kids feel understood, comfortable and supported on their educational journey.

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A neuroscientist explains how factors such as light and seating arrangements can affect students' cognitive performance.

© Hero Images/Getty Images

If you've ever attempted to clear your head by taking a walk outside or zoning out by a window as the clouds roll by, you've intuitively hit on something that scientists have been researching for years: Our natural and built environments seem to affect how we think and feel. Researchers have recently focused on determining how environmental factors can affect kids' ability to learn. Studies show that a well-designed learning environment supplements evidence-based pedagogy and curriculum design. Let's examine four environmental factors that can enhance or hinder learning.

Daytime Light Exposure Can Boost Learning

Light does more than just allow us to see the world around us. When light enters our eyes, it also engages a non-visual system that affects the timing of our sleep-wake cycles and our cognitive performance. In fact, parts of our eyes connect directly to a part of our brain that secretes hormones influencing our levels of sleep (melatonin) or alertness (cortisol).

Even more importantly, all light is not the same. While the presence of any light can influence hormonal secretion via this non-visual system, blue light has the most powerful effect. People are more alert and less sleepy when exposed to blue light versus other wavelengths. Sunlight, full-spectrum LEDs, and most digital screens are rich in blue light.

One study of 21,000 U.S. elementary students showed that, over one school year, kids who were exposed to more sunlight during their school day displayed 26 percent higher reading outcomes and 20 percent higher math outcomes than kids in less sunny classrooms. However, even if your classroom has less natural light than you'd like, other studies have shown that replacing your artificial lighting with blue-enriched bulbs can improve students' cognitive performance.

Daytime blue-light exposure may have a powerful effect on adolescents in particular. Biological changes during puberty delay the sleep-wake cycle by shifting melatonin secretion to later in the evening (making it harder for teens to fall asleep early) and later in the morning (making it harder for teens to wake up early). This means that teens often accumulate sleep debt during the week, which has negative effects on academic performance. First, it leaves them less alert and able to pay attention during the school day, and therefore less able to learn. Second, the quality and quantity of sleep are affected, interfering with the brain's ability to store the day's learning. Later school start times can help reduce these challenges, but blue-light exposure throughout the school day may also help. Light resets the body's circadian rhythm, so exposing teens to light can increase their alertness and improve academic outcomes.

Nighttime Light Exposure Can Hinder Learning

Given that American teens spend an average of nine hours per day using digital media (not including media time for school or homework), there are growing concerns about the blue-light exposure from all of this screen time. If such exposure happens as kids are preparing for sleep, the blue light may be compounding the sleep disruptions caused by asynchrony between school start times and their delayed sleep-wake cycles.

By disrupting kids' sleep patterns, blue-light exposure before bed also interferes with learning by leaving them sleepier and less able to learn the next day, as well as by disrupting the storage process of the day's learning that occurs during sleep. In fact, one of the easiest ways to boost learning is to improve the quality and quantity of sleep (and by putting some sleep between studying and testing). Reducing pre-bed screen time can effectively maximize sleep's benefit on learning.

Interaction With the Natural Environment Is Good for Learning

Think your student is spacing out when she's gazing out the window during class? She may be instinctively seeking a cognitive reset that will improve her ability to focus. Many studies have demonstrated the power of the natural environment-whether real or simulated in video games-on kids' learning and well-being.

One study of over 10,000 fifth-grade students showed that kids in schools with unrestricted views of nature tested higher in reading, math, and language arts than students in schools with urban views (or no views at all). Other studies have shown that interaction with nature can be particularly helpful for kids with ADD and ADHD, and that the greener the child's play spaces, the more reduced his or her attention deficit symptoms.

Again, don't worry if your classroom or child's bedroom lacks views of nature. In a 2009 study, researchers introduced leafy plants into the classroom and found a positive impact on students' well-being and behavior, with fewer hours of sick leave and disciplinary events.

Classroom Design May Distract From Learning

The many factors that make up classroom design have been studied for their influence on learning. Factors that can interfere the most with learning are noise, temperature, and (surprisingly) seating arrangement.

1. Noise: The interfering effects of noise during learning-particularly noise that includes voices (language)-is quite profound in young children. The likely reason is that the brain systems which allow us to filter out distractions and focus on the task at hand (executive functioning) are still developing in children. Thus, children are particularly vulnerable to the acoustics of noise. Because noisy interference makes it difficult for kids to stay on task, it has widespread effects on learning. Noise has been shown to profoundly impact reading, writing, and comprehension skill learning, as well as overall academic performance.

2. Temperature: If the temperature of a classroom or home studying environment is outside of a comfortable range, it can be a source of distraction that interferes with learning. A review of studies investigating the relationship of temperature and learning outcomes revealed ideal thermal ranges for optimal learning: between 68 and 74 degrees Fahrenheit, with about 50 percent humidity.

3. Seating arrangement: Another source of distraction can be a classroom's arrangement of desks and chairs. In a classic study, researchers tested three seating models with different levels of independent versus interactive arrangements. They showed that elementary school students were least on task when desks were arranged in rows, better on task when arranged in clusters, and best on task when in a semicircle. Another study, however, suggests that the best arrangement should be determined by matching it with the task at hand: More interactive tasks benefit more from interactive arrangements (semicircle and clusters), and independent tasks from independent (rows) arrangements.

In sum, there are many things about the built and natural environments that can impact student learning, with some researchers suggesting that 10 to 15 percent of variance in academic outcomes is influenced by the environment.

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The Science of Effective Learning Spaces

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A neuroscientist explains how factors such as light and seating arrangements can affect students' cognitive performance.

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Alice Waters is without question among the most, if not the most, visionary culinary minds operating today. Waters has so carefully crafted what it means to eat well, local, and slow, which is why Chez Panisse remains one of the most inspiring dining destinations in the world some 46 years after opening. For all Waters's reimagining of the restaurant, she has dedicated equal energy to improving how we feed and educate our children.

It's these two utterly pioneering feats, at Chez Panisse and with Edible Schoolyard, that have brought Waters once again in the spotlight in her home city of San Francisco as an honoree of the town's annual FOG Design Fair's Fendi-sponsored Innovators Luncheon. On the eve of the fair, we sat down with Waters to talk about all things food and design-and how putting the two together can breed altogether special results.

AD PRO: A lot of us think that the relationship between food and design stops at, say, the design of a restaurant, or the design of the tabletop items that you're eating off of, but you've shown us that the relationship is so much more than that. How do you see this relationship?

Alice Waters: Needless to say, it's very important to me. I was awakened around design when I went to France when I was 19. I was living in a culture that really cared about food in a big way. They valued how it was served in all aspects, in terms of what was on the plate, what that plate looked like, and what that napkin looked like, and what things were in the room that reinforced what was on the plate. I just absorbed that sense of beauty connected to food and the aliveness of food. I also see this as a Montessori teacher. Dr. Montessori really believed that the senses need to be educated, that they are the pathways into our minds, and so the idea of something looking right and being able to touch, to be able to smell, to be able to taste, to hear, to listen, these are all ways that we can reach people and we can awaken them. I had that real experience when I was in France, and then I thought about the restaurant in that way, using that subtlety of reaching people through aroma and through their actually touching the food, engaging them and sort of winning them over.

Seasonality was vital to express in all of these dimensions. And so the flowers in the restaurant had to be alive and of that moment in time, any food you put out had to be from those gardens nearby, nothing flown in, nothing out of season. At the same time, we demystified what was happening in the kitchen, treating it as an extension of the dining room. In that way, the kitchen needs to be beautiful, so we put a fire inside so people could smell and have that visual reinforcing the aliveness of food. I wanted it to be a restaurant in a home so it felt like you were eating with family, that you were welcome into the kitchen without any barriers. I've always believed that artists can lift up all of these ideas into another realm, and so I had very special people design menus for the restaurant, make the vases that we put the flowers in, and design the lamps that are on the tables. The craftsmanship of everything is essential. It's trying to create an experience that's greater than the sum of the parts. And so no thing is too small. And that's how I am-I just feel like it's all the details.

AD PRO: Do you find that people who come into the spaces you've created have trouble putting into words why things are so special?

AW: Yes, you've got it exactly. I love it when they say they just want to go back, and they're not sure why. That's what I'm trying to tap into, the kind of human values that have been buried in our fast food culture-how we long to sit by a fire, how we long to eat together at the table. These have been a part of our civilization since the beginning of time and we've lost our connection. I am determined to find it again and bring us back to our senses, back to an everyday beauty that brings pleasure into our lives. We have had our senses dulled. We are told food should be fast, cheap, and easy. We don't pause. We don't reflect on the quality of a napkin, or the weight of glass, or the beauty that is in nature, that's in our everyday lives. I'm just trying to find ways to bring it back, because I know that when people get in touch again, they are forever in touch. Once you find that delicious peach, you want to eat it again. Once you've had the experience of candlelight at a table, you think "Oh my god, maybe I'd better get some candles."

AD PRO: Yes! I had a peach when I was ten years old and it was the most delicious peach I've ever tasted, picked off a tree, and I'm chasing that to this day.

AW: I'm forever chasing fraises de bois, that's what I had in France, wild strawberries. I want that again. I am this way about so many things now because I only eat things in season. So when that mulberry is there, I eat it everyday. It's something that gives my year meaning, that that berry is there. That's the kind of awakening that we all need to have, and if children can get it when they're young, they never forget it. They never, ever forget it. So that's my big project in the schools.

AD PRO: Schools, particularly in rethinking school lunches, have become an essential part of the work you do-how do you apply this philosophy there?

AW: I'm always thinking that we need to design schools so that children absorb the values that we are trying to each them every day. A love of nature, a sense of community, a place of mental and physical beauty and nourishment, a sense of equality-these are all the values that you want them to feel. You want them to feel like they are getting the most important education that we could give them, and so that means we have to think about the space that they are living in for six or eight hours every single day. I think of the American Academy in Rome as one of my favorite institutional, if you will, spaces. There's an inner courtyard, fireplaces in the dining room, the light and beauty of Rome; it's a school within a garden. Everybody who goes there gets this sense about the worth of education to their own personal lives, and every time you walk down the hallway, you feel it. You feel the arches, you feel the history, the library, every aspect of it.

We have turned our schools into prisons; some of them even have barbed-wire fences. And so what we're trying to do with Edible Schoolyard is come through that cafeteria door and bring a set of values into the school, where beauty is top of the list. Just simply putting art on the walls of a cafeteria, or a bouquet of flowers or a bowl of fruit gives a sense that these children are cared for. I'm collaborating all the time with that architect in my mind. I'm trying to make tables that give a sense of equality, long tables where everyone sits and shares the food. It goes beyond this too, with the students helping to serve each other. And then I want to make them a placemat and maybe that placemat is connected to their academic subjects. Maybe it's for a language class, and maybe on the placemat are all of the foods that they're eating in the words of the other language. Or maybe they're in a music class and it's a music score. This is all about trying to inspire the kids through their interactive participation.

AD PRO: You've mentioned in interviews that you had this dream that if you weren't doing what you're doing, you might want to be an architect. It seems like you get to flex some of the muscles in what you're doing.

AW: Yes, I try to all the time. I think about it all the time. I do.

AD PRO: Is there someone or someplace that inspires you, that puts together all of these ideals that you think about in your work, in the design world?

AW: I was thinking about that. I love it when a building effortlessly gives you its mission. You don't have to struggle at all. You go into the Pantheon in Rome and you know right away, you just know. You look up and you feel it. There's also nature in the building. I was there once and it was raining inside. Louis Kahn's National Assembly in Bangladesh is one of my favorite buildings because, again, it's reinforcing the ideas of democracy. It is inspiring to everyone who goes in it and it's meant to be that way.

Christopher Alexander has always been important philosophically to me. I've used his Pattern Language so often to think about how people around the world interpret this particular value. I also love the National Museum of African American History. David Adjaye does a remarkable job designing a building that encourages you to learn as you walk through the building. Someone else who really inspires me is Olafur Eliasson, because he's always thinking architecturally, in terms of design on every level. I was involved with his book Studio Olafur Eliasson: The Kitchen, and I just love the idea that he serves everyone lunch all together, all the people that work there. He has two artist-cooks that make everything organic and local in Berlin, year round. And they all sit together and inspire each other at the table. That's just a perfect marriage of food and design.

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Alice Waters on How Design Can Awaken Our Senses and Fix Education | Architectural Digest

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Alice Waters is without question among the most, if not the most, visionary culinary minds operating today. Waters has so carefully crafted what it means to eat well, local, and slow, which is why Chez Panisse remains one of the most inspiring dining destinations in the world some 46 years after opening.

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There are plenty of studies that isolate the effects of light, acoustics, or air quality on learning. But the research on flexible classrooms is frustratingly scarce.

There are good reasons for the apparent lack of interest. Variables like natural light and acoustics lend themselves to single-factor experiments that can be conducted in a laboratory setting. Give subjects a task to complete in a room with ample windows, for example, and then administer the same test in a room without them.

But flexible classrooms are complex, living systems. One flexible space looks nothing like the next, and often dozens of children and one or more teachers operate within them, pushing and pulling furniture into novel configurations, dimming or turning up lights, and otherwise reshuffling things to suit an almost infinite variety of personal preferences. Studying flexible classrooms, it would seem, means circulating among real children.

Despite the challenges, an ambitious effort to study the design of lived-in classrooms, including looking at hard-to-define factors like flexibility, was completed in 2015 by the University of Salford, in the United Kingdom. Researchers put in the legwork, visiting 153 classrooms in 27 schools across the country-from small, remote village schools to much larger suburban buildings on the outskirts of metropolitan London. In the end, the effect of classroom design on academic performance was studied across 3,766 British children aged 5 to 11.

"We were trying to take a holistic perspective," explained Peter Barrett, the lead researcher and now an honorary research fellow at the University of Oxford. "In other words, we were trying to look at spaces as experienced by people. So this isn't just air quality, this isn't just temperature, or an effort to measure the factors separately. This is the whole lot together."

The Findings

The study looked at three dimensions of classroom design: naturalness (factors like light and temperature), stimulation (factors like color and visual complexity), and individualization (factors like flexibility and student ownership).

The big insight? Optimizing all of these physical characteristics of primary classrooms improved academic performance in reading, writing, and mathematics by 16 percent. The personalization of classrooms-including flexibility, which Barrett defined as "student choice within the space"-accounted for a full quarter of that improvement.

Another way to look at it: When isolated from other measured factors, classroom flexibility is about as important as air quality, light, or temperature in boosting academic outcomes.
Katherine Madden
Barrett's team singled out the effectiveness of learning zones-"a reading area, a wet area, usually a carpet area for whole-class activity, tables usually in blocks of four or six"-and made special note of unique classroom shapes, which seem to allow for easier partitioning of the space. But the study doesn't prescribe fixed solutions, setting out loose guidelines instead. When I described American flexible classrooms, which are even more individualized than their British counterparts, Barrett agreed that the Salford findings applied.

A few insights surprised even the researchers. Flexible, welcoming spaces had a startlingly large effect on learning in math- 73 percent of the students' progress that was attributed to classroom design was traced back to flexibility and student ownership. The reasons are a mystery, but Barrett and his team hazarded a guess: Academic subjects that provoke anxiety-in math, that's a known issue -are better addressed in classrooms that feel comfortable and familiar to students.

And some of the air quality data came as a shock. Despite a 2015 Harvard study that showed steady declines in higher-order thinking when carbon dioxide levels exceed 500 parts per million-the gas is a by-product of human breathing, for those who've forgotten their biology-the researchers consistently recorded levels over six times that high in a classroom they observed. That's alarming-and fixable.

"If air quality is OK at the start of the class, it won't be by the end unless you do something," according to Barrett. "It's an absolute fact. So you have to open a window or a door. But you have to do something."

Form, Function, and Flexibility

So will lugging new furniture into your room improve student outcomes? Do Hokki stools and throw pillows drive up test scores?

The answer is no.

Barrett thinks it's the old dictum that form follows function at work: Flexible classrooms are successful because they go hand in hand with a change in pedagogy. That conclusion never fails to emerge in teacher-led discussions on Edutopia. Flexible spaces, educators agree, alter the fundamental dynamics of teaching and learning, giving students more control and responsibility, improving academic engagement, and undermining the typical face-forward orientation of the traditional learning environment.

In other words, it's not the inert fact of the furniture itself-the new couch in the center of the room or the standing desk near the window-but the dynamic use of the space by the teacher and students that pays, in the end. Changing the layout of your classroom will almost certainly have no impact at all-if you don't change your teaching too.

The takeaway: Flexibility, combined with characteristics like acoustics and air quality, has a real impact on student achievement. If used properly, flexible classrooms produce better academic outcomes among primary school children than more traditional, static classroom designs.

The author of this article is the chief content officer at Edutopia. You can follow him on Twitter @smerrill777.

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Flexible Classrooms: Research Is Scarce, But Promising

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An ambitious study of 153 classrooms in the United Kingdom provides the best evidence that flexible spaces can boost academic performance.

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The race is on in many schools and districts to design brain-friendly, modern classrooms and buildings. Use these guidelines to make sure your decisions are design-focused when choosing classroom furniture.

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Today we release our A systematic review of the effects of learning environments on student learning outcomes - Technical Report 4 by Terry Byers, Marian Mahat, Kirra Liu, Anne Knock and Wesley Imms. The following blog post by Terry Byers provides an overview of the report.

The Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change (ILETC) project conducted a systematic review of the literature on the impact of school learning environments on student learning outcomes. The object of the review was to elicit the existing empirical evidence that assessed the impact of different learning environment types (blended, innovative learning environments, open-plan and traditional) on student learning outcome measures (those with published evidence of reliability and validity).

Review search terms revealed 5,521 articles. After applying filters based on the selection criteria, removal of duplicates and comparative review, the remaining 72 articles were the subject of full-text review. Of these, 51 articles were removed because student academic or learning outcomes were not a dependent variable, or no outcome measure was utilised; leaving 21 for final analysis. The relatively small sample of studies identified in the review does support the assertions made by the likes of Blackmore, Bateman, O'Mara, and Loughlin (2011) and Painter et al. (2013) that cite the lack of substantive, empirical data around the purported impact of different spatial layouts on student outcomes.

The review studies ranged from single-site comparative through to quasi-experimental randomised designs at multiple sites. Their samples ranged from 17 to 22,679 for students from both primary to secondary schools. The former tended to assess student academic outcomes through existing school-based assessment or bespoke measures of creative, critical thinking or problem-solving testing instruments. The later, with significant statistical power brought through very large samples from multiple schools, assessed the impact of different spaces through systemic, standardised literacy and numeracy testing regimes. With the majority of studies utilising assessment regimes that favour the prevailing view student academic progression, the review highlight the dearth of instruments that support the narrative around ILEs that there is the need for students to be problem solvers, creative and engage in critical thinking and work in collaboration with peers.

The final 21 articles fell into three main categories; comparisons between; open-plan and traditional classrooms; physical learning environment performance; and innovative learning environments (ILEs) and traditional layouts. A small number of studies before 1980 compared open-plan learning environments with traditional classroom spaces. Collectively, these studies suggested that the open-plan setting correlated with a negative or no discernible impact on student academic achievement, underlying the related findings by Hattie (2009, 2012).

The remaining studies, with the majority occurring in the past decade, presented differing evidence on the comparisons of spaces more typical of contemporary, ILEs against traditional layouts. Across these studies, the evidence presented tended to suggest some correlation between the design, function, and nature of the physical learning environment and learning outcomes. Very few studies reported (Bottge, Rueda, & Skivington, 2006; Byers, Imms, & Hartnell-Young, 2014; Fößl, Ebner, Schön, & Holzinger, 2016) effect sizes that ranged from d = .31 to .78, which limits the scope for meta-analysis. A similar number utilised linear modelling (Barrett, Davies, Zhang, & Barrett, 2017; Tanner, 2000, 2008) to proportion the variable of the condition in the physical learning environment from around 7% to 11.7% variation in achievement on systemic, standardised academic testing instruments.

Overall, this review did address the perceived lack of empirical evidence available to ascertain the impact of different learning environments. The comprehensive process utilised here has addressed the previously held position that there were no quantitative studies, with adequate quality, sampling and statistical process, undertaken that have evaluated the impact of the physical learning environment. The identified studies present initial evidence that correlates the influence of the physical learning environment on student academic achievement. That said, there must be greater emphasis placed in future studies of the longitudinal implications of different learning environments on teacher behaviour and pedagogies and how this affects student learning experiences and academic outcomes.
Reference List
Barrett, P., Davies, F., Zhang, Y., & Barrett, L. (2017). The Holistic Impact of Classroom Spaces on Learning in Specific Subjects. Environment and Behavior, 49(4), 425-451. doi:10.1177/0013916516648735

Blackmore, J., Bateman, D., O'Mara, J., & Loughlin, J. (2011). Research into the connection between built learning spaces and student outcomes: Literature review. Melbourne: Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development Retrieved from http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/publ/research/publ/blackmore_learning_spaces.pdf.

Bottge, B., Rueda, E., & Skivington, M. (2006). Situating math instruction in rich problem-solving contexts: Effects on adolescents with challenging behaviors. Behavioral Disorders, 31(4), 394-407.

Byers, T., Imms, W., & Hartnell-Young, E. (2014). Making the case for space: The effect of learning spaces on teaching and learning. Curriculum and Teaching, 29(1), 5-19.

Fößl, T., Ebner, M., Schön, S., & Holzinger, A. (2016). A field study of a video supported seamless-learning-setting with elementary learners. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 19(1), 321.

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analysis relating to achievement. Abingdon: Routledge.

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers. Abingdon: Routledge.

Painter, S., Fournier, J., Grape, C., Grummon, P., Morelli, J., Whitmer, S., & Cevetello, J. (2013). Research on learning space design: Present state, future directions. Ann Arbor: Society for College and University Planning.

Tanner, C. K. (2000). The influence of school architecture on academic achievement. Journal of Educational Administration, 38(4), 309-330. doi:10.1108/09578230010373598

Tanner, C. K. (2008). Explaining relationships among student outcomes and the school's physical environment. Journal of Advanced Academics, 19(3), 444-471.

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Student outcomes and learning environments - a systematic review -

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Today we release our A systematic review of the effects of learning environments on student learning outcomes - Technical Report 4 by Terry Byers, Marian Mahat, Kirra Liu, Anne Knock and Wesley Imms. The following blog post by Terry Byers provides an overview of the report.

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The challenge is to redesign your high school library and re-think how your school's library should, or could, function as technology advances and our notion of study and working changes accordingly.

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Design, creation &amp; management of library learning spaces. Filter by: public, university, school, learning, class, bookshelves [Page 87]