Paper Presented to the OECD Conference
Creating 21 Century Learning Environments
London, United Kingdom
28th. May, 2004
Andrew Bunting
Architectus Melbourne
andrew.bunting@architectus.com.au
Introduction
A fundamental complexity of school design has always arisen due to the multiple and conflicting purposes for educational institutions. ‘Form follows Function’ is not so clear or direct when there are multiple functions which buildings must serve. Schools present this scenario.
In our post-modern era, new understandings of learning, influences of information and communication technology and the employment requirements of the knowledge society have placed pressures and questions on the traditional provisions of education. New purposes of schooling have evolved.
Promoting the school as a learning community is one current theme. The majority of our school designs do not facilitate this concept. Rather, they reinforce the school as an isolated institution. What designs can schools adopt to allow them to connect more readily with local community? How can school buildings contribute more to the school as a learning community?
Purposes of Schooling
Throughout history, education systems have aligned to differing purposes – often more than one at a time. Generally the four common purposes are considered to be:
- Socialization – to replicate society, to imbue local and national culture and to promote citizenship.
- Vocational – to training people for employment, often via tertiary education.
- Self-fulfilment - to develop individuals to their maximum potential, the liberal function.
- Transformative – to provide equal opportunity for learning and to encourage change to a better world. (Sterling, 2001)
Beare and Slaughter cast the above four purposes into academic and non-academic states. Vocational and Self-fulfilment are considered academic. Socialisation and Transformation are considered non-academic. They note, in the process, that some of the most noble outcomes of schooling are immeasurable; such as ‘a love of reading, music and art.’ (Beare and Slaughter, 1993)
Certainly, different stakeholders within the broader education system have different expectations. Students and their parents desire individual success. For the majority of students and parents, this may emphasise the vocational purpose over the intrinsic purpose. Some academically-gifted students may have a more liberal attitude to the educational experience and will seek as much learning as possible. Governments equate success with an educated workforce that will contribute to economic growth and promote good citizenship. There is an important socialisation/nationalisation process at work as well. Since the introduction of mass education, governments have consistently striven for this. Employers are also looking for an educated workforce, but their concept of ‘educated’ has undergone considerable change. Around 250 years ago they were looking to the mass education system to provide workers with good habits and discipline. At the same time, the schools for the elite saw themselves as producing ‘men of character.’ Self-control, discipline and sporting prowess took preference over academic learning. (Matheson and Liamond,1999). Today employers are looking for team workers and problem solvers (Vick, 1998).
School Buildings Reflecting Purpose:
Let us consider school design in the light of the four generally accepted purposes of schooling mentioned above. In doing so it is important to be aware that there are overlaps and cross influences between purposes; for example, between socialisation and learning. In addition, in many Western countries, there is an emphasis on the ‘holistic’ development of students; that is, their intellectual, psychological, social, emotional, spiritual, ethical, moral and the physical development.
Socialization
Schools designed to promote socialisation would address the concept of the community within the school as well as the relationship of the school to the external community. Specific design features would include:
- Schools which are not isolated but are geographically connected to the hubs of community.
- Schools based on the house model and/or the studio model of learning.
- Schools which provide traditional or café type dining precincts.
- Schools which provide for boarding or motel type accommodation.
- Schools which provide amenable places for informal gathering and learning.
There is considerable importance attached to the socialisation purpose of schooling. Students learning to inter-act with each other in a controlled environment is the is main reason advanced against home-schooling. However, some would debate this.
Vocation
Secondary schools no longer provide vocational accreditation. Societal and employment changes have had the dual effects of eliminating some avenues of employment at the same time as increasing the technical requirements of others. ‘Credentials inflation’ has increased the entry requirements into many fields of employment. Generally, the majority of students proceed to further tertiary qualifications before entering the workforce. These may be in Universities or technical colleges.
Nevertheless, there is a growing provision of applied learning in secondary schools to cater for students who are not suited to traditional academic learning. Rather then have these students drop out of school all together, it is considered preferable to have them stay in formal education for as long as possible. Moreover, given the difficulty in obtaining University places and the concern about declining trade skills within society, there is a return to applied learning in secondary schools with alternative pathways leading to the completion of year 12. For example, course are offered in areas such as hospitality, graphics, technology as alternatives to the traditional academic subjects.
Clearly, specialised facilities are required for these subjects and not all schools are able to provide for them. Networks of schools and technical colleges have been formed to share this learning.
Self-Fulfilment
Whilst self-fulfilment takes place through formal learning activities and socialisation at school, it is also facilitated by such activities as sport and performing arts. These extra-curricula subjects are offered in the interests of providing students with a more rounded general education, rather than necessarily conceiving of them as career alternatives, although for some, they will be. Sport, in its various forms requires specialist facilities as does music and drama. Often such facilities are also available for community use.
Designs for this purpose would create spaces which encouraged individual learning, reflection and researching; scenario spaces for discussion and team work along with libraries which were conducive to private and group work. Self-fulfilment is also an outcome of informal learning which occurs between students.
Academic and non-academic activities would include:
- Sport
- Performing Arts
- Individual Learning and Researching
- Scenario Constructions
- Discussion and Debate on Values and Beliefs.
- Transformative
Schools as places of transformation must focus on student development. This should happen through the formal and informal learning processes. However, if secondary schools are to be successful in the Knowledge Age, then students need to leave such places having developed a desire to continue the process and engage in life-long learning.
How often does this happen? We still have many students leaving secondary schools with negative experiences that almost ensure that they will never return to places of learning. Various factors can, of course, contribute to this, and the physical environment is one of them. Many of our schools are not spiritually or educationally uplifting places to be. They may keep out the elements and be functional to an extent but they fail to produce that aspect of delight, such as the feeling of being in a cosy English pub – just good places to be !
Schools are also conceived as places of social levelling, but this tends to emphasise the lowest common denominator rather than to raise expectations, opportunities and potentialities. Theoretically, government schools are intended to be places of equality of opportunity both educationally and in the provision of facilities. In practice this tends not to happen. To achieve equality with the provision of facilities, governments tend to produce standard space schedules based on enrolment numbers. Although not impossible to overcome, this requirement creates a tension with architectural innovation.
As places of transformation, schools are increasingly required to adopt the provision of additional social services for students, their families and the wider local community. Health practitioners of various guises and other social and psychological consultants and/or business activities are mooted as some of the partners to schools. The incorporation of these additional activities is designed to break-down the notion of the isolationist school and assist students to enter into society. At the same time, schools become more efficient and effective. Transforming schools into education centres which are accessible for greater periods of time during all phases of the week is a vehicle to enable this.
Other Considerations
Most schools are designed with a combination of the purposes of socialisation, vocation, liberal pursuit and transformation. However, there are other sub-purposes or considerations which influence school designs to various degrees. Some of these conflict with the main purposes described above. These can be summarized as:
Discipline and Supervision
Schools are understood to be places of discipline. In the broader sense this is the shaping of the student in a controlled and positive environment. Discipline can also mean punishment for wrong-doing or breaking the rules. Schools serve ‘social engineering’ purposes as well.
In a recent Australian Government Survey of parents’ and community members’ attitudes to schooling, ‘discipline’ rated as the most important social factor for parents of children at government schools. By contrast, in non-government schools, values were regarded as the most important social factor (Government, 2003). But there are other factors operating here.
Supervision is an integral part of discipline. Physical supervision is mostly achieved by visual oversight or, more recently, electronic surveillance. Traditionally sight lines were important and had the unfortunate consequence of reinforcing the long and straight corridors of so many government schools.
The ‘Duty of Care’ for students to the end of secondary schooling is an aspect of supervision. Parents expect their children to be safe in schools and are very ready to take legal action if they are not. Hence, schools must be safe places. this involves the identification of all staff and visitors who enter the school grounds. This creates a tension with the projection of the school as an open and friendly community facility. This provision also has ramifications for the risk of taking students off site for learning in ‘the real world.’
What do these factors mean when considering more relevant learning experiences for students ? To what extent do these factors impinge on school design ?
Organisational Efficiency – Economies of Scale - Size
School design has always been subject to organisational efficiency and economies of scale. In the post-war period when large numbers of students had to be accommodated in schools, standard designs utilizing lower quality and low- priced materials prevailed. Currently, design and building efficiency is maintained by standard space-schedules, which tend to emphasise minimum rather than optimum spaces, and lower end construction budgets.
Economies-of-scale are also achieved by increasing the size of schools. Whilst this has an economic impact, there are also arguments for the benefit of larger course choices due to size. Opposite points of view maintain that there is a loss of community as the size of the school increases. Some of this may be overcome by the introduction of sub-schools or house groupings.
Efficiency and effectiveness are often opposite qualities. Schools can be very efficient but very ineffective; likewise, they can also be effective but inefficient. Striking the balance is the art of good education, just as it is of good architecture.
Streaming, Filtration and Care-taking
Some view the purpose of secondary schools as being a filter for students progressing to further education or employment. In a positive sense, it would be hoped that the inherent intelligences, talents and aptitudes of students would be identified and channelled in suitable directions. It would not be desirable if this resulted in type-casting students as academic or not.
Students who are disaffected by this sorting process want to leave school despite being required to stay until they reach the end of compulsory schooling. Schools then take on the role of caretakers. From all perspectives, this is an unsatisfactory outcome, and ‘flies in the face’ of arguments for access and equity.
Equality and Equity
Equality of opportunity and equality of provision means giving every student the same learning environment. Providing ‘a level playing field’ is an important element of schooling as a transformative purpose. Because of the interplay of various elements, this is rarely achieved in practice.
Equity is a different concept. It means giving each student what is necessary to extend them to their full potential. Therefore, some may have additional tuition to bring them to the standard of the others in the group – others may have additional tuition to take them beyond the group because they are capable of further development and learning.
Considerations of equality and equity have significant implications for the provision of school design. But if we acknowledge that all students are different and all approach learning in different ways, what are the implications of this for providing equality-of-opportunity and equality-of-provision? How should or do these concepts influence school design?
Australian Scenarios
The purposes and sub-purposes of schooling are being re-examined in a world which is experiencing great societal, economic and educational change. This has led some to look to the future by creating scenarios of what may be.
Six scenarios have been constructed by the OECD in the: What Schools for the Future? (OECD, 2001) Riel Miller has also considered some future directions with his paper: Where schools might fit in a future learning society (Miller, 2003)? Two Australians have also recently contributed to this endeavour.
Looking to the future of schooling in society, Suter poses three scenarios. The first is business as usual, where schools operate basically as they do at present. This is premised on the fact that people do not like change, that most of the teachers who will be around in ten years time are in the service now, and that since the infrastructure is already in place, the conservative forces will act to preserve the status quo. This is not an attractive scenario and is not sustainable. The second scenario is that students would be educated at home via cyber schooling. This would free up a lot of real estate and promote individually tailored learning but where is the socialisation? The third scenario is represented by the community learning centre. Keep the school facilities but expand and change their role. Add additional forms of learning for all ages, food at all times and additional community services such as health and sport. Would this then be the glue to hold the community together (Suter, 2001)?
Caldwell also offers three scenarios for future schooling. His first is that the divide between Government and Private schools would increase and that Government schools would only act as safety net schools in the public domain. Government would support the private school networks. The second scenario is that there would be a greater commitment to the public good. This would be evidenced by the government vacating the ownership and delivery of education but would be actively supporting all schools with increased revenue. Community support would be high. Curriculum and learning technologies would be varied and ‘state-of-the-art.’ The third scenario is that schools would decline as institutions and their place would be taken by community learning centres and home based learning (Caldwell, 2000).
One of the relevant issues raised by Caldwell is Toffler’s contribution to the understanding of the impact of societal transformation. Second wave people (those moulded in the industrial era) would defend school systems of that time. Third wave people would be looking ahead to new ways of operating. Thus, second wave people would… ‘oppose efforts to de-massify the schools’ while the forces of the third wave ‘call for a crack-up of the giant bureaucracies’ and ’fight for less standardisation, more individualisation in the schools’ Toffler, as cited in (Caldwell, 2000).
We are virtually led by Suter to adopt his third scenario as the most acceptable. One can imagine further consolidation of the real estate of schools along with extensive upgrades to the remaining stock. Caldwell bundles this option in with the growth of home based learning and the description he gives it does not sound as appealing as that given by Suter. With an eye to the adherence of core values, Caldwell constructs a matrix for the three scenarios based on Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Efficiency, and Economic Growth. On this basis his second scenario is the preferred option. Suter’s scenarios are clearly linked to the building fabric of schools whereas Caldwell’s are not. But we can imagine that if all schools are in the private domain and they have strong community support, they would have freedom to design and create their own physical environments within the funding available to suit their purposes and be integrated with their communities.
If we synthesise these two scenarios, we come up with ‘a community learning centre which is operational all hours, accessible to all people, privately operated but government resourced, and is well equipped with ‘state-of-the-art’ facilities and learning materials appropriate to the specialisations on offer.
Starting Anew
What if we were creating a universal education system now as we proceed from the Information society to the Knowledge society instead of when it actually happened during the move from an agricultural to the industrial society? What sort of schooling system would it be, and what physical facilities would be required, and where? Let’s assume, for the purpose of this exercise, that there has been some private education for the elite in country boarding schools, there has been considerable home schooling provided by one or more parents or grandparents, that there have been children in the workforce – working in offices, factories and mundane service industries. What systems could we build or devise? Phoebe Palmieri considered the increasing flexibility of a number of educational components.
Peter Drucker talked of innovative organisations being able to ‘abandon yesterday’. ‘If we did not do this already, would we, knowing what we now know, go into it?’ (Drucker ,1999)
Conclusion
The purposes and ‘sub-purposes’ of schooling are many and have changed over the years since mass schooling was introduced. There is a strong link between the purposes of schooling and school designs. As we continue our early journey through the 21st century, it is crucial to re-define the purpose of our secondary schools. Not only is this important to ensure that our physical facilities are not hindering the learning process we desire, but it is also essential to be assured that the enormous investment we have in our school facilities is giving us a sound return. Only when the purposes of secondary education have been re-defined can we pay attention to the suitability of our existing school facilities.
Changing the system is hard. It has been tried before and failed. However, in like conferences and research all over the world, educators and architects are saying that we can do better with the design and provision of our educational buildings. I believe this energy to keep trying is driven by the belief that developments in information and communication technology have changed the rules of architecture – our concepts of place, space, and time. I also believe that we understand considerably more about the process of effective learning and the importance of the environment to this. And finally, I believe we are energised to seek more meaningful community because the importance of some of our old social geographies has faded. Somehow we think schools should be a part of this.
