The Impact of the Spatial Design on the Learning Process and the Students' Socialisation: A Study on Secondary Schools Within the UK (original) (raw)
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Proceedings of the 13th Space Syntax Symposium, 2022
The importance of school buildings is rooted in the vitality of education for societal development. Literature perceives learning as a social process, enriched by student interactions and self-directed activities, and the school design should afford those learning practices. The term afford refers to spatial affordances which are defined, in this paper, as the set of possibilities for activities offered by the spatial design to students. Therefore, research on school buildings requires a broad investigation of the spatial design, to uncover the design potentiality and explore the actuality of school operation, in terms of the occurring student interactions and self-directed activities (as representations of social learning). This investigation outlines the research scope, while more attention is drawn towards informal learning spaces outside classrooms, including corridors, open-plan studios and social spaces. This paper focuses on the affordances of the spatial design of secondary school buildings. It presents the outcome of quantitative spatial analysis (using Space Syntax tools) on eleven UK schools, designed by three architecture firms, supported by qualitative interviews with the architects of those schools. This data set explores the school design potentiality for possible learning practices. The paper, thereafter, presents quantitative recording of student interactions and self-directed activities in two of the eleven schools, supported by qualitative interviews with the school managements and teachers; and student questionnaires. This data set explains the actuality of student interactions and self-directed activities, relative to operational managerial schemes and student preferences. Findings discuss the influence of functionalities allocation and configurational accessibility on student interactions, activity types and distribution. This is portrayed through the example of school corridors which afford interactive learning if being highly accessible and connected to open learning spaces. Nevertheless, operational managerial schemes and student preferences still influence the occurring activities. The research outcome explains the school actual operations, and how they correspond to (or divert from) the original design potentiality. This outcome contributes to the existing knowledge on the student social life in schools, and how the spatial design and school rules impact activity types across informal spaces. This possibly links to future work on interactive design processes that include architects, teachers and school managements to reduce the gap between school design intentions and operation.
The Spatial Model of the Classroom and its Immediate Surroundings:A Variety of Learning Spaces
Current Science
This paper looks into the spatial dispositions of the classroom and its immediate surroundings in elementary schools, with the goal of defining a broad learning space, in accordance with modern intentions in pedagogy. The starting assumption is that the learning space may offer versatility and a variety of options in the educational process. In the development of the spatial model two key contributing factors have been taken into account: the implications of the modern educational process and potential spatial characteristics. Various levels of spatial interrelationship are considered between the classroom and the adjacent classroom, the break-out space, communication area, social activity zones, and the outdoor classroom. Accordingly, by using the modelling method, a conceptual spatial model of the classroom and its immediate surroundings is defined such that it can receive specific applications in the design of elementary schools.
School as Space: Spatial Alterations, Teaching, Social Motives, and Practices
Studia paedagogica, 2014
Space is only gradually emerging as a topic in educational research in general and in research on schools in particular. In this paper, we approach an empirical examination of social processes in schools within the framework of two prominent theoretical approaches to the topic of space: the absolute and the relational. By empirically examining how classroom arrangements are influenced by material space and in themselves constitute space, we hope to arrive at a better understanding of how space, teaching, and social relationship structures are intertwined in schools. Furthermore, we present the argument that a combination of the two spatial concepts is promising when empirically examining social processes within a spatial reference frame.
The Design of School Buildings: Potentiality of Informal Learning Spaces for Self-directed Learning.
Proceedings of the 12th Space Syntax Symposium, 2019
Schooling systems could be perceived through three main dimensions: students, the learning process and the built environment portrayed in the school building. Each dimension comprises different parameters. This research has chosen to focus on the spatial affordances of the school buildings specifically the affordances of ‘informal learning spaces’ for students’ activities including ‘self-directed learning’. Informal learning spaces are continuously overlooked within existing research. They are the spaces outside classrooms: assembly spaces, dining areas and circulation corridors, where students take initiatives to construct their own knowledge through different activities: reading a book, doing homework, revising for exams. These activities are defined as self-directed learning. The theoretical framing of this paper brings together the Gibsonian concept of spatial affordances i.e. possible actions that occur in the built environment with the systematic study of potentialities arising from configuration according to Space Syntax. Informal learning spaces will be evaluated through Bernstein’s concept of classification and framing. Classification is the degree of boundary, which applies to the curriculum, school system and more importantly the space itself. Framing is the locus of control, i.e. who controls the process of learning and its material, which also applies to spatial control. The paper investigates the design of two school buildings in London to explore the key design features that could impact the students’ learning. Using interviews with architects and a detailed space syntax analysis, it highlights the potential of various school spaces to afford the students’ activity patterns. The design process and the configurational analysis indicate that both schools show differential potentialities for self-directed learning. The degree of classification and framing influences the spread of activities, especially the ones initiated by the students: self-directed learning. School A seems to afford a horizontal grid distribution of activities along the main spine and the central arcade (lowest Visual Mean Depth spaces). School B has an overall vertical organisation scheme around five circulation networks and five house assembly spaces. The spatial configuration seems to afford the spread of students’ activities within the assembly spaces. The design of school A is argued to represent weak classification (boundaries) and strong framing (control). There are weak boundaries within the open plan arcade space and spine. Accordingly, self-directed learning would potentially spread organically along the building within low VMD spaces, when students need to be seen, mix and study together: assembly spaces, wide corridors and arcade; and within high VMD spaces when students need to concentrate: multi-use lab and study rooms. Still, the school communicates strong framing, due to the high degree of control within the classical design of the closed classrooms and studios. The design of school B is the opposite case of strong classification but weak framing. The school maintains strong boundaries between the five houses and their assembly spaces. Activities could flourish within each house boundaries and its dining area according to the management’s rules of dividing the building (strong classification). The open large learning platforms called ‘super-studios’ maintain low degrees of control over the learning activities, thus communicate weak framing. Insights presented in this paper lay the foundation for understanding the potentiality of the main design components inside the schools Proceedings of the 12th Space Syntax Symposium (assembly spaces, dining rooms, circulation spaces) to induce and accommodate students’ self- directed learning, thus to be considered by architects in future school building design.
PLANS AND PEDAGOGIES School Design as Socio-Spatial Assemblage
2016
The concepts in this chapter were originally presented in the Journal of Architecture in 2013, addressing a design oriented audience. The research findings are included in this book to ensure an educational audience has the opportunity to see the links between pedagogy and space which were encountered in this study. The design of learning environments at every level from primary to tertiary is undergoing major transformations involving the proliferation of new learning spaces that are variously termed learning ‘streets’ or ‘commons’, ‘meeting’ spaces and ‘outdoor learning’ areas together with complex new interrelations and overlaps between them.1 Such changes are largely driven by long standing changes in pedagogical theory and practice that may be broadly described as a recognition of both formal and informal learning and a move from teacher-centred to student-centred learning. The traditional classroom is a product of a teacher-centred pedagogy, framing a hierarchic relation betwe...
The social dimensions of space in school environment
Facta universitatis - series: Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2018
Children's patterns of behavior in the school environment, conditioned by various levels of individual or group needs, represent the basic modalities of their relationship towards the immediate, both social and physical, environment. This paper studies the connection between the behavior of school children, whose relationships with their given social environment can take various forms, and certain spatial characteristics of elementary schools. The results indicate that there is a need to achieve a balanced relationship between a strictly defined and an open form of the physical environment in order to create conditions in which school children will express their current orientation and attitude toward their immediate social environment through their behavior in that particular physical environment. This includes the organization of a dynamic and shifting environment, spatial planning which needs to enable a greater degree of privacy in certain zones and the organization of spatial flow which enables adequate visual communication between the school children and the flexible structure of the space meant for education.
Alexandria University, 2019
This research is based on the fact that any space on the university campus is a learning space, and that informal learning or social knowledge between students has become an integral part of formal education. The central hypothesis of this study is that the socio-cultural aspects of a specific society have an impact on the spatial configuration of in-between learning spaces and transitional spaces of the university buildings, and thus influence the overall layout of the campus. The research focuses on studying student activities in in-between learning spaces and their classification to determine the best practices that help designers and decision-makers in educational institutions to reach a physical environment along with the strategic objectives of the universities. This environment must be appropriate to students' requirements of spaces to improve their experiences and spaces usage on the university campus. The research dealt with this hypothesis through a multi-disciplinary framework based on the relationship between the spatial and social configuration of the educational environment. Analysing the components of this theoretical framework on some faculties of the University of Alexandria including the spatial and social configuration of student activities in the in-between spaces. The results of this study were formulated by defining a set of guidelines for spatial configuration patterns and functional relationships of in-between learning spaces used in informal learning and social activities of students.
The spatial configuration analysis of a high school through a participatory approach
Architectural Engineering and Design Management, 2020
School change is a degree of shift which require to respond to learners' needs and new conditions. Schools' climate is influenced by political, economic, social, and technological factors as well as educational methods. Due to the complexity of the factors affecting spatial configuration, new design approaches are needed. The research problem is how the spatial configuration of a school can be determined in a specific context from the perspective of stakeholders? To answer this question, a participatory approach and a pattern language have been used. Five groups of three participants took part in the process, each group consist of an architect, a student, and a teacher. In this research, the participatory process was performed in the data collection stage using the spatial matrix, group discussion, open-ended questionnaire, and pattern language. Changing the spatial configuration of a school was the final goal of this approach. The spatial configuration was analyzed through DepthmapX0.30 software implementing the space syntax method. Qualitative data also analyzed using Atlas-ti software through the coding method. The results of the research present that the current school's model is not appropriate and the new learning environment should be redesigned based on collaboration, communication, and motivation of users.
Educational Architecture - Education, Heritage, Challenges, 2019
Over the past 20 years the world at large has undergone radical changes, in a pace never seen before in human history. A change mainly caused by digital technology and the 4 th industrial revolution. This paper argues, that schooling, especially primary schools, has not been able to adapt or keep up with that change. We currently see a learning-and assessment culture, a curriculum and a set of teaching methods in schools that no longer correspond with the skills students need in the future, nor correlates with what we know are the best methods for motivating pupils to actively engage and take ownership of their school work. In others words there seems to be a growing gap between what the current school systems are teaching and testing, and the skills students need to thrive individually, socially and professionally. Closing this gap, the physical environment of the school plays a significant role. We are shaped by the spaces we inhabit, and the 'affordance landscape' of a building, determines our possibilities and limits for thought and action. It is through the physical design of learning spaces that we can open up for new teaching practices and learning processes. So if we want to change the way kids learn, we need to change the spaces in which this learning is to take place. It is argued, that the basic problem of school architecture, are to be found in the fact, that decisions are first and foremost informed by hygienical standards, mere esthetics or personal opinions of policy-makers, architects and engineers. Easy-to-measure aspects like air-quality, amounts of daylight and square meter per student, seem to be the main concern. Far less often do we ask the question of how the layout and design of the school strengthens students' abilities for collaboration, their motivation for active engagement in school life, concentration and memory-processes. Through three corresponding architectural design-concepts Moving Architecture, Learning Architecture and Biomimetic Architecture, this paper aims to draw the outline of a decision-making tool that can help ensure, that schools are first and foremost build from a child-centred learning perspective. Keywords: School architecture, learning, Moving architecture, Learning Architecture, Biomimetic architecture, 21st century learning skills, creativity, future schools, learning spaces, learning space design
Spatial Cognition Depending on the Spatial Order in Education Buildings
IJARR, 2018
The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the spatial order of typologically produced educational buildings and the cognitive perceptions of students upon them. The main hypothesis of this study is that children's perceptual, social and pyhsical relations differ via the spatial configuration of educational buildings and cognitive maps of the students can be a tool to understand these relationships.Within the scope of the study, a comparative method has been followed on cognitive maps in order to examine the perceptual relationship of two different educational institutions' students between the ages of 8-12. At the end of the study, it was found that (1) the cognitive interaction that the students established with their school buildings changed according to the spatial order and (2) social interaction of students with each other affected when the spatial organization has no supportive qualities of visual interaction. In addition, it has been seen that when the spatial order has supportive visual qualities in educational buildings children can have attached feelings to their school buildingsand have more meaningful relationships with their surroundings. INTRODUCTION Human nature is a social asset. When considered within the context of environmental and behavioral theories, the environment is a holistic concept that encompasses not only the physical characteristics that can be understood by the senses but also the social life in which is experienced. As a result of a child's basic nature, he/she is in constant development and change with the effect of constant stimuli from a holistic environment. In the design of educational buildings that constitute / limit / define the environment in which has a significant part of children's daily lives, spatial designs are made only within the needs of an educational program, regardless of the need of the spatial stimuli for the cognitive and social development of students.