Learning Environment Design Futures
This month we're looking at the design processes of education systems and spaces. We discover a whole new educational philosophy and are left inspired by the life's work of a designer dedicated to improving the current approach to children's learning spaces. We also share a bunch of extra reading related to educational design chosen carefully from the POPP office just for you!
IMAGE CREDIT ABOVE
Location: Mt Claremont Primary, WA
Image Credit: James Whineray
"Children are highly capable and curious, and in their early years they spend a lot of time playing, asking questions and doing things together. Then, suddenly, we flick a switch when they start school, and say, 'OK, now you have to sit down and sit still, because that's how you'll learn. And we'll keep testing you and testing you'."
Mary Featherston, Assemble Papers interview
Education Design Directions
What would schools look like if they were designed as environments of research, of deep active inquiry, and co-created curriculum? What is the relationship between the built environment of educational settings and the learning that occurs within them? What do children actually need and want to learn and how?
Australian Designer Mary Featherston has spent the last 40 years of her career asking these questions and developing innovative learning environments, driven by her belief that young people deserve more from the current education system. The current system, Mary says, is designed to prepare people for the linear, repetitive cognitive skills needed during the industrial revolution. Now, the most desired skills in the workforce are complex problem-solving, creativity, and critical thinking. Yet, the learning environments are still geared towards minimal distraction, standardised testing and non-dynamic play and learning spaces. Subjects are separated and curriculums are still strongly text-focussed, all of which do not reflect the outside world.
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The Covered Garden Kindergarten, Correggio Italy
Photo by Luca Santiago Mora
"It allows kids to express their ideas and understandings in a way that suits them. Not all children like using words. Here, they can paint, model, draw, create animations, play-act, et cetera. When they are learning in a context that’s relevant to them, they’ll really take that learning on."
Mary Featherston, Assemble Papers interview
Mary approaches the design of learning environment's by focussing on children's perspectives. This approach is informed by Mary and her husband Grant's extensive research and inspired by an educational philosophy out of a small town in Northern Italy. Preschools of Reggio Emilia, where educators have spent 70 years studying how young children learn, have gained international recognition as being the best in the world. (Learn more about the Reggio Emilia educational movement here and here).
The result of this research and subsequent adaptation are curriculums co-designed with children based on their interests and strengths. This often looks like a single project, sometimes lasting all year, where students have autonomy over how they approach and present their learning experiences
What would schools look like if they were designed as environments of research, of deep active inquiry, and co-created curriculum? What is the relationship between the built environment of educational settings and the learning that occurs within them? What do children actually need and want to learn and how?
Australian Designer Mary Featherston has spent the last 40 years of her career asking these questions and developing innovative learning environments, driven by her belief that young people deserve more from the current education system. The current system, Mary says, is designed to prepare people for the linear, repetitive cognitive skills needed during the industrial revolution. Now, the most desired skills in the workforce are complex problem-solving, creativity, and critical thinking. Yet, the learning environments are still geared towards minimal distraction, standardised testing and non-dynamic play and learning spaces. Subjects are separated and curriculums are still strongly text-focussed, all of which do not reflect the outside world.
The Covered Garden Kindergarten, Correggio Italy
Photo by Luca Santiago Mora
"It allows kids to express their ideas and understandings in a way that suits them. Not all children like using words. Here, they can paint, model, draw, create animations, play-act, et cetera. When they are learning in a context that’s relevant to them, they’ll really take that learning on."
Mary Featherston, Assemble Papers interview
Mary approaches the design of learning environment's by focussing on children's perspectives. This approach is informed by Mary and her husband Grant's extensive research and inspired by an educational philosophy out of a small town in Northern Italy. Preschools of Reggio Emilia, where educators have spent 70 years studying how young children learn, have gained international recognition as being the best in the world. (Learn more about the Reggio Emilia educational movement here and here).
The result of this research and subsequent adaptation are curriculums co-designed with children based on their interests and strengths. This often looks like a single project, sometimes lasting all year, where students have autonomy over how they approach and present their learning experiences
What does this look like when designing physical learning environments? Of course it's also based on children's experiences. In adapting old or designing new play and learning spaces Mary consults the students first and foremost. She asks them how they experience the school day and conceptualises separate but integrated and dynamic spaces to reflect and support these varying experiences. The result becomes a space which is far more reflective of real-life situations and environments than traditional classrooms currently are. The spaces can look and feel like open offices, restaurants, or living spaces at home where children feel engaged, stimulated, comfortable, and have authorship over their learning experience.
"The creation of a safe and stimulating environment is so fundamental that, in much literature, it appears as a third teacher."
ArchDaily, Improving the Educational Environment with the Reggio Emilia Approach
Well, we can't argue with that! If you want to create a more engaged and active learning or community space with a permanent and colourful feature, get in touch for more information about how our POPP tables might help. And keep reading for the poem/manifesto that guides and inspires the Reggio Emilia approach to learning and a collection of great articles on the topic.
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Mary Featherston design for Wooranna Park Primary School, Victoria
Photo by Tom Ross
The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
Poem/manifesto by Loris Malaguzzi, Founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach
Further Reading:
Learning Environment Archive and Research Essays and research into learning environments and case studies of schools the Featherston's have worked with by Mary and Grant Featherston
The Slow Evolution of School Design
An interview with Mary Featherston by Assemble Papers
More Play, Less Desk Time
A discussion of the benefits of more play and flexible furniture in schools by ABC
Improving the Educational Environment with the Reggio Emilia Approach
A visual catalogue of school environments based on the Reggio Emilia Approach and a breakdown of specific design elements by Arch Daily
Reggio Emilia Approach Website
Everything you need to know
"The creation of a safe and stimulating environment is so fundamental that, in much literature, it appears as a third teacher."
ArchDaily, Improving the Educational Environment with the Reggio Emilia Approach
Well, we can't argue with that! If you want to create a more engaged and active learning or community space with a permanent and colourful feature, get in touch for more information about how our POPP tables might help. And keep reading for the poem/manifesto that guides and inspires the Reggio Emilia approach to learning and a collection of great articles on the topic.
Mary Featherston design for Wooranna Park Primary School, Victoria
Photo by Tom Ross
The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
Poem/manifesto by Loris Malaguzzi, Founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach
Further Reading:
Learning Environment Archive and Research Essays and research into learning environments and case studies of schools the Featherston's have worked with by Mary and Grant Featherston
The Slow Evolution of School Design
An interview with Mary Featherston by Assemble Papers
More Play, Less Desk Time
A discussion of the benefits of more play and flexible furniture in schools by ABC
Improving the Educational Environment with the Reggio Emilia Approach
A visual catalogue of school environments based on the Reggio Emilia Approach and a breakdown of specific design elements by Arch Daily
Reggio Emilia Approach Website
Everything you need to know