Building Change Into New Buildings - introduction of educational changes during school building construction or renovation

School Administrator, June, 1997 by WILLIAM S. DeJONG

Whether Constructing or Renovating, Consider Facility Work an Impetus for Introducing New Learning Structures

Imagine these two scenarios. In the first, your school district's buildings are aging, their mechanical systems are failing, their roofs are leaking, and their infrastructures are inadequate to supply electricity for computers, much less the cabling required for networking and Internet access.

In the second scenario, your district's schools are taxed by a burgeoning student population that shows no signs of abating.

The facility needs of both districts are urgent. The challenges of both districts offer incredible opportunities for addressing student learning needs of the next century.

Building and renovating school facilities means more than adding classrooms or replacing roofs. It means redefining the scope of education in the district. Facilities can become the impetus for change and the affirmation of this new vision.

Forward Thinking

One of the oldest principles in facility planning is that form follows function. As our society moves into the 21st century and school districts continue to renovate and build facilities for student learning, we must ask ourselves, "What is the function of education in the 21st century?" Only after that has been answered can we determine the form of new or renovated schools.

Constructing and renovating facilities requires school districts to develop a new vision about the future or to reaffirm the old vision. Too often, school system leaders, architects, and even planners assume that educational paradigms of the past will support education of the future--sometimes with unintended and unwelcome results.

Several years ago, our firm was involved in a new high school project. Everyone working on the project assumed that the way in which they had been teaching and organizing instruction over the last 30 years, (i.e., by department), would continue in the new school. Appropriately, the educational specifications and construction plans reflected this assumption. When construction was partially completed, teachers and staff started discussing the possibility of team teaching, interdisciplinary learning, and block scheduling.

Reviewing the building's design to determine if such approaches could be accommodated, everyone involved was disappointed to learn that, without major and costly modifications, the building could not support alternative delivery strategies. Although the building has many fine features and won numerous awards, it is locked into departmental teaching. The district's discussion of team teaching and interdisciplinary learning was about $35 million too late.

Various Issues

Whether renovating or constructing a building, serious thought needs to be given to a number of issues:

* How might a building accommodate different instructional approaches?

Educators today rely on a wide array of individual, small-group, and large-group instructional approaches. Yet most, if not all, of our older schools have focused on the traditional approach of 25 students in a classroom with little or no consideration given to the needs of special education, gifted, or at-risk students, all of whom require an intense amount of small-group resource space. This is not to say the traditional classroom is not needed, but to suggest that classroom space be viewed differently.

Teaching and learning is becoming more active as it moves from the customary lecture method. Students are more involved in cooperative learning, engaged in projects that require them to apply knowledge and to incorporate multimedia. These changes have a significant impact on the types and sizes of spaces, as well as the layout, furniture, and equipment needs.

* How might a building addition cause a traffic or supervision nightmare?

A building's layout has a major impact on discipline. Spaces in a building should be organized so that they facilitate natural staff and student interaction, where students have a sense of belonging and can move through the building without bumping into other kids and banging into lockers.

We also found that a safe building may not require major security measures if its layout is appropriate. If you study school facilities, as we do, you can tell that even the location of restrooms will have a significant effect on foot traffic and supervision.

* What impact do aesthetics have on teacher and student attitudes toward the building?

Students and staff are human beings. As such, light, color, furnishings, temperature, air quality, and acoustics greatly affect whether teachers and students want to be at school rather than have to be there. Motivation is critical to good teaching and learning. Dealing with aesthetics need not be expensive.

* Should the community be encouraged to become an educational partner in the building?

Historically, community involvement in schools has not been an important part of new facility or renovation projects. If we are serious about the community becoming an educational partner, we need at a minimum to incorporate places for parents, seniors, and business partners to park, small-group areas to tutor in, and work space to use a computer, make a phone call, or even hang a coat.