Geoff Hanmer - ARINA Hayball Pty Ltd - New Pedagogy and Newer Pedagogy; designing for the future

New Pedagogy and Newer Pedagogy:

Designing for the FutureGeoff Hanmer

Managing Director, ARINA Hayball

Monday 1st June 2015

Camberwell High School: Hayball

“Of special significance were the School workshops. These were interactive sessions

with staff and students applying the CEFPI ‘Learning Furniture’ protocol to debate,

articulate and challenge the learning settings.

Fifty students were involved in a workshop to review possibilities, discuss the brief and

present initial concepts. The demanding workshop was followed by the students

breaking into groups to prepare their learning settings and then present them to the full

audience.

A feature of the design process was the close collaboration with the school, the

education consultant Dr Julia Atkin and the education interior designer Mary

Featherston.”

Richard Leonard, Director Hayball.

New school buildings, new pedagogy.

What about existing school buildings?

(image from the school website) Padthaway Primary School South Australia

Architect: Public Buildings Department, 1960’s

A 2012 assessment of the condition of all schools found that 67 per cent of all

buildings require only routine maintenance.

However, notable issues with the school building portfolio remain and 7.5 per cent

of buildings—2,042 in total, across 505 schools—are at the point of imminent

failure, or have already failed.

A further 3,074 buildings are below the standard DEECD requires for all school

buildings.

DEECD estimates that $420 M in investment is required to bring these buildings

up to an acceptable standard. (About $575 M in NSW)

In addition, 38 per cent of buildings are surplus to requirements—based on

current enrolment levels.

DEECD estimates that one-quarter of all schools are out-dated, and not

suitable to deliver a modern curriculum.

Situation of state school buildings in Victoria:

Auditor General’s report

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What does the future hold?

(perhaps the Holodeck!)

New Pedagogy and Newer Pedagogy: Designing for the Future

Futurology“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”

Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

“This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of

communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."

Western Union internal memo, 1876.

“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”

H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

“We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”

Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

“Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.”

Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

“There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean

that the atom would have to be shattered at will.”

Albert Einstein, 1932.

The death of the didact?

Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasizes instructional and

informative qualities in literature and other types of art.[1][2] The term has

its origin in the Ancient Greek word διδακτικός (didaktikos), "related to

education and teaching", and signified learning in a fascinating and

intriguing manner.[3] (Thanks to Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literature

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education



The development of school buildings

and pedagogies

1. London School Board buildings of the late 19th Century

2. Open Plan classrooms of the 1970’s

3. ‘Return to Tradition’ classrooms in the 1980’s and 1990’s


1800’sWoodland Roads, Lambeth, London 1887

Architect: Thomas Bailey


Late 1800’s London School Board

• LSB delivered one of the first large scale

programs to provide education to all children.

400 schools built from 1871 to 1902.

• Classrooms in these schools were relatively

small, opening with single doors to corridors.

• Students in rows (classroom style) with large

class sizes.

• Separation of girls and boys.

• Generous window fenestration and ventilation

was provided, often from two sides; best

practice.

• Chalkboards and slates were main

teaching/learning tools.

• Limited adaptability and inflexible because of

masonry walls and relatively small room sizes.

Silver St School North London in 1937

Built 1900: Architect, Henry Dobbs


St Paul’s Girls School

Architect: Gerald Horsley 1904

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Annandale North Public School

Architect: NSW Government Architect ? Built1907, continuously operational for 107 years.


1970’s Open Classroom

• Open classroom movement originated in

British elementary schools after WWII.

• Slowly spread to the United States; idea of

‘informal learning’.

• Traditional education criticised for

‘producing uncreative graduates who

seldom questioned authority.’

• Focus on learning by doing, student

creativity, self-motivated pursuit of

knowledge.

• Learning using a variety of media, not just

pencil/paper and spoken word.

• Learning centres or ‘pods’ were set up and

teachers and students moved freely

between them.


1970’s


Apollo School 1983

Herman Hertzberger


80’s and 90’s ‘Return to Tradition’

• Backlash against the open-plan

classroom, mirroring social trends after

the oil shock and recession.

• Walls were rebuilt and classes again

focussed on separate classrooms.

• A hybrid of two teaching traditions:

teacher-centred (material is presented)

and student-centred (discovered by

learner)

• Computers began to appear in

classrooms and as a tool for learning


1980’s and 1990’s


Manifesto for a contemporary school: Hayball

• Student-centrism: spaces that are student focused as well as being teacher friendly.

• Group learning: large spaces that can be broken down into smaller units to facilitate group

work and cross-curricular learning, and to cater to students with different learning styles.

• Individual learning: spaces for personal study and individual withdrawal and focus.

• Openness and multiplicity: open areas able to serve as social spaces, group work and

learning, quiet study areas or central briefing and learning resource areas.

• Specialisation: integrated specialist spaces that may be seamless with the general learning

areas and that can respond to project-based learning.

• Technology: Wi-Fi that is pervasive and able to provide BYOD flexibility.

• Adaptability: spaces that can be re-configured and adapted through the use of operable

walls and modular furniture systems to support current curriculum demands and to keep

pace with the changing education requirements.

• Personalisation: spaces that support social interaction and assist the teacher/student

interface.

• Lifelong learning: embracing the principle of life-long learning through community

interaction and use.

• Flexibility: The building must be capable of supporting long-term change in pedagogy.


Strategies

Adaptability and Structural Flexibility:

Get the Bones Right

• Framed construction with

adjustable wall partitions based on

modular design principles for easy

replacement, recycling and

renovation.

• Non load bearing walls between

teaching and learning spaces

which can be removed.

• Acoustic treatment in floor and

ceiling plane.

• Lightweight and pre-fabricated

construction, steel frame and

plasterboard are preferred.

Concrete and masonry are difficult

to alter without high costs and

disruption

Alkira Secondary College: Hayball

Alkira Secondary College: (Hayball)

Mount Erin Secondary School: Hayball

Steel framed building for RIDBC

ARINA Hayball

Steel framed early learning building

ARINA Hayball


Strategies

Amenity and Wellbeing

• Access to daylighting for

classrooms using courtyard

typology or roof lights.

• Flexible transitionary space to

mediate between outdoor and

indoor learning and to take

advantage of the Australian

climate.

• Encourage ‘bump’: serendipitous

encounters between students and

staff in circulation spaces.

Camberwell High School Enterprise Centre: Hayball


Strategies

Technology

• Design with the expectation of

future technology; e.g. computer

labs may transition to BYOD -

giving students the ability to ‘work

anywhere’

• Avoid highly specialised rooms

that are difficult to adapt -

becoming obsolete.

• Acoustic treatment is vital in areas

supporting interactive learning.

Dandenong High School: Hayball


Take-home Points

In order to be sustainable, buildings should be adaptable and flexible.

• Buildings that are adaptable and also facilitate effective alterations and

additions will have a long and useful life, and will be inherently sustainable.

We must think about the long-term as well as the short-term.

• Many school buildings in use today were built over 100 years ago, and many

that are being designed now may still be in use in 100 years time. These

have to do a better job than the older ones did.

Pedagogies do change.

• School buildings need to be able to facilitate the pedagogies we want,

whatever they turn out to be.

Thank you.Geoff Hanmer

Managing Director, ARINA Hayball