Planning and Designing Education Facilities in the Knowledge Age The Need for a Total Redesign of Decision-Making Processes

Planning and Designing Education Facilities in the

Knowledge Age

The Need for a Total Redesign of Decision-Making Processes

Features of ‘Good’ Performance

Facilities provided will: not only support education delivery but will

also enhance learning outcomes, be responsive through time to the changing

needs of society and education, and represent an effective and efficient utilisation

of all resources available.

Part 1

The Link Between Facility Decisions, Education and Societal Trends

The Design and Planning of Education Facilities

• Is a product of a complex process that involves: – A range disciplines - often with competing

priorities.

– Consideration of a range of factors• that are not always complimentary

• that are often interrelated

• and change through time

Decision-Making ConsiderationsGovt. Legislation,

Policies and Initiatives

Societal Patterns

Education FacilityPlanning

CommunityValues &

Aspirations

Education

Instructional &DeliveryMethods

Curriculum &Curriculum

Needs

Student &Teacher Needs

TechnologiesImpacting on

Education

Resourcing

HumanResourcing

Issues

BudgetConsiderations


Construction andMaintenance

Site Issues

DemographicConsiderations

The Agrarian Period - prior to

the 1890s

Rural AreasOne room schoolhouseSimple furnishings

FacilitiesThe WealthyThe public edifice (the Grammar School)

SocietyRural-based, extended family,wealthy elite, autocratic governmentEducation •informal education dominant (apprenticeship to craftsmen), •formalised institutions supplied for the elite, •early schools focused on the 3Rs and were multi-age

Govt. Legislation, Policiesand Initiatives

Societal Patterns


Community Values& Aspirations

Education

Instructional &Delivery Methods

Curriculum &Curriculum Needs

Student & TeacherNeeds


Education

Resourcing

Human ResourcingIssues




Site Issues


The Industrial Age - prior to 1970s

The Education System

• institutionalised learning & compulsory schooling

• emphasis on ‘usefulness’ of what was taught

• covert curriculum of obedience and conformity

Societal Patterns• Farm to factory shift• Nuclear family• Paternalistic government• Standardisation and

centralisation• Fascination with bigness &

synchronisation


Societal Patterns



Education





Education

Resourcing





Site Issues


The Early Knowledge Age - An Era of TensionSociety• Rapid Change• Demise of the nuclear family• ICT• Globalisation

Education• Emphasis on the ‘individual’

and ‘whole-child’ - social values

• Process rather than content - to provide skills for the future.

• Expansion of curriculum

(Quality vs Quantity)

Education Considerations vs.

Financial Considerations


Societal Patterns



Education





Education

Resourcing





Site Issues


The ResponseA model grounded in the

Industrial Age concepts of Uniformity & Conformity

Enrolment PlanningLevel of

AccessibilityLevel ofDemand

New Facilities/ NewSchool

Designing Planning (New & Refurbishing)

Form ofFacilities

Quantity ofFacilities

Quality ofFacilities

Type ofFacilities

Mode of DeliveryPreschool, Primary, Secondary, P-12

SizeOptimum Maximum

Capital Works Decisions

Minimum

The use of parameters/standards-maximum/minimum sizes-area per student-area per functional space-type of spaces providedthe ‘Space Schedule’

And we continue to tinker with this.

It no longer works - emerging societal and educational trends are not supported…...

Part 2: The Emerging Trends

What Our Decision-Making Systems Must Cater for if they are to:

–support education–be responsive to the future–represent effective use of resources

Societal Patterns

• Economic Changes - a threat to the ‘nation-state’– Rapid changes in information and

communication technologies– Accountability to the ‘shareholder’

• Globalisation - Gaining the Competitive Edge

• Integration - the team approach

• Emphasis on the ‘consumer-society’

– Knowledge & Innovation is paramount to success

• Social Changes– Diversity - in Family Structure, Ethnicity &

Beliefs– Emphasis on Community - to address social and

economic ills– Work is less permanent - flexible hours, contract

employment, casual, telecommuting

• Sustainability - Economic & Environmental– The growth of the aged population

Responses in Education

• Lifelong Learning - Education is an economic & social necessity

– Education no longer corresponds to chronological ages

Kindergarten

Preschool

Primary Schools

Junior PrimarySchoolsChild Care Tertiary Education

Secondary Schools Adult LearningSenior Colleges

Seamless Education - Lifelong Learning

Vocational EducationMiddle Schools

Birth Death

Junior SecondarySchools

• Accountability & Decentralisation– to the community and the taxpayer

• Recognition of Diversity

One-size / one model does not fit all

Some Education Facility Responses:

Integration of Schools and Community

Source: Brubaker, 1998, p. 185

• A variety of possibilities:

– Full Service Schools

– Schools as Community Centres

– Learning Communities

– School Without Walls

Some Implications:

The relationships generated demand a rethink of some fundamental issues:

– Locational considerations concerning siting of facilities (on and off-site facilities) within the community.

– Site requirements (associated with the extent to which the site will deliver fewer or more services).

Access and security issues. Relationships between facilities provided on site, in

order to ensure access and synergies between services are maximised.

Issues regarding management and governance.

School-Business Partnerships

• Sponsorship

• For-Profit Private Sector Involvement

Some implications

• Emergence of non-built solutions - an entire new system, with new considerations.

• Interconnectivity between the education facility system and other sub-systems of education.

• Issues of equity

Accountability & Decentralisation- Diversity-

• School-based Decision-Making

• Parental Choice

• Open Enrolment Policies

• Alternative Models of Schools

– Special purpose schools - alternative schools, magnet schools, schools of excellence

– Schools that are based on alternative operating structures based on pedagogical approaches

– Independent ‘Public’ schools

– Schools that operate alternative timetabling structures - year round schooling, block scheduling and extended school days.

An Example of an Innovative Timetabling Structure

• Kaunani School, a K-12 private school in Hawaii operates on a six-day timetabling cycle.

– Teachers are assigned a certain number of contact hours per day. How teachers organise their day is their responsibility; as long as they meet student contact hour requirements.

– Teachers generally work together to develop schedules that includes a combination of small discussion groups, longer laboratory sessions, larger group lectures, or other sessions that are appropriate for the specific course.

– For example:English teachers are required to teach 85 student-contact hours a day. This can be comprised of five one-hour classes of 17 students, or one one-hour lecture of 85 students, or any combination.

Some Implications

For Schools:– Each site requires an individual assessment to determine

the appropriate quantity and quality of spaces provided to support the education program.

For education systems: – how to effectively plan (in physical and financial terms)

for provision of a diverse range of education delivery models, generated at the school and community level, which have the potential to increase imposts at the systemic level.

– How to manage ‘movement’ between schools as a consequence of choice.

Education Pedagogies

• New learning theories and pedagogies have emerged as a result of new research findings

• Multiple Intelligence Theory

• Cooperative Learning

• Brain-based Learning

• Constructivism

Common themes

• The individual is the focus of the learning process

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

• The teacher is the facilitator of learning

Some Implications

• Traditional classroom designs are challenged in terms of:

• size

• configuration

• functionality

To Summarise…..• Planning and designing the ‘school’ of today…

and tomorrow has become EXTREMELY complex…..

And

• The ‘decision-making’ system that dominates no longer works……it is not responsive to societal or education trends

Optimum SizeMinimum Size Maximum Size

Size StandardsViability determined on a individual school basis - dependent on model of delivery,

educational focus, timetabling structures, extent of community use etc.

Capital Works DecisionsBuilt Forms Only

Design PlanningSubject to individual site demands based on curriculum offered, scheduling, organisationalstructure, degree of community use etc. Requirements may be met through constructionand/or leasedClassroom design influenced by:changes to teacher and student roles; emerging education pedagogies and learningtheories; increase in alternative & simultaneous groupings of students; emphasis onstudents experiencing; requirements for multi-functionalityCampus design influenced by:alternative groupings; school size research; developmentally appropriate groupings;integrated curricula

Property Management Issues:Non- Built Forms Only

i.e leasing costs & terms; appropriateness offacilities to meet requirements

Instigation of agreements

Quality of Facilities

Type of Facilities

Form of Facilities

Quantity of Facilities

Level of AccessibilityNo Longer Physically

Constrained

Mode of Education DeliveryExpanded to include diverse range of alternative

structures

Level of DemandNo Longer Based on:

.Defined Catchment Area

.Student-only demand

.Enrolment 'at school'

Built Mode ofDelivery*

Combination Built & Non-Built Mode of Delivery

Non-Built Mode ofDelivery

Key Influences

Financial ConsiderationsEconomic Restraint - Private/Public

PartnershipsImplications of costs of implementing

research findings, educationpedagogies, sustainability and ICT,

particularly for existing schools

Legislative Requirements & PoliciesDecentralisationParental Choice

Education Issues/Curriculum MattersDiversity

New pedagogies and learning theoriesResearch on Influence of Facilities on

Learning Outcomes(Perceptual factors,

Architectural factors)

Community/Social Values & AspirationsCommunity - School Integration -Social

Services & Lifelong LearningSustainability

Safe & Secure EnvironmentInformation Communication &

Technology

• We can no longer replicate

• Each school requires thorough planning processes that reflects the educational, operational and financial vision of the school community

Part 3

A New System for Decision-Making

The Fundamental Problem Society - the Education System -

Education Facilities - are in a state of imbalance

Now

Societal ChangeNo. 1

Education FacilitiesUnchanged

Other Systems

Other Systems

Education Systemunchanged


Education Facilities -Unchanged

Other Systems

Other Systems

Education SystemResponds to Change

No. 1


Education FacilitiesResponds to Change

No.1

Other Systems

Other Systems

Education SystemResponds to Change

No. 2

Societal Change

Societal ChangeGenerated by

Response

Education FacilitiesRespond

Other Systems

Other Systems

Education SystemResponds

Time Was

This Imbalance Needs Redressing - otherwise we may

build facilities that do not represent effective use of resources nor will they

necessarily support education in the future

The Answer

A Process focused on:

• Integration

• Coordination

• Cooperation

The system and its parts should be designed from the perspective of the whole system and in view of its embeddedness in its environment. The systems design notion requires both coordination and integration. We need to design all parts operating at a specific system level of the organisation interactively and simultaneously. This requires coordination. The requirement of designing for the interdependency invites integration.

(Banathy, 1993, p.13)

An Integrated Planning Approach

• Based on a reconceptualisation of the role and place of facilities within the education system.

– Facilities need to be an ‘integral’ component of education planning - not a separate system - which is considered as part of a ‘facility master planning process’ or when a ‘facility need’ is identified

• The interconnectivity and interdependencies between all components of the education system - curriculum, financial, human resourcing & facilities - and with other complimentary systems are acknowledged.

• Decision-making is education focused and occurs at the local level:– Involving school, parents, students, community,

business and public agency representatives.– Who access advice - from a range of experts which

include facility planners, human resource personnel, financial experts etc.

Where...

Where

• In the education system environment:– government sets:

• performance standards • establishes parameters that support maximum

flexibility of decisions at the site level• monitors parameters that guide local

decisions, to ensure capacity exists to support the system

It will be difficult to achieve…. there are barriers to overcome…

and it will take time...

It is possible though….

Education and Professional Development About...

• The issues society faces in the Knowledge Age

• The Education Facility System for:– Educators

– Policy-makers

– Business & the Wider Community

• The Education System (and sub-system linkages) for: – Educators

– Architects

– Facility Planners

– Bureaucrats

• School operational practices for:– Architects

– Facility Planners

– Bureaucrats

• Research that indicates facilities can enhance learning outcomes - for:

– All

And….we need to think a bit differently...

• A cost per student as the parameter for decision-making

• Development of Decision Support Systems (DSS) to support ‘integrated’ planning across all sub-systems.

• Area planning overlaying school planning, with areas determining priorities for expenditure of bulk allocation - ostensibly for capital- but not necessarily needed to be used for physical assets.

Until such time as we develop such a new decision-making system it is unlikely that the educational facilities we plan and design will ‘perform’ by:

• representing the most effective learning environments for users

• responding to societal and education trends • representing the most effective utilisation of all

resources, not just physical assets available to a school.

Documents

Planning and Designing Education Facilities in the Knowledge Age The Need for a Total Redesign of Decision-Making Processes