Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Space Does Matter

  • By Deb Moore
  • 08/01/10
Talk about education, and you strike an emotional chord with just about everyone. Few dispute the value of a good education — to the student, business and industry, the community and the nation as a whole. Talk about the spaces where learning takes place, and the feeling is very different. Few have an understanding of the impact spaces can have on learning. They have a preconceived notion that space doesn’t matter — but they are wrong.

Much research has been done on different teaching and learning styles and their effectiveness. In the past, lecture and reading were the teaching style of choice — student retention rates averaged five to 10 percent. Classrooms were static, with teachers standing in front of long rows of neatly arranged desks. The current focus is on learner-centered education. The emphasis is no longer on memorizing facts, but on mastering concepts and applying this knowledge in the real world. Teaching has become cooperative, collaborative and interdisciplinary. Learning has become active, creative and exploratory. In old-style static spaces with rows of desks bolted to the floor, this new-style learning cannot take place. An effective teaching and learning environment is a flexible space; has flexible (and oftentimes mobile) furnishings; is equipped with the appropriate technologies; and is safe, comfortable, healthy and clean.

Here are some important points to consider. Flexibility of space means teachers can vary instructional methods to accommodate different learning styles. Flexible furnishings allow those spaces to be reconfigured from rows for test taking, to small groups for team projects, to circles for discussion — encouraging engagement. Powerful networks, affordable speed and power, and anytime, anywhere capacity are transforming today’s classrooms into technology-intensive learning environments — the type of environments expected by today’s connected student. The condition of the space matters as well. Studies show links between student achievement and building quality; attendance and environmental conditions like indoor air quality; school safety and fear, avoidance and disruptions to the educational process; daylighting and test scores; classrooms and student recruitment and retention; working conditions and teacher satisfaction; building condition and the perceived value we place on students and education.

There is no debating. Space DOES play a major role in an effective education.

Featured

  • University of Oklahoma Announces New Campus Master Plan

    The University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., recently announced that it will soon launch a new, comprehensive Campus Master Plan to guide the campus’ physical development during the next decade, according to a news release.

  • A digital silhouette works at a computer, immersed in a glowing, interconnected world

    How Will AI Transform Learning Space Design?

    For years, higher education has designed learning spaces around technology as a tool for display, capture, collaboration, and connectivity. AI changes that equation.

  • Chartwells Launches Campus Dining Evaluation Framework

    Contract food-service management provider Chartwells Higher Education recently announced the launch of BLUEPRINT, according to a news release. The evaluation framework was designed to provide a data-driven and customizable roadmap towards optimizing campus dining services and, by extension, the student experience.

  • Stanford Completes Construction on Graduate School of Education Facility

    Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., recently announced the end of construction on a new home for its Graduate School of Education, according to a news release. The university partnered with McCarthy Building Companies on the 160,000-square-foot project, which involved two major renovations and one new construction effort.