From your reading of Building Schools, describe...
1) what are some important considerations when designing a learning environment (and why)?
2) Describe an experience you have had of a poor/ineffective teaching and learning environment?
With reference to Life lessons and learning environments, discuss the following...
3) What would make a good teaching and learning environment for the new School of Bioscience?
1. The first consideration in school design should be the age of the students.
Kindergarten students need lively and open classrooms. Bright colors can help them build an understanding of the world. After entering elementary school, they must gradually shift their attention from the outside world to books. For exam-oriented education in China, junior high school and senior high school are important stages of learning. Except some top private schools whose students are often excellent in self-discipline, the design of most high schools is almost the same: closed corridors, windows set only at the front and back doors, and windows facing the outside that are blocked by tall trees. All this is to make the students concentrate on the study of the textbook.
At the university stage, everything changes. The learning needs of each subjects are very different, so we can find a variety of wonderful spaces when strolling through the thoughtfully designed campus. For example, the huge exhibition space of the Department of Design and Creativity, the ground floor lobby of the civil engineering department are filled with large round tables (they need more group discussions and calculations). The large staircase atrium of the Department of Architecture (the models and drawings are filled with stairs during the report time) and underground showrooms. The most important thing is to meet the special needs of their disciplines.
In general, the most important thing for a good learning environment is to help students overcome obstacles. Barriers to communication can be solved by a large amount of public space. Barriers to quiet environments can be conquered by independent study rooms. Barriers to accessing information can be overcome by establishing college libraries.
While we are designing, we need to discover the obstacles that may exist in their current learning and try to conquer them. Lighting, materials, furniture, outdoor scenery, the shape of the classroom, etc. are all for this purpose.
Therefore, we should first study the learning mode of the students, simulate their possible problems (in a real project, we should communicate with the students and teachers to obtain these answers), and preset possible improvements.
2. Most of the learning environment I have experienced is good, so I can only talk about some of the problems I encountered in studying outside the campus.
Two years before I entered the university, because there was a senior who stayed up late in the college building and died suddenly, our architectural teaching building had to leave after 11 o'clock. But obviously we still have the need to stay up late, so we could only continue to complete our models and drawings in the dormitory (if all the team members are boys) or more in the KFC (in most cases, there are girls in the team members) . Because our teachers always like to constantly revise our design, we were often out of time.
Compared to spacious professional classrooms, the experience of making models in these places was undoubtedly very bad. We had to start sorting around ten thirty, put the tools and materials in plastic bags or hold them in our hands, and walked one or two kilometers. Usually, there is no suitable place to work in these places, and there were also discrimination from staff in KFC. And at the end of a busy night, all things had to be moved back again. This situation always occurred four or five times per semester. This problem was solved after I entered to the fourth grade, and the building for senior students could be kept overnight.
3. First of all, I must admit that my impression of biology students is similar to that of experimenters. I have a high school classmate who is a chemistry student at Tsinghua University and is now conducting research in organic chemistry at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. I was once fortunate to be brought into their laboratory visit in Beijing. Their life often revolves around the day of the experiment. Except going to the cafeteria, they keep doing experiments in a large room filled with cabinets and instruments from morning to night. It seems that many experiments take a long time, which will change at any time, so they must keep watching.
For the visit to Thomas building, I feel very similar to the chemical laboratory. For such people, I think the most important issue is that they generally lack communication with others. They often only talk to classmates and teachers of a research group, and spend more time doing experiments, recording experiment reports, and formulating new experiments, and so on.
Therefore, I will focus more on the design of laboratories and public spaces. Public spaces are designed to promote more people to communicate with each other, but they also need motivation to use these spaces, so they can be co-created with greenery, kitchens, etc. For the laboratory, I consulted some materials, most of which were too professional, such as zoning design based on polluted environment. These are difficult to realize with my existing knowledge, and they cannot be explained to others easily.
But there are still some simple and effective tips.
(a) Certain degree of transparency.
Most modern laboratories will set up transparent glass in the corridor, which can effectively improve safety and increase the experience of the students (no be cabined in a small room).
(b) Mobile modular design
The functions of many laboratories may be constantly adjusted, so the modular design can respond to these changes at a lower cost. The experiment instrument with wheels which can be fixed can make it easier to adjust the position according to the usage.
(c) Colorful space
Color can bring a unique visual experience and can also be used to distinguish different functions.
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