As in the most “scholastically advanced” countries, in Italy too, in recent years, there has been a transformation of learning environments in search of new pedagogical-didactic horizons. The new environments are designed to overcome the idea of a school that is limited to the transmission of knowledge and try to set itself a more ambitious objective: that of jointly designing the context to promote the well-being of students and teachers and create the conditions of modern, creative, inclusive and effective learning.

The innovation of educational spaces goes beyond the mere replacement of classically arranged classrooms. It is a revolution that embraces technology, design and teaching methodologies, merging them into a single synergy. And it affects the entire school building, including external spaces, lobbies and connecting areas, up to the surrounding area as an integral part of the educational ecosystem.

These pioneering spaces are physical and symbolic places, which are speaking about another idea of school (and society), where we adapt to the needs and desires of those who live there every day, facilitating collaboration between peers and facilitating personalised learning. At the same time, they educate about beauty, act as incubators of creativity and raise awareness of the value of a new social and environmental awareness.

The Marco Polo Secondary school of Florence and the Ludovico Einaudi Secondary school of Bassano del Grappa have carried out in recent years a particular path of renewal which started from the learning environments and then affected the entire school community in all aspects of educational action. This process and its results were presented by school leaders Laura Biancato (ITE L.Enaudi) and Ludovico Arte (ITT Marco Polo) on March 23, 2023 at the Workshop “Changing the school starting from the environments” organised by Erickson and ITT Marco Polo from Florence.

As Erickson underlined, on Italian territory there are many innovative school buildings to be made known to other schools and therefore it is time to start a journey of “school tourism” to get to know, understand these examples and be able to draw inspiration from them.

WHY

In any case, the starting point is to agree on what type of schools you want to create. There may also be different ideas of schools, the important thing is to identify a precise typology that suits the school community because from that starting point we arrive at concrete changes in spaces and furniture. Copying ideas is important, but you must always contextualise them to your environment, to your community.

Often the school’s idea is that children must suffer because later in life they will have difficulties for which they must be prepared. But is this a good starting point? In all this, where is the space for expression and freedom? Isn’t this also a reason for school dropout?

If we can also create a beautiful environment, why stay with old, obsolete environments?

HOW

We insist on sharing the reflections on the school, with working groups that include not only students and school employees but also parents and various professionals.

When we talk about renewal, we often think of a chase for technological innovations, and this chase will certainly give us a sense of inadequacy because innovations are too fast, we don’t have time to get the interactive whiteboard, we’re already at the tablets and Google classroom. So if these objects (although very innovative) are not placed in a clear context and a precise idea of school, they will be wasted. We must therefore think about broadening the horizon and thinking about innovations in collaboration with the people who are inside our school. Only in this way could we build in a synergistic way.

As a starting point we propose a map of well-being which is divided into four themes:

• Sharing
• Hospitality
• Support
• Environment

Well being. Giving the concept of well-being as the objective (scope) of a school is still often revolutionary. And we propose it anyway because pursuing the well-being of the people who are inside a structure in itself means learning which then generates positive developments in any community.

Let’s ask ourselves the question: why do I want to improve schools? To see happy people and because you also have to feel good to study and work, if you feel bad, it is difficult for you to carry on with your duties.

Sharing means that everyone can participate in creating the environment in which they work/study. Teachers and students who can reflect and express themselves on the environment in which they spend so much time. But not only. At the Marco Polo Secondary school they also involved other figures, ‘external’ to the school, bringing together the intelligence of students and teachers with those of external professionals, including architects, set designers, street artists, psychologists.

Sharing generates ideas, proposals, and comparisons. The learning environment is a container where everyone is welcomed and everyone is supported to be there.

To have a holistic vision, we talk about a learning ecosystemand innovative spaces because there is systemicity in it, i.e. the integration between spaces and activities (understood in a broad sense, including for example also teachers’ training).

The other key word is flexibility, because we do not use rigid spaces, but transformable ones. The use of these spaces generates new projects.

And finally, beauty is an important point that does not distract, but helps to feel pleasant and comfortable, and makes people feel good.

We talk about ecosystem because the choices are systemic, they point to the identity and sense of belonging of a school. The sense of belonging is also strengthened with objects such as t-shirts or other objects with the logo of the school. And by broadening the horizon, building a school’s identity will help attract teachers and students who specifically choose that school for how they work inside and how they feel inside.

We then go beyond the classroom (in the abstract and in the concrete sense), we break up the classroom which is no longer the exclusive environment for learning because the learning spaces are multiplying, including environments without teachers which can become spaces of learning. ITE L. Einaudi proposes

• a “cluster” of classrooms,
• laboratory area,
• a corridor of languages,
• connected by a “hub” of free spaces (like corridors and other, inserted in this ecosystem),
• a widespread library (books scattered throughout the various areas, not all piled up in a dedicated room),
• in these environments digital is “normal”, we do not emphasise the use of tools and wi-fi, but we encourage all to use them for learning purposes,
• lots of greenery, plants, a wall of lichens that provides a sense of well-being and nature.

The school is then open beyond school hours, from 7.20am to 7.30pm which further creates informal learning occasions. 

And finally two crucial questions that often arise when we talk about the renovation of spaces.

How do we find the money for this? Both schools carried out their renovation work with the resources they were entitled to as schools. Spending money is difficult, because to do it well, you need to have an idea of school. To have this starting idea, we need to create the context in which all participants feel encouraged and interested in participating and expressing themselves. From there we can define the school we want and use the resources to do it step by step.

Change comes through discomfort, moments of crisis, discussions, discord. We need to “sow the virus”, change one environment to start, which will already bring other changes with it. Surprise and contamination are two key words.

All this then has a social utility because hospitality also means contamination of social classes, children with very different family histories and everyone will have beautiful spaces to stay in during the day, where they can grow and work.

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In recent years in Italy, school architecture has been at the centre of a more general reflection on the role of schools in current society. And this is why IAL Toscana, together with other partners of the European project called Learnitect – Meeting of Innovative Learning Design and Inclusive Learning Spaces, works to map and collect good practices in school building and furnishing. 

Written by: Claudia Fabbrini, Alice Lepore, Gabriella Pusztai, IAL Toscana

Project reference: The LEARNITECT – Meeting of innovative learning design and Inclusive learning spaces is co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme. Grant agreement number: 2023-1-HU01-KA210-SCH-000152699.

With the main partner of the project, the Hungarian Association for Hungarian Digital Education, and with partners Learnitect Design Ltd (Hungary),  Previform Lda (Portugal) IAL Toscana carries out the project activities, financed by Erasmus Plus programme.