Research results
In our research, we aim to use the resources available to gain as complete a picture as possible of the state of schools and learning environments, the professional background of learning environments and the quality of practice. We have also attempted to validate what we have learned from the literature by interviewing hundreds of teachers and dozens of school leaders.
The jewels and specialties of the process are the architectural pre-studies, which aim precisely to learn more about learning environments from a completely new approach, from the direction of architecture, through its tools and methods of exploration.
Preliminary Architectural Study
Everyone has some kind of image of school, usually linked to the institution where they were educated and raised up.
The vast majority of people have been or are being educated in classrooms with curtained windows on one side and an entrance door on the opposite side. Opposite the door is the teacher’s desk, behind it the chalkboard, in front of it the rows of desks, behind them perhaps a cupboard or two or more storages, and then the back wall of the classroom. On the white-painted walls of the room, a few pictures, maps, a noticeboard, perhaps some student products, a tableau or a poster. This is the setting for so-called frontal teaching (where the main actor in the teaching-learning process is the teacher, who presents the learning materials and curriculum elements on the blackboard and the pupils listen and absorb it). After the 1870s in Germany, most institutions in the world were already teaching in this arrangement. This was largely adopted in many European countries in the early 1900s, so that our great-grandparents, our parents and the vast majority of today’s generations have learnt or are still learning in an environment very close to this. Many well-educated students grew up in this educational environment and later became successful scientists, highly talented doctors, experts with various international awards or excellent professionals and industrialists. This raises the question of why we should challenge this setting, given the well-established and familiar system, structure, methodology and environment.
In the architectural preliminary studies we explore the process that led to the conditions that exist today. We look at the shaping factors and the legislative context. But we also illustrate with innovative examples the possible directions that raise relevant dilemmas today.