Page 15 - College Planning & Management, October 2018

This model—perhaps in multiples to make up a larger school—might appear any- where in the country. For decades, the idea of classroom as a place where the teacher—the imparter of knowledge—stood at the front of room purveying in- formation which the pupil was to note and absorb ruled. Despite educators’ best efforts to change this, the one-way flow of knowledge and information has domi- nated our learning culture.
New Ideas Emerge
In the early part of the 20th century, new concepts began to emerge relative to educating young children. Driven particularly by Maria Montessori, the idea of the child as the center of the education process arose. The first “Casa Del Bambini,” or Children’s House, opened in 1907.
Two central tenets of what is now known as the Montessori method which have been incorporated into modern-day thinking about education are the pre- pared environment and auto-education. The Montessori education space has several compelling physical characteristics:
• The space should be filled with readily available and well-organized learning
materials, be aesthetically pleasing, and only include things that the teacher
wants the child to experience.
• The materials placed within should engage children from different ages, char-
acteristics, and interests.
This inherent engagement with the environment aids auto-education—the child engaging in exploration with other learners and acquiring not just knowl-
edge, but also the skills required to thrive in the world.
Today, ideas deriving from Mon- tessori dominate best practices for the design of early education spaces. Schools identifying themselves as pro- gressive set up pre-K and kindergarten classrooms—not with rows of chairs facing a teaching wall—but instead, with multiple activity areas for guided play. Tables for groups of students to work together abound, with access to varied materials and different ways of engaging, from lounging on a beanbag to read with a friend or working to- gether to create a structure in a block area. These varied areas and materials adapted to different learning styles fur- thered the notion of a child-centered— and learner-centered—environment.
Studies demonstrated that this model worked and, in fact, the model even crept into the early grades af- ter kindergarten. Yet for many years, by third or fourth grade, classrooms stayed largely unchanged. As students moved up through the grades, flexible tables, soft seating areas, and cubbies gradually gave way to rows of desks, lockers, and fixed lecture-hall seating.
Reaching Higher Education
Despite the effectiveness of en- gaging learners into the process of educating themselves, by the time you reached higher education, you were once again that pupil being “taught to.” Students are looking only to the front of the room, passively absorbing knowledge—or perhaps napping after a long night attempting to complete an essay or problem set—waiting to be told what is going to be on the final so they know what to study and what can conveniently be forgotten.
This shift in the design of learning en- vironments as learners moved toward adulthood occurred despite theories of “active” or “self-directed” learning that emerged in North America as early as the
OCTOBER 2018 / WEBCPM.COM 15