Page 9 - School Planning & Management, July/August 2019

TRENDS IN
EDUCATION
Educational Trends are Calling For New Classroom Designs
K–12 schools are perhaps in the midst of the longest running trend ever to arise in education. It is the trend away from classical classroom instruction in which a teacher standing at the front of the classroom lectures 20 or 30 students seated at desks.
Today, however, more and more teachers are breaking their classes up into small discussion groups of five or six students, who then talk about the subject under study. The discussions range across a variety of topics, from what is in the textbook to local problems related to the world outside of school. The teacher moves
from group to group with the goal of ensuring that students understand the material and are engaging in useful discussions.
Informality reigns in today’s schools, according to Todd Ferking, AIA, DLR group principal from the Seattle office of DLR Group.
“There are parallels to coffee shop culture,” Ferking says. “Indeed, the lines between eating, learning and playing are blurring, and students are moving from one activity to another easier and faster.
“In addition, the educational spaces themselves are breaking down into smaller and smaller units. A single classroom today might house several
groups of students, each studying different subjects.
“This is a new system, of course. The old system worked well for a lot of students, but not so well for slower learners and students who didn’t like school. This new approach is proving to work better for students who didn’t care to engage with the old system.”
Classrooms are quite different today. While in class in a new school, students may sit or recline on living room style furniture — sofas and easy chairs — or on cushions strewn across the floor. For those who have writing to do or just prefer sitting
at desks, there are desks in the classroom as well.
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