Four Reasons to Create a Strategic Vision for Learning Space Design

The design of a studying surroundings immediately impacts the kind of instruction that happens in that house,
as quite a few research have demonstrated. In truth, tutorial design and studying house design go
hand in hand, working collectively to assist scholar achievement. Just as it’s important for Ok-12 leaders to
develop a strategic imaginative and prescient for what instruction ought to appear to be to provide the specified studying outcomes,
it’s equally necessary to create a unified imaginative and prescient round studying house design.

Classrooms, frequent areas, media facilities, and different studying areas ought to be designed strategically to assist the tutorial imaginative and prescient a college system has and its portrait of a graduate. The sort of furnishings, know-how, and tools utilized in these areas performs a key position in enabling the educational methods, actions, and tradition that the district is seeking to promote.

Imagine a college constructing stuffed with participating, dynamic studying environments that encourage and assist all kinds of tutorial kinds and techniques, whereas additionally permitting for future evolutions in curriculum and instruction. That is the mannequin that faculty techniques ought to attempt for. To obtain this mannequin, many districts are selecting to standardize their studying environments.

Standardizing doesn’t imply adopting the identical look and structure for each constructing or classroom. Instead, it means creating an overarching imaginative and prescient that defines the aesthetic and performance that every studying house ought to exhibit—after which creating a menu of furnishings choices that may deliver this imaginative and prescient to life.

Why would a district need to create a normal imaginative and prescient for its studying environments? Here are 4 core causes.

1. ACHIEVE EQUITY FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

COVID shined a brilliant gentle on inequities in our faculties and society. With the teachings realized throughout the pandemic in thoughts, a rising variety of Ok-12 leaders are making coverage selections by a lens of fairness and inclusion.

Creating a single, normal mannequin for studying house design district-wide ensures that every one college students have the identical alternatives to be taught in lecture rooms which might be absolutely outfitted to assist the district’s imaginative and prescient for instruction—no matter who their trainer is or the place they attend faculty within the district. It additionally ensures that each trainer has the identical alternative to show in a classroom that’s designed with success in thoughts.

2. SUPPORT EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION

With a longtime normal for studying house design, PK-12 leaders can be sure that each surroundings the place studying takes place is furnished and outfitted to assist efficient, research-based instruction. In different phrases, every part from the desks, tables, and chairs to the storage, shelving, and know-how has been fastidiously chosen to facilitate the sorts of actions that college students and lecturers may interact in to provide the optimum studying outcomes.

If a district’s tutorial imaginative and prescient is to foster lively and collaborate studying, as an illustration, the tables and chairs is likely to be chosen with most flexibility and mobility in thoughts to allow them to simply be moved across the room and configured in varied group sizes for collaborative group work.

3. STREAMLINE THE DESIGN AND FURNISHING OF LEARNING SPACES

Without formal tips for principals, lecturers, or curriculum administrators to observe, the classroom design and procurement course of can typically be unwieldy. Establishing a district-wide normal makes this course of a lot easier for everybody concerned.

With a proper normal in place, district-level leaders can create a web based “catalog” of furnishings and tools that matches the imaginative and prescient they’re hoping to realize. School leaders can select from this catalog to equip their studying areas in a manner that maintains the character of their particular person amenities, whereas making certain that their decisions match inside the finances and tutorial design framework (and finances) that the district has established.

Having a web based catalog accelerates the design and procurement course of each time there’s a new faculty building or renovation mission inside the district, whereas controlling the price of furnishings. What’s extra, standardization permits for the motion of furnishings between buildings to assist positive aspects or declines in enrollment or programming as wanted.

4. MAINTAIN HIGH QUALITY

Establishing a district-wide normal for studying house design ensures that every facility receives the identical top quality of furnishings and tools. It permits for the management at every faculty to pick out the furnishings that greatest meets their native wants whereas additionally sustaining consistency in order that key district requirements are all the time met: high quality, security, longevity, sustainability, worth, and—most significantly—instructional expertise.

A TRUSTED PARTNER CAN HELP

While faculty techniques can definitely create their very own strategic imaginative and prescient for studying house design, partnering with a trusted service supplier provides the chance for professional perception that district leaders won’t have.

Through a brand new service known as School Specialty® Innovate360™, we can assist districts create a custom-made imaginative and prescient for studying house design that meets their distinctive wants and curate a choice of furnishings and tools that may set up a district-wide normal. To be taught extra, contact your School Specialty® Representative.