School design utilizing integrated architectural and structural precast and prestressed concrete components has gained greater acceptance recently for numerous reasons, including increasingly sophisticated owners and improved learning environments based on material benefits such as: sustainability, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, storm…

Most of the scholarship on learner-centeredness is focused on individual classroom pedagogy, but this book takes learner-centeredness beyond the classroom and asks academic leaders to consider the broader implications of making their institutions fully learner-centered. Systemic change is needed, and curriculum is at the heart of what higher…

Space is both an asset and a burden for colleges and universities. On the one hand, space holds enormous value for institutions; their campuses and buildings are worth, in many cases, hundreds of millions of dollars. Space is the medium in which the institution operates. Online courses have proven that education can be conducted anywhere, but most…

Space has been of growing significance in social theory in recent years, yet, explorations of it in the scholarship of higher education have been limited. This is surprising, given the critical role space has in shaping staff and students' engagement with the university. Taking a practice-based approach and focusing on academic identities, this…

Hanover School Division (HSD) is located southeast of Winnipeg, Canada and is currently Manitoba's largest rural school division, with 7500 students in 18 schools. A recent wave of immigration has led to rapid growth in both numbers and diversity and the recent planning and construction of Clearspring Middle School in Steinbach is providing many…

This article provides an historical overview of significant trends in school architecture from 1798 to the present. I divide the history of school architecture into two major phases. The first period falls between 1798 and 1921: the modern graded classroom emerged as a standard architectural feature during this period. The second period, which…

As students know, the tools in their backpacks can influence success. If they are off to math class, a good calculator is essential. When on their way to English class, a laptop is fundamental. Building facility executives too have tools in their backpacks to assure the successful creation of educational buildings. Only their tools are…

From its conception, Richardsville Elementary was designed to be an affordable net zero facility. The design team explored numerous energy saving strategies to dramatically reduce energy consumption. By reducing energy use to 19.31 kBtus annually, the net zero goal could be realized through the implementation of a solar array capable of producing…

What narratives may a micro-study within a school reveal about past lives, roles and design? What traces may be contained within a single room? This paper focuses on an oral history of a "welfare room" in a postwar Infants school as told by a welfare assistant. The school is an early example of school designed by Mary (Crowley) Medd…

During the years following the Second World War, there were efforts in several European countries to grasp the opportunity to re-imagine "school" created through the need to rebuild on a mass scale. This article examines in detail an episode in the exchange of knowledge between English and Danish architects and educators during a period…

The indoor environmental factors considered in higher educational building must be determined in order to meet the user's requirement. Disruption of indoor environment may constitute to reduce occupants' efficiencies and their learning process and activities. But the question is, how to ensure that the provision of indoor environmental aspects…

Digital land knows no boundaries of space, time or geography. The effect on learning in the past three years, in particular, has been profound, though not necessarily on learning in schools. More have arguably expanded their horizons through 20 minutes of TED Talks than 20 minutes of most chalk and talks or classroom activities.

Involve students in the design and construction stages of new schools?--"Are you serious?" "Leave it to the experts", "We don't have time--the programme is very tight", "What do they know?", "They'll get in the way!", "It's not our job!" are still responses from some involved with design…

Whether a campus is large or small, the idea of a 10-minute walk is an important human-scaled design standard that affects an institution in significant ways beyond just getting students to class on time. Designing a 10-minute walk seems like a simple exercise. Based on earlier information, all one needs to do is provide a walking surface and make…

As a result of the massive growth of higher education in Turkey, the most pressing priority for this sector today is to meet the new space requirements for an increasing number of students. Now a subject of public attention more than ever before, the second largest item of expenditure for universities is the construction of physical spaces. This…