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A Recent Study Shows That the Built Environment Affects Learning
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Outcomes are what everyone compares when judging whether an educational strategy truly benefits learning, and this recent study supports the idea that the built environment can have a large impact on students:
In the UK, researchers studied 751 students in 34 classrooms at seven Blackpool LEA primary schools between the start and end of an academic year, from September 2011 to June 2012. They collected student data, including age, gender, and performance level in maths, reading and writing, along with a comprehensive assessment of the classroom environment, which evaluated classroom orientation, flexibility, layout, color, natural light, noise, temperature and air quality. They found that “73 percent of the variation in pupil performance driven at the class level can be explained by the building environment factors measured in this study.” This means “placing an average pupil in the least effective, rather than the most effective classroom environment could affect their learning progress by as much as the average improvement across one year.”
Citation: Rosenfield , Karissa. "Study Proves Design Significantly Impacts Learning" 03 Jan 2013. ArchDaily. Link to the study is here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132312002582
About this member
Randall Fielding, AIA, is the Chairman and Founding Partner of Fielding Nair International, LLC, an award-winning school planning and design firm. Randy oversees FNI’s primary mission to improve learning by serving as a world leader in the creation of new and renovated educational campuses that are in consonance with best practice and research.
