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Design+ Designing future schools

needs to consider classrooms as a relational and dynamic teaching and learning activity. Design concepts and
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social structure that allows for different experiences, intentions are important as the context for learning
actions, and use of resources; and allows students to make provides a basis for how teachers and students frame their
choices about their engagement and learning within that perceptions of where, when and how they can teach and
structure. Student decision-making about classroom learn. Built environments may be symbolic of a construct
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configuration or making objects within construction zones; that represents the school’s education vision and practice
for instance, using imaginative or strategic participation is – building design can be an expression of that idea,
central to engagement and well-being. 62 prompting and shaping the affective response and the
The student experience is about how learners thinking and actions of participants. 70,71
experience school spaces through their interactions with The limitations of this review are that while the future
peers, teachers, and resources. A student with agency can can be imagined, education and design trends may
change the way they engage with the possibilities of the be circumvented or augmented by changes in society,
space. Students with an understanding of how different technology or cultural shifts in capacity, values, and
learning spaces and resources can be used as they work on demands of an unknown future economy. Key limitations
a learning task are productive as they use their agency to are the selection bias of the author, the relative newness
make decisions about where, how, and when to learn. of research related to the duality of education and design,
As noted in Table 1, design implications to support and the reductive nature of using five broad conceptual
agency include provision of materials and spaces that can be categories.
occupied by individuals or small groups; spaces that allow The concepts explicated here are relational, connecting
different ways of collaborative or social learning; access to design to the social practices of teachers and students that
outdoors; zones for sensory respite; spaces and materials are by nature complex, but with an assumption that these
that encourage students to construct or de-construct with practices are somewhat malleable. The design concepts
materials; craft, project, or maker spaces; surfaces that are identified here are generative rather than definitive and
writable; areas, objects or displays that prompt imaginative attempt to be explanatory regarding the potential duality of
responses; and spaces for movement and social play. design and education that is likely to occur in future school
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These ideas support social interaction and imaginative environments. Designing future school environments
responses through embodied learning experiences. This should include discussion between stakeholders about how
approach is about thinking inside rather than outside the the concepts identified here can be applied or modified to
“box.” meet the needs of each school community.
These design ideas are not to suggest that each This paper has identified that education and design
classroom is always in flux, but that the design allows are integrated, or need to be thought of in that way, for
for these open-ended actions to occur at strategic points approaches that will result in functional built school
in teaching and learning. When they are being used, the environments. Design is complex and needs to be a
capacity for creation of learning spaces or activities allows collaboration between educators and architects. Effective
for participation in teamwork, interaction with different design processes for school buildings need to include ways
perspectives and approaches, practicing autonomy in of challenging convention (in both the built and social
learning, and taking part in tasks that are allowed for being sense) to create schools that are open to future educational
agentic, making decisions, and taking action in ways that opportunities.
are preparatory for future workplaces. 64,65 The process of
shaping the learning environment is an embodied process Acknowledgments
involving body movement, motor systems, and sensory None.
perception. By articulating through action how they
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want the learning environment to be shaped, students may Funding
also practice and develop their spatial awareness of where,
when and how to learn in classroom spaces. 67 None.
4. Conclusion Conflict of interest

Educational design is necessarily grounded in the function The author declares that he has no competing interests.
and experience of the teaching practices and learning Author contributions
experiences of the intended occupants. There is a level
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of interplay between the design of school buildings and This is a single-authored article.

Volume 1 Issue 1 (2024) 7 doi: 10.36922/dp.4131