Newcastle University

Developing interest and expertise in the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching

As the only university recognised research centre within ECLS, and with numerous researchers and lecturers involved, CfLaT’s research interests are diverse in content and context, though linked by over-arching themes. In 2004 we were commissioned by the Design Council to look at ways to improve learning through altering the physical school environment. This project involved some interesting visits to schools as they painted walls to improve concentration, test-drove some innovative, ergonomic desks and rearranged their staffroom so that teachers actually talked to one another. It also led to the Design Council and CfBT jointly funding a literature review into research on the influence of the environment on learning. This gave us the theoretical background to understand what we’d observed in the schools, and also got us thinking more widely about how schools are constructed and organised. Previously, in common probably with many teachers, we’d tended to regard the environment as a given element to be coped with, rather than stepping back and questioning it.

If our literature review [3] had a conclusion, it was that it’s very complicated and there are no reliable quick fixes for the learning environment. CfBT were fascinated and asked us to do a further review of the history of school buildings. A central observation from this review [4] was the realisation that nobody ever set out to build a dreadful school, yet later judgements might suggest that it was indeed the intention of a previous generation to cover the land with unusable schools. It is so much easier to know what is wrong with a learning environment once you are struggling with it than to anticipate new problems.

Meanwhile, we became increasingly aware of the rhetoric and excitement surrounding the Building Schools for the Future initiative. Although the UK’s schools, especially in the secondary sector, are due for some investment, the aims of creating “world class…environments which will inspire learning for decades to come" (BSF) contained echoes of every other school building programme. We decided that something must be done: cherished positions over-run, battles fought, barricades erected….and so we organised a seminar.

The seminar, held in September 2005, attracted teachers and managers together with planners and architects, from public, private and academic sectors. Dr Catherine Burke's presentation from the School Buildings Seminar is available here. Debate was extremely lively, and, emphasising that this was a discussion whose time had come, we received quite a lot of media interest. Our take on the question of how best to invest in school buildings was covered particularly thoroughly by the Journal, including a leader comment, and we also got mentioned by the TES, The Gurdian, Northern Echo and BBC-online. Small articles in the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail convinced us of our political balance, and a fairly lengthy interview on BBC Radio Shropshire was interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps the best result for CfLaT, though, is that our research in this area has been able to continue. A representative of the Arts Council North East attended the seminar and consequently asked us to undertake the evaluation of their school building project. This research project involved arranging for an artist to join a BSF team with the intention of influencing the design process. Visiting some of the local schools involved in this enabled us to see at first hand how designing and building new schools occurs, and the impact on those involved. Following this project, Durham County Council commissioned us to undertake some preliminary research exploring how school communities can participate more effectively in school re-design. The project at Seaham School, which is due to be rebuilt under BSF, involved students, teachers, learning support staff, administrators, lunchtime supervisors, cleaners and the groundsman. Using some innovative visual methods, we worked with the wide range of participants to examine their current experience of the school premises and develop their ideas for the new building. This work has been reported in various conference papers and journal articles.

We were also involved in other related projects, through being invited to take on advisory roles. We were Advisory Group members for an EPSRC funded project, ‘Designing New Schools – putting people at the heart of the process’ (2006-2010). This was based at the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, directed by Dr Rosie Parnell, an academic partner of CfLaT. Pam Woolner was a member of the steering group for the HEFCE funded project ‘Innovative, effective, enjoyable? Creating the evidence base to deliver productive academic workplaces’, based at the Department of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University, directed by Professor Simon Austin.

The earlier review work has continued to prove influential as the practice of designing schools develops and the important process of evaluating of BSF begins. The recent First Annual Report, produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the DCSF refers to the Oxford Review of Education [2] article, which summarised our findings, as well as our original literature review. A summary graphic adapted from the article is given a prominent position in the full report (p.14), while the extended literature review makes numerous references to our conclusions (p.E2-E13), including a lengthy quote:

“The relationship between people and their environment is complex and therefore any outcomes from a change in setting are likely to be produced through an involved chain of events. It is the defining and understanding of these mediating chains that is key and must take account of issues relating to ownership, relevance, purpose and permanence”. (p.E13 from Woolner et al., 2007, p.62).

The report gives prominence to our central idea of the importance of understanding existing conditions in any assessment of the impact of change to the learning environment: the problems associated with deficient settings are much more clearly evidenced than the benefits of further improving an adequate environment. Or, as PricewaterhouseCoopers put it:

“The negative impact of poor design on pupils and staff is more evident than the additional benefit of good design for already adequate environments” (Conclusions, p.E22).

We have been invited to present our overview of the available evidence in a range of situations. Pam has spoken at a number of meetings and seminars both nationally and regionally. More recently, Pam's expertise in this area has been recognised by an invitation to give evidence to a commission as part of the British Council for Sschool Environments (BCSE) Great Schools Inquiry. The Great Schools Inquiry is an independent, evidence based investigation that aims to feed into practice on the ground and into national policy development. The overall aim of the Inquiry, which is the centrepiece of the BCSE Great Schools Campaign, is to ensure that the unprecedented investment in school buildings achieves the goal of creating great schools for every community. Chaired by Baroness Estelle Morris, the former Secretary of State for Education, the Inquiry will explore and establish the elements of what makes a great school for the 21st Century. At the commission Pam and two other noted researchers in this area were asked to address:

‘What evidence is there of the link between school buildings/environments and educational achievement and broader outcomes for young people?’.

We hope to continue to develop our understanding of users’ and designers’ perceptions and decisions, and their influence on the eventual building. This could involve funding from the ESRC or EPSRC, as well as directly commissioned work for Local Authorities, individual schools or other interest groups. If you would like to commission such research, or find out more about our current projects in this area, please contact Pam Woolner.

To download a poster detailing our current theme, please click here.

Publications in this area:

1) Woolner, P., Clark, J., Hall, E., Tiplady, L, Thomas, U., and Wall, K. (2010) Pictures are necessary but not sufficient: using a range of visual methods to engage users about school design Learning Environments Research: An International Journal. 13(1): 1-22. Download here.

2) Woolner, P., Hall, E., Wall, K. and Dennison, D. Getting together to improve the school environment: user consultation, participatory design and student voice. Improving Schools, 2007, 10(3), 233-248.

3) Woolner, P., Hall, E., Higgins,S., McCaughey, C., Wall, K. A sound foundation? What we know about the impact of environments on learning and the implications for Building Schools for the Future. Oxford Review of Education, 2007, 33(1), pp. 47-70.

4) Higgins, S., Hall, E., Wall, K., Woolner, P., McCaughey, C. The Impact of School Environments: A literature review. 2005. London: Design Council. Download here.

5) Woolner, P., Hall, E., Wall, K., Higgins, S., Blake, A. and McCaughey, C. School building programmes: motivations, consequences and implications. 2005. Reading: CfBT. Download here.