Today we signed an agreement with EDUFI (Finnish National Agency for Education) for the commission to carry out a report on Finland's newest learning environments, about their design and how they support learning and teaching.
Scientific research on school design, as well as research combining the fields of architecture and education, has been almost completely absent in Finland up until now. There has been no monitoring of design solutions used in schools, and the national data regarding schools and educational institutions has not been maintained.
Various arguments have been made about the functionality of space designs. According to the opinions expressed in the public, these would have negative effects on learning and the child's development, as well as on the ability of teachers to work. But we know that most of the teachers and students enjoy themselves and feel very comfortable in these facilities and would not like to return to their previous school.
We will study the functionality of learning environments in schools and educational institutions based on a new kind of school culture. We will investigate new and renovation construction sites, different types of functional and spatial solutions (for example, schools with ILE's and and schools with traditional lay out).
Our task is to investigate the effect of spaces in enabling inclusion, in the realization of learning future skills and phenomenon based learning. We will also examine how the availabe space to students and teachers has developed from the 1950s until today. The learning activities have become more diversed, but has the extent of the premises required by the activities also increased or even decreased?
Only part of the goals of the research project are described above. We will roll up our sleeves in the beginning of August and results should be ready in early 2025. Our team have excellent researchers and experts of school and learning environment design from Finland. More information about the project will be shared after the holidays.