A jointly-designed program from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
The program will engage architects and educators in understanding key principles of teaching and designing innovative K–12 learning environments. Through a research-based understanding of current and emerging best practices, participants will work with Harvard faculty and leading practitioners to envision how school buildings can most effectively support learning in the coming decade and beyond. Participants will explore the challenges of designing spaces that enable personalized learning for students, support social and emotional development for both adults and children, better engage families and communities with schools, and include new media and information technology.
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Learning Environments for Tomorrow will explore four key themes emerging as defining elements of 21st century education: collaboration; technology; engagement; and sustainability. Participants will work in teams to apply their combined understandings in one of several school-building design focus areas. Possible focus areas include: new school buildings; specialized, magnet and charter schools; international schools; urban school redesign; school renovation and development initiatives; vocational and technical schools; and early-learning centers.
To support the exploration of these themes, the program will engage participants through a variety of formats, including plenary sessions, intensive workshops and small group discussions..
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
- Understand the principles of effective pedagogy and design for in the coming decade;
- Learn the latest thinking in the areas of child/adult collaboration, student and community engagement, social media technologies and environmental sustainability;
- Speculate on the modes of creativity and productivity which education will need to address in the coming decades;
- Consider the implications that the areas noted above have on designing effective learning environments;
- Critique learning environments and educational facilities that are seen as models of effective design;
- Develop planning and design strategies for facilities that serve a broad set of stakeholders—from students, teachers, and administrators to the communities in which they are based.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
- Teams of educators and architects engaged together in a process of school design, redesign or renovation, or school facility and space planning. Teams should include a cross section of key stakeholders from both the education and architecture sectors;
- Applicants from the education sector could include school building committee members, superintendents, principals and assistant principals, teachers, directors of curriculum and instruction, parents, special educators, and local and state education leaders and policymakers;
- Applicants from the architectural professions could include principal architect, project manager, engineer, chief builder, school designer, space planner, lead construction manager or interior designer.
