SYDNEY TAYLOR
Abbreviated Literature Review
Review 1
Dillow, Sally A., Thomas D. Snyder. “Digest of Education Statistics 2013. NCES 2015011.” National Center of
Education Statistics(May 2015).
The purpose of this article is to provide statistical information on past and present trends in education from elementary to graduate school which identifies the standards of education that will serve as a basis to improve upon. The statistics are taken from government and private sources that collect data on a national scope. The Digest provides information on number of schools, teachers, enrollment, graduation rates, dropout rates, demographics, academic achievement, and international comparisons. This article is necessary for the comprehensive understanding of the current United States’ education system.
In the section Skills of Young Children, data shows that sixty-four percent of toddlers show proficiency in communicative skills such as body language, words, and sentence formation. Children ages two to six show gender, ethnic, and socioeconomic patterns. Female, Caucasian, Asian, and high socioeconomic children show more proficiency than male, African American, Hispanic, Native American, and lower socioeconomic children. These statistics are important because they reveal demographic learning patterns which should be considered in the design of the project.
Between the 1970s and the 1990s, the student/teacher ratio decreased from 18 students per teacher in 1970 to 15 students per teacher in 1990. In 2011, the ratio increased to 16 students per teacher in public schools but remained low at 12 students per teacher in private schools. The average elementary class size in the 2011-2012 school year averaged at 27 students. Public school teachers tend to have higher percentages of teachers with a master’s degree or higher (59% in 2011-2012) than private school teachers (43% in 2011-2012). The same pattern is seen in school principles. In 2011-2012, 98% of public school principals have a master’s degree or higher, and 69% percent of private school principals have a master’s degree or higher. From 1980 to 2011, the number of teachers increased 42 percent. These statistics are important because they reveal information about teachers and principals who are significant users of educational spaces.
Review 2
Speicher, Sandy. “The Future of Learning.” Metropolis
September 2015: Innovative Educational Spaces – Chicago Architecture Biemnial, edited by Susan S. Szenasy: 96-97. New York: Metropolis, 2015.
In “The Future of Learning,” Sandy Speicher, the managing director of IDEO’s education practice explains seven new directions education is heading in the future that need to be considered when designing an educational space. IDEO is a global design firm that uses human-centered, innovative design to address users’ current and future needs. The seven transitions Speicher writes about are as follows: one-size-fits-all to personalization, testing knowledge to tracking progress, clients to collaborators, classrooms to communal rooms, credit hours to competency, budget cuts to prioritizing costs, and staying on track to finding a purpose.
Personalized learning focuses on individual needs and learning styles and applies to both students and teachers. Personalized learning benefits the students
because it addresses their individual weaknesses and strengths. Likewise, teachers need to be taught how to adapt their curriculum to their students’ needs as well as to their teaching style. In addition to teaching and instruction, this approach challenges how students are grouped. Instead of grouping students by age, they should be grouped by stage. Her second point was about tracking progress instead of testing knowledge. Tests are one dimensional evaluations that do not capture students’ dynamic understanding, but evaluations based on development and progress are more comprehensive. These two transitions are important for education design because spaces need to accommodate for different types of learning, personalized instruction, and development observation.
Spicer’s third and fourth point are more directly involved with the design of classrooms and schools at large. She explains that the evolution of teacher design involvement from client to collaborator is important because teachers are designers. They design curricula, interactions, and their own leaning environment. Flexible spaces will allow the teacher to correlate classroom layout with planned learning experiences. The movement from classrooms to communal rooms also incorporates the idea of flexible spaces. In typical school layouts, large areas like cafeterias, auditoriums, and libraries sit idle. Their size does not correlate with their use, but if we transition from classrooms to communal rooms, these spaces provide more flexibility. Her last three points are about shifting priorities. Competency should be prioritized over obtaining credits and points. Instead of cutting the budget, business designers should prioritize costs. Finally, purpose should be prioritized over staying on track because not everyone follows the same path.
Review 3
Bruhwiler, Christian and Peter Blatchford. “Effects of
Class Size and Adaptive Teaching Competency on Classroom Processes and Academic Outcome.” Learning and instruction 21, no. 1 (February 2011): 95-108. doi: 10.1016/j.learninstru.2009.11.004.
The purpose of this study was to expand upon existing literature and studies by examining three factors in relation to class size: class processes, specific curriculum during set time frames, and academic outcome while monitoring teacher quality. Previously, these factors in relation to class size were studied individually; meaning, those studies did not investigate how these factors affected each other. The study is important to school design because class size and process affect how spaces are used and the number of users.
The sample population included 26 primary and 23 secondary schools in Switzerland with class sizes ranging from a minimum of 9 students and a maximum of 24 students. Teachers’ Adaptive Teaching Competency (ATC) for lesson planning was tested with a vignette test, and ATC for teaching performance was evaluated by video observation. ATC is the ‘teacher’s ability to adjust planning and teaching to an individual student’s learning.” The results of students’ pretests and posttests as well as general science achievement tests are used to evaluate their learning progress for a specific module. The results confirmed that students performed better in smaller classes despite other factors such as teacher quality and student characteristics. Furthermore, younger children in small classes demonstrated the most progress.
Additionally, ATC had a positive effect on students’ progress independent of class size, but teachers instructing smaller classes better diagnosed students’ learning preconditions and achievement levels. Although the study as a whole showed little correlation between class size and class process, students in primary school exhibited strong correlations between the two. These students were more likely to report higher teacher quality and better student-teacher relations when the class size was small. These findings support designing spaces that support small classes and better student-teacher relations for better academic gain.
Review 4
Connor, Carol MacDonald, Claire Cameron Ponitz, Beth
M. Phillips, Q. Monet Travis, Stephanie Glasney, and Frederick J. Morrison. “First Graders’ Literacy and Self-regulation Gains: The effect of individualizing student instruction.” Journal of School Psychology 48, no. 5 (October 2010): 433-455. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2010.06.03.
This study was performed to analyze the efficacy of individualizing student instruction on improving low reading proficiency rates. According to the Assessment of Educational Progress, 30% of children did not read proficiently by fourth grade, and the rates in low socioeconomic schools were higher at 55%. This study examined the relation between literacy skills, self-regulatory skills, and teaching practices by analyzing how the Individualized Student Instruction (ISI) Intervention affected students compared to randomized control groups. Self-regulatory skills are those that allow children to maintain their focus amongst various stimuli. These skills were important for inhibitory control, attention, and working memory. The ISI Intervention broke students down into small groups and focused on enhancing skills students needed to acquire. In addition, the instruction is based on organization, reduction of non-instructional time, and planning.
The results showed that teachers who used the ISI Intervention had better class management than the control group. The experimental classes spent more time in instruction, individualized instruction, groups, independent work, and less time in disruption. This information is important because it supports a certain teaching style that can be reinforced through design. The class responded positively to organization, planning, and individual or group instruction.
The students showed most self-regulation gain when the ISI Intervention was implemented over a longer period of time, but overall, the gain was minimal. The less time spent doing the ISI Intervention, the less students gained self-regulation. Students with better self-regulation exemplified stronger reading and vocabulary skills. This information is important because it can be used to design a room that enhances the aspects of the ISI Intervention that were helpful over longer periods of time.
Focus Research
LITERATURE REVIEW
Tingas, Pauline. “What’s that sound?” IIDA, Summer 2005, Accessed January 30, 2016
​
Acoustical design is more than the simple implementation and application of materials and furniture. It is about the design, and the design is dependent on the space and occupants. “I think the future of sound and acoustics in design is less about the specific technologies and solutions and more about demonstrating its investment value—in terms of occupancy quality and other meaningful organizational outcomes,’ says Jay Brand, Ph.D” (Pauline, 2005). The physics of sound has not changed significantly within the past several decades, but there have been increased studies looking at the psychological and sociological effects sound have on people. For this reason acoustical design is becoming more occupant centered. This is relevant to the project because it introduces a design approach that will have more beneficial effects on the students and teachers in the learning environment.
Dockrell, Julie E. and Bridget M. Shield. “Acoustical barriers in
classrooms: the impact of noise on performance in the classroom.”
British Educational Research Journal. 32 (2006): 509-525. Accessed February 1, 2016.
In a study of 158 primary school children, the effects of typical classroom noise on these children was studied by analyzing a series of literacy and speed tasks in environments with different noise levels. The control group was placed in a classroom with a base noise level without babble or environmental noises. The experimental groups were babble and babble with environmental noise. Babble would be the sound of voices, and environmental noise includes noise from building systems and exterior. Students who were placed in a classroom with babble and environmental noise performed significantly worse on speed processing activities, and students in a classroom with babble noise performed significantly worse on verbal activities. Reverberation is an important factor in acoustical design. Classrooms should only have between .4 and .8 seconds of reverberation for speech audibility, but music rooms should have longer reverberation times close to 2 seconds. This study further proves the importance of an acoustically sound interior learning environment. Refer to ANSI Standard S12.60.
PRECEDENT STUDY
Ben Jacobson of Gensler introduces his idea of “parallel play” which is the balance between focus and collaborative spaces in the corporate office environment (Hagberg). It is where the pendulum rests. To one extreme there are rigid cubical layouts. On the other, there are open offices with little privacy or sound barriers. Meraki, a subsidiary company from Cisco, is an example of “parallel play” (Hagberg). The company was able to do this by designing visually and acoustically private areas with scene and material changes (Hagberg). There are booths acoustically and visually separated by felt. In the music room, the noise is reduced by the carpet, sliding doors, and acoustic curtains. There are also nooks lined with cushion and fabric that help absorb sound. These same strategies can be applied to an elementary school setting that incorporates focus and collaborative spaces.
Ferguson, Kim T., Rochelle C. Cassells, Jack W. MacAllister, and Gary W.
Evans. “The physical environment and child development: An inter
national Review.” International Journal of Psychology 48, no.4
(2013): 437-468. Accessed January 30, 2016.
​
An international study that examined chronic noise exposure in early childhood found that children who were exposed to high environmental noise levels had more difficulty with reading acquisition, speech perception, long term memory, and stress. Long term noise exposer has a tendency to have adverse effects on reading and speech because it affects the brain function and structure. It may also affect behavior that would promote reading acquisition and speech perception. Studies in North America and Western Europe have shown heightened physiological indicators of stress, such as high blood pressure and elevated levels of stress hormones. This study supports a design that creates a strong acoustical barrier between the exterior and interior space for the betterment of educational processes.
Armstrong. “Quiet in the Classroom: Enhancing the learning environment through better acoustics.” Armstrong Ceiling &Wall, 2010, Accessed January 30, 2016.
In a typical classroom environment, students do not understand 25-30% of what is said. This is a problem because it affects concentration, stress, and learning. According to ANSI Standard S12.60 for Classroom Acoustics, the reverberation time for a classroom under 10,000 cubic feet should not exceed .60 seconds and .70 seconds for classrooms between 10,000 and 20,000 cubic feet. Exterior and interior background noise should not exceed 35 decibels. LEED for Schools is one of the first to address classroom acoustics as it relates to indoor environmental quality.
SOURCE: Archdaily