Sustainability for learning environments

This brochure outlines aspects of sustainability and how they might impact on the design of future relocatable classrooms. It concentrates on environmental, and to a lesser extent, social sustainability. The key issues presented are on: • energy & water; • materials; • indoor environment quality; • construction waste; • climate change; and • the ability to teach a green curriculum by using the buildings as 3 dimensional text books. Irrespective of whether a classroom is a reloactable or a permament structure it is not sustainable if it does not support teaching and learning. Problems found internationally in relocatables can be summarised as follows. They tend to: • use more energy than traditional classrooms; • have poorly functioning HVAC systems that provide minimal ventilation with outside air; • have poor acoustics due to loud ventilation systems; • have chemical off-gassing from pressed wood and other high-emission materials, of greater concern because of rapid occupancy after construction; • have water entry and mould growth, and; • are often placed haphazardly on a site with minimal consideration of connectivity to the site and other buildings, often eroding playspace.

This heading is a sign of respect for SAGSET (www.simulations.co.uk/sagset), a wonderful association which appeared on the British educational scene almost forty years ago, very quickly attracted a world-wide membership, and is still active. We approached SAGSET too late for them to be able to send anything for review for this special issue on their subject, but their annual Yearbook is still going strong (though is no longer published by Kogan Page). Maybe we approached all our usual publishers too late-this is a sadly short section.

2011

Perhaps there is no building type that has a more significant impact on our lives than the Kindergarten to high School (K-12). We continue to carry the memories of our early learning environments through the residue of our lives. It is the quality of those learning environments that play a crucial role in enhancing or hampering our learning experience. Learning spaces are complex spaces where the collective skills, knowledge, and practices of a culture are taught, shaped, encouraged, and transmitted. Comfortable/safe and creative learning spaces can inspire and motivate users, while ugly/unsafe spaces can oppress. Based on these two attitudes, the aims of this paper are to; firstly, developing Sustainable learning environments (SLE) in the Middle-East countries with reference to Egypt. Secondly, to reviewing and extending the planning and design of the internal, external and landscaping features of a proposed eco-class to collectively pass to the learners for enhancing the quality of learning space and thus education. After the Egyptian Revolution on the 25 th of January, 2011 and the hopes and dreams this brings with it, for a major transformation in all life sectors, the Egyptian government needs to recognise the right of children and young people to learn in an environment which is safe, healthy and achieves the highest quality possible. We must all be committed to improving the quality, attractiveness and health of the learning and communal spaces in our schools. Environmental factors have significant effects on pupil and teacher wellbeing. In contrast, poor school and classroom design can affect concentration, creativity and general well-being; in addition, poor quality lighting, ventilation, acoustics and furniture all have a negative effect on student achievement and health. Nowadays, Egypt endure deterioration of education quality as a result of deficient learning spaces, high number of pupils in class, insufficient governmental expenditure and funding, and lack of proper research in education developmental strategies. Therefore, new learning spaces should be able to increase flexibility in order to support hands-on and outside-class learning activities. Furthermore, they intend to encourage extra-curricula activities beyond conventional learning times. Currently, these integral learning-components are crucial for socio-cultural sustainability and positive initiatives towards minimizing recent educational underachievement. Undoubtedly, comfortable, safe and creative learning spaces can inspire and motivate users, while ugly/unsafe spaces can depress. Therefore, well-designed learning spaces are able to support creative, productive and efficient learning processes on one hand. On the other hand, ecological design measures became increasingly major keystone for modern sustainable learning-spaces. Thus, learning-spaces' design process, form, components, materials, features, and energy-saving technologies can generate well-educated, environmental-literate, energy-conscious, and innovative future-generations.

International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH

In present century, world faces diverse environmental issues. The school is one the most important place for monitoring, mentoring and promoting sustainable environmental culture in both physical and educational way. Green school programme is an initiative and it is the foundation for environmental education that aims to empower and emancipate students to be the change for our sustainable environment needs by involving fun, joy, and action-oriented learning with responsibility. The level of awareness, practice and understanding of green school practices are investigated among students from senior secondary school. 50 students from senior secondary school participated. Data is collected through 25 items questionnaire. Percentage and t-test are used to analysis the collected data. Result of the study shows that the students understanding and practice of green school practices are very low. Students in the rural residential area have better awareness of green school practices. Reco...

Energy and Sustainability III, 2011

The existing school buildings are mainly characterized by a low level of architectural quality and performance which leads to a high consumption of energy and an indoor microclimate below comfort level. The design and construction quality of buildings plays a key role in limiting energy consumption, while ensuring proper comfort conditions. Best practice can also effectively encourage experimentations and contribute to formulate sustainable construction strategies that should be widely adopted. School buildings play, in fact, a dual role: on one hand they have to ensure adequate technical and morphological standards to all spaces used by the students; on the other one, they have to effectively communicate the criteria of sustainable design which have been used for their construction. The aim of attaining higher level of sustainability in the construction sector has led to consider school buildings perfect case studies for testing sustainable technical solutions. This paper proposes some of the most innovative case studies within Italy, highlighting criteria and strategies adopted in the design for spaces dedicated to children. The aim is to promote sustainable design and construction strategies that combine high levels of energy efficiency, of performance standards and environmental indoor quality, including innovative strategies to integrate the building and its related systems.

2012

Project 2010-2014, describing some of the trends in school buildings design in Western countries is regarded to be crucial. Schools are places where young members of our society are educated. School building design can have a direct influence on the way we assimilate, learn and integrate with other people, and can also affect the way we, as a society, integrate sustainability into our lives. A building is able to teach and convey new ways of materialising sustainable principles. Nowadays many experts claim that 'sustainable school is the most appropriate strategy for renovating educational processes and achieving quality education' . Therefore, this paper deals with some of the aspects of school development in relation to environmental sustainability principles. Each aspect is supported by an example of a contemporary school that included one or more of those principles. Towards the end some of the benefits of approaching schools with environmental sustainability in mind are presented. It is hoped that the results of this article will act as an invitation and stimuli for architects and planners, especially in Serbia, to reconsider their previous practice and start observing school design through the prism of sustainable development.

2016

This paper attempts to discuss the im¬portance of sustainability and its relation with education and design. Investigates how sus¬tainability can be promoted through school curriculum with an educational approach which will include also learning through de¬sign, aiming to raise awareness towards a better, healthier and sustainable future. The essay is divided into four main chapters. It will first refer generally to the field of education and will focus on three ed¬ucational theorists: Piaget, Montessori and Skinner. The second chapter has three parts. The first refer generally on sustainability, the second, will concentrate on sustainability through education and education for sustain¬able development (ESD) and the third part will refer to learning through the design and education as an entirety that will be present¬ed through the analysis of two case studies. Finally, the last chapter will be the analysis of the final project which is the re-sult of the above research that integrates the designing of the building in the educational framework.

Green Schools Globally, 2020

This chapter discusses the impact of the various green school programs on education for sustainable development in the countries included in this volume and how this impact needs to be problematised in terms of measurable and unmeasurable outcomes. It also discusses the challenges and opportunities experienced by the various green school programs and the possibilities of a green future for schools.

2022

This paper was prepared as input for the meeting of the EU working group on learning for sustainability in school education on 31 January and 1 February 2022. The paper was prepared by Prof Daniella Tilbury and Dr Conor Galvin who support this new group with their regular meetings. For more information about the European Commission's work on learning for sustainability see: https://education.ec.europa.eu/focus-topics/green/education-for-environmentalsustainability