Building To Educate

An often-quoted Swedish saying goes as follows: "A child has three teachers: the first teacher is the other children, the second teacher is the teacher, and the third teacher is the room." Students learn best where learning is interesting and fun - so the standards required for school construction are equally high. The continual development of educational concepts and new didactic approaches are changing everyday life in schools and, with it, the functional and aesthetic qualities of this building task.Classrooms and public areas both inside and outside are becoming increasingly flexible and multifunctional. They offer opportunities to retreat for individualized learning opportunities and zones of concentrated work, as well as open space landscapes for inter-year mingling and self-organized group activities. The school projects presented in this volume show how contemporary pedagogical concepts are translated into compelling and very diverse architectural solutions.

How to rebuild higher education from the ground up for the twenty-first century. Higher education is in crisis. It is too expensive, ineffective, and impractical for many of the world's students. But how would you reinvent it for the twenty-first century—how would you build it from the ground up? Many have speculated about changing higher education, but Minerva has actually created a new kind of university program. Its founders raised the funding, assembled the team, devised the curriculum and pedagogy, recruited the students, hired the faculty, and implemented a bold vision of a new and improved higher education. This book explains that vision and how it is being realized. The Minerva curriculum focuses on “practical knowledge” (knowledge students can use to adapt to a changing world); its pedagogy is based on scientific research on learning; it uses a novel technology platform to deliver small seminars in real time; and it offers a hybrid residential model where students live together, rotating through seven cities around the world. Minerva equips students with the cognitive tools they need to succeed in the world after graduation, building the core competencies of critical thinking, creative thinking, effective communication, and effective interaction. The book offers readers both the story of this grand and sweeping idea and a blueprint for transforming higher education.

Learning by Building challenges today’s architects and students to experience the energy and creativity of construction. Based on the example of famous architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, who considered construction an integral part of the design process, "design-build" is standard practice in growing numbers of today’s architecture firms. Architect and professor William J. Carpenter explores ways to integrate construction into architectural education, bridging the gap between theory and practice—between designing and building. Mr. Carpenter traces the history of construction in architectural education, from medieval times, to Jefferson’s Monticello, to the German Bauhaus. He cites twentieth-century artists such as Richard Serra and Donald Judd, whose work is generated by the process of making; like the artist, "the architect should be immersed in the potential of construction." Ten in-depth case studies of schools that have incorporated design-build into their curriculum illustrate how construction studios help future architects learn real-life pragmatics and collaboration. Through text and photographs, Mr. Carpenter recounts the diverse experiences of high-profile schools such as Cranbrook and Yale University, providing models for other schools that wish to include design-build in their curriculums. Mr. Carpenter also gives a helpful outline of the practical details involved in design-build, such as team issues, legal issues, and built applications of the process. Learning by Building is a wake-up call to architects and students alike to immerse themselves in the process of architecture—to rediscover, or witness for the first time, the excitement of building.

Educators in online and other technology-rich environments consistently ask, “How can I build community among the learners in my class?” They know learning is strengthened by community, but aren’t sure how to design a community in a learning environment where technology plays a significant role. Ten Strategies for Building Community with Technology answers their question with proven strategies developed over the authors’ thirty years’ experience designing and teaching online classes. The ten strategies demonstrate that technology is not an impediment to community, but instead a tool for building more effective learning environments than are possible with traditional, face-to-face classrooms. Used the right way, technology can provide more instructional time, more opportunities for students to reflect, more chances to share and connect, and more access to feedback. But these effective learning environments don’t happen by chance. This book will give you all the background, tactics, examples and advice you need to design successful learning communities with technology. Ten Models for Building Learning Communities Transmission/Direct Instruction Guided Discovery Nurturing Apprenticeship Case Study Shared Praxis Insight-Generating Training Projects Inquiry

From pressures to become economically efficient to calls to act as an agent of progressive social change, higher education is facing a series of challenges. There is an urgent need for a rigorous and sophisticated research base to support the informed development of practices. Yet studies of educational practices in higher education remain theoretically underdeveloped and segmented by discipline and country. Building Knowledge in Higher Education illustrates how Legitimation Code Theory is bringing research together from across the disciplinary map and enabling practical change in a rigorously theorized way. The volume addresses both students and educators. Part I explores ways of supporting student achievement from STEM to the arts, from introductory courses to doctoral training, and from using new digital media to reflective writing. Part II focuses on academic staff development in higher education, reaching from curriculum design to pedagogic practices. All chapters focus on issues of contemporary relevance to higher education, showing how Legitimation Code Theory enables these issues to be understood and practices improved. Building Knowledge in Higher Education brings together internationally renowned scholars in higher education studies, academic development, academic literacies, and sociology, with some of the brightest new researchers. The volume significantly extends understandings of teaching and learning in changing higher education contexts and so contributes to educational research and practice. It will be essential reading not only to scholars and students in these fields but also to scholars and educators in higher education more generally.

This open access book presents theoretical and practical research relating to the vast, publicly financed program for the construction of new schools and the reorganization of existing educational buildings in Italy. This transformative process aims to give old buildings a fresh identity, to ensure that facilities are compliant with the new educational and teaching models, and to improve both energy efficiency and structural safety with respect to seismic activity. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on the social role of the school as a civic building that can serve the needs of the community. Innovations in both design and construction processes are then analyzed, paying special attention to the Building Information Modeling (BIM) strategy as a tool for the integration of different disciplines. The final section is devoted to the built heritage and tools, technologies, and approaches for the upgrading of existing buildings so that they meet the new regulations on building performance. The book will be of interest to all who wish to learn about the latest insights into the challenges posed by, and the opportunities afforded by, a comprehensive school building and renovation program.

"Glocal" education melds the economic advantages of globalizing higher education with the benefits of incorporating local perspectives. This book explores glocal education's rationale; social, cultural, and economic foundations; key concepts; and implementation.

That there is a divide between research and practice is a common lament across policy-oriented disciplines, and education is no exception. Rhetoric abounds about the role research plays (or does not play) in the improvement of schools and classrooms, and policy makers push solutions that are rooted in assumptions about the way that research should influence practice. Yet few people have studied the relationship between research and practice empirically. This book presents findings from a series of interlocking case studies of nationally visible R&D projects, with a unique focus on how researchers and practitioners actually worked together, and the policy, social, and institutional processes that either enabled or hindered their work. The book investigates the dynamics of cross-institutional collaboration and the relationship between tool design, teacher learning, and the implementation of research-based approaches. It also explores conditions for learning in schools and the role of evidence in district decision making. By investigating the roles played by research and practice in these ten educational improvement efforts, the book illuminates lessons for those who seek to do this kind of work in the future. It concludes by suggesting implications for designers, funders, school and district leaders, and universities.