Abbotsford Christian School Design - Exterior.
Transition to 21st century learning By Justin Dyck, Architect AIBC, CHP Architects
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s architects specializing in educational facility design, we’ve engaged in seminars and educational sessions touting the benefits of 21st century design. While architects, planners and school districts generate excitement over the new direction of these flexible and real-world educational spaces, we ultimately tend to notice a disconnect between the design intent and the actual use of these spaces by the educators and students. Our company is taking a new approach to engage educators, students and parents in the design process to look past trends of 21st century learning and towards a deeper understanding of how educators deliver their program and how students learn.
Learning with educators School districts aim to train both veteran and new teachers in the 21st century teaching methods of education and we believe there is a strong place for designers to better engage educators and students in the design of learning spaces and help transition them into the new 21st century learning atmosphere. Our office has taken a more integrated approach by accompanying educators in their own professional development endeavours to gain a full appreciation and understanding of how they currently deliver educational content and their thoughts of the 21st century of delivery. We have recently shadowed 12 educators through a segment of 44
Ops Talk • Fall 2016
their 21st century professional training to truly learn firsthand their impressions on this form of educational practices and how the programs are transitioned into their schools. We accompanied our clients to a one-week professional development trip to High Tech High, birthplace of project-based learning, which was specifically structured to educate teachers on the delivery of project-based learning. Through this experience, we gained an appreciation for what excited teachers about this form of learning, their apprehensions and frustrations, and their strategies for implementation. Our experiences through this process allowed for a deeper understanding from a teacher’s perspective as we continue to work with the group to develop a new 21st century middle/ secondary school in Abbotsford.
Engaging students in design As a continuation of our educational research, we are now engaging students in the design process to essentially help design their own school. Through a new initiative called IDEA, in coordination with Abbotsford Christian School in Abbotsford, the architect/educator team is engaging current students to participate in the design of their new school. Through a series of joint sessions with our firm’s design professionals and school educators, a select group of students from middle and
