How redesigning school helps to nurture the students?
When it comes to education and learning, a great many factors are often considered to impact the grasping and assimilation of knowledge. The curriculum or subjects, teaching faculty or locality are often given much prominence as well tweaked to improve learning outcomes. What is often ignored, is the school itself, the classroom and activity spaces, interiors and play areas, including furniture and materials. Several studies have shown that relooking the way schools are designed brings in a new perspective to the way students react to their surroundings. It nurtures learners and thinkers, encourages imagination and creativity. Redesigning schools to align with culture, values, local influences and integrating convenience and practicality makes them true centres of learning, unique and a stand out from the crowd. In order to go deeper into the overall impact, let’s look at each of these aspects.
DEVELOPS CREATIVITY –
It is often thought that creativity is inborn. In truth, creativity is sparked by several factors in the surroundings – in school it is the design of classrooms, walls and activity spaces. Whether it is in the vibrant colors that pop out of walls or interesting illustration and designs on them, whether the flooring or the play areas that allow experimenting and thinking out of the box, children can dream and express themselves better when surrounded by spaces that creative thinking.
Ravilla KRA Vidyshram (Designed by The School Designs Studio)
INJECTS POSITIVITY –
Bright colors, vibrant hues, ample play spaces and an ability to move around and engage, what more do kids want? Traditional schools have a pre-defined layout that channels student’s engagement and attention towards a set of learning activities. Redesigning classrooms to adapt to individual school curriculums and values, makes for a relaxation of rigidity, allowing them to be happier, more engaged and look forward to coming to school.
Modi Global School (Designed by The School Designs Studio)
MOTIVATES STUDENTS –
Learning can be a monotonous activity requiring much effort if children don’t feel seen and heard in class. Being surrounded by the same environment, doing the same things is very demotivating in the long run. A sure way of making kids look forward to come to school is by subtly acknowledging them and motivating them through class design changes. It may be a wall that showcases their achievements or a blackboard where they put up their work. Motivated students make for easy learners and don’t resist coming to school.
INCORPORATES INNOVATIONS –
Classrooms are the easiest incubators of innovations. This is where the spark of thinking differently, out of the box and innovation begins. It is difficult to imagine students emerging from rigid, non-flexible structures being able to think differently. Traditional classrooms conform to a standard followed since decades. Subtle changes in them, research has shown, allows kids to look for new ideas and ways to deal with existing problems. It also encourages teachers and the school to present the same education and learning methodologies in a new light.
Redesigning the school may seem very structural, but the benefits – both tangible and intangible – are manifold and inexplicable. Children learning in such environments grow up feeling free to express themselves, work with others and learn to make the most of failures.