CROWNING THE LEARNER
Classroom Evolution
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Schools should first and foremost be about students finding their own learning powers and passions - about opening hearts and unlocking minds. And the physical environment - ie. the classrooms should support and enhance just that.

Maglegaard – a pedagogy without a place
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With this in mind, we went to Maglegaard school, North of Copenhagen to investigate the needs and aspiration of 21st century learners working in buildings optimised for 19th century practices.

Maglegaard school was founded in 1909, a time of austerity, order and rigid stratification. As depicted by two friezes on either side of the main building: Girls, entering the building from the North side, were encouraged to sing and raise families; boys entering from the South, were encouraged to develop their physiques and move in an orderly, machine-like manner. The inside of the building reflected this commitment to nation-building, with single-purpose spaces in which children received instruction from their elders using a very narrow pedagogy – the classic ‘chalk and talk’ approach of the classroom.

The massive walls of Maglegaard have more or less withstood the changing school models - from the military/ church inspired dissemination of discipline, moral conduct, and the divine word; to the factory/ office set-up, producing workers and citizens with proper skills, proficiency and adaptability - unceasingly maintaining the dictum of one teacher, one class, one subject in one classroom.

However, during the years 1998-2001 Maglegaard underwent a profound pedagogical and organisational transformation towards supporting the individual child's self-esteem and learning strengths; supporting both their independence and interdependence. The transformation created a requirement both for organisation and physical change. A start was made: classes were consolidated in groups of three with an associated team of teachers, and the classrooms were diminished at the expense of shared multipurpose areas. Large scale systemic change combined with small scale physical change helped Maglegaard climb from 350th to 1st in the Danish performance tables.

Eight years later, Maglegaard is still ranked in the top ten for educational performance. However, the drive for improvement has been massively hindered by the physical restrictions imposed by a building designed to be inflexible and to help suppress individuality. While ‘permanence’ and ‘grandeur’ might be the hallmarks of the outside, the inside may be characterised as an ongoing battle between the building and the system. Personalised, 21st century Maglegaard is a pedagogy without a place.

We visited area F - the 220 sqm. home of 75 students (age 10-12) and 5 teachers. Their statements and observations of their interactions in the "classroom" formed the basis for our refurbishment concept.

What the school - and this area in particular - needs is a way of restoring dignity and grandeur to a pedagogy based on individuality, diversity and sociability. They need something like “The Crown”.

The Crown – a place without a pedagogy
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The Crown Liquor Saloon is a Victorian public house in central Belfast, a bespoke environment for socialising, meeting and contemplation. The main features are:

1. A long bar allowing many people to access facilities simultaneously and to engage in multiple conversations - 'open' or 'closed'
2. The bar at elbow height puts key resources (drinks, menus) 18-24 inches from the eyes and provides postural support; also supports intimate conversation within a crowded environment
3. Tall chairs allow user to face in different directions and rest on bar
4. Private 'snugs' with doors. Snugs are built to a height which offers some visible privacy while allowing sound to pass overhead – the pub sounds full but the snug feels private. You can glance over the top to see if the snug is occupied, and customers in the snugs can alert the waiters that they need support via a signalling system
5. Open space providing good sight lines.

Crowning the Learner
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The underlying basis for our refurbishment of area F at Maglegaard is to support individual learners, small groups and whole teams in much the same way as the Crown supports the individual customer and the company of friends:

1. A long counter - 'the cafe' - allowing many students to access facilities simultaneously and to engage in multiple conversations. Conversations can be ‘closed’ (you and your friend) or ‘open’ (you and the person who happens to be standing next to you)
2. The counter at elbow height puts key resources in sight and provides postural support; also supports intimate conversation within a crowded environment
3. Chairs allow the students to face in different directions and rest on the counter or the table
4. Snug-'boxes' with doors for group work. As in the Crown, sound passes overhead, creating a sense of buzz and excitement and effectively insulating learners from distraction (it is impossible to hear what is being said outside of the box due to the way the sounds mix together). Standing on the landing, the students can glance over the top to see if the box is occupied. Students in the boxes can alert the teacher that they need support via a signalling system
5. Open space providing good sight lines
6. Working areas placed near window areas
7. Three distinct locations for gathering groups of children for instructions and presentations:
7a. 'The hollow' - a cylindrical enclosure having a seating capacity of 30.
7b. 'The aquarium' - a separate room with a glass front
7c. 'The forum' - a large carpeted area having seating capacity of 75.
8. Four individual 'caves' for reading and contemplating
9. A small kitchen and a workshop area behind the counter with sinks and a multipurpose workbench
10. A multitude of tables for individual or group work.

This concept was modelled and presented to the teachers and students, who reflected on the applicability of the design, pointed out their favourite spots, and named the different learning environments (the names given above).

This classroom design is aimed at encouraging the curiosity and creativity of the young learners; and by bridging the literary-intellectual side of Irish life (the Crown) with the collaborative-kinaesthetic traits of Danish educational culture (Maglegaard), we have also created an attractive space for after school community activities.

By next year the war between the building and the system could be over.

Location