Essential Ingredients for Successful 21st Century
Teaching and Learning Environments
Essential Ingredients for
Successful 21st Century Teaching and Learning Environments
Keith W. Turner, AIA and Scott Colson, AIA LEED® AP
Current research in college campus master planning and facility design suggests that successful environments
integrate many different forces that affect a building’s users: faculty, students, and staff. Clearly articulating the
institutional values that a building is expected to embody will ensure the project’s success. As the vision for the
work evolves, a clear understanding of the project goals and the various forces that may influence them becomes
the road map for the project. Today, successful teaching and learning environments are responsive to various
modes of learning, students’ social needs, emerging pedagogies, sustainability, and the ever-evolving human
relationship to technology.
Modes of Learning
Traditionally, classroom teaching has been limited to
static lecture halls filled with rows of desks and limited
interaction between students and their teachers.
Recent studies in generational research acknowledges
that “Millennials”, born (roughly) between 1982 and
2002, are having serious impact on how both teaching
and learning occur on college and university campuses.
These “digital natives” of the Information Age have
grown up with ubiquitous laptops and cell phones
– providing universal access to the internet, instant
text messaging, social networking sites and blogging.
As such, these young people are more social and
connected than prior generations
This connectedness has led to a generation that is
socially aware and interested in their place in the world.
Millennials often prefer to work in teams. An increasing
awareness of global warming and the environment is
a concern to this generation, along with an inherent
practice of conservation and recycling. Consequently,
they have high expectations of being able to play a role
in issues related to sustainability.
Conversely, these students want to also escape the
sometimes-isolating environment of technology and
come together for a sense of community outside the
classroom. The need for a variety of comfortable and
communal spaces where students can come together,
socialize, network and study has become a necessity
on college campuses. These environments of “informal
learning” often include multiple amenities – from food
and coffee to library and technology services. Such
places become the ideal places for collaboration and
group problem-solving, the necessary counterpoint
to the more traditional quiet and individual study
spaces that still have their place in the overall mix of
environments that are required for deep learning.
Emerging Pedagogies
Just as technology is changing student’s modes
of learning, it is affecting how the teaching is also
delivered. Historically, teaching styles were topdown and hierarchical and limited to the classroom
or instructor’s office hours. Current and emerging
technologies are freeing the curricula beyond the
classroom or library environments, becoming more
virtual, exploratory and collaborative, all the while
accelerating the socialization of ideas. For example,
website blogs have implications on how learning may
be accelerated between students and teachers beyond
traditional constraints.
These new tools require that universities and colleges
carefully examine their institutional values, pedagogical
theory, corresponding curricula, and related program
and facility requirements. This process is further
informed by contemporary research into learning theory
and the varied ways in which people learn, teaching
methodologies that address the variety, and the best
environments that support them. The resulting facilities
may contain a variety of both spaces and technology
where curriculum-based and innovative learning may
occur.
Participatory Design
The design of successful 21st century learning and
teaching environments are, by necessity, a process of
inquiry and collaboration between distinct stakeholders
in the facility to be designed. It is an opportunity to both
clarify and express the best values, goals and culture
of the institution. Understanding the institutional vision
at a deep level influences the overall project definition
and should include issues of context, identity, and
pedagogy. This visioning sets the guiding principles for
the work at hand, and informs the options considered
and decision made during the process of realizing the
work.
Huntsman Architectural Group 1
Essential Ingredients for Successful 21st Century
Teaching and Learning Environments
CSU East Bay Library
Context
How the new environment fits into the campus
community (as well as how the new work may influence
it) is of great importance in establishing the overall
goals of the project at a large scale. How do the new
functions best respond to and complement the Master
Plan? Is it a single site, or multiple sites? What is the
program’s relationship to the existing campus functions
and their locations? What are the synergies created
with other current and future teaching and learning
environments? These types of questions help to
identify how the project most positively influences and
serves the lives of faculty and students.
The proposed renovation and expansion of the Main
Library and Warren Hall Administration Building on
the California State University East Bay Campus is
planned to become a new learning and community
center for the entire campus, a nexus of student
services, faculty research and student learning and
interaction. A program- rich environment for the library,
technology-rich classroom and study environments as
well as other amenities and flexible group learning and
social spaces.
Identity
As the program is defined and its associated
environments realized, the work exists for all to both
experience and see. What values does this work
embody and express to the faculty, students and public
at large? How are these values best expressed in both
the program and their physical design? Ultimately, how
is the new work an enduring example of the future
direction of the institution?
2 Huntsman Architectural Group
SF State University Downtown Campus
Essential Ingredients for Successful 21st Century
Teaching and Learning Environments
In an effort to create visibility for their communityoriented extended learning programs, The San
Francisco State University Downtown Campus
relocated to a new urban mixed-use center to house
the College of Extended Learning and the College of
Business MBA Programs. Designed as a communal
learning center, functions include collaborative learning
spaces, user-instructional services and spaces,
meeting rooms and theater-style classrooms on two
floors of the complex. Interior atriums serve as public
lounges where students can work collaboratively or
experience the urban energy of the central atrium. This
unique context increases the visibility of the extended
learning programs. There has been an increase of
both interest and enrollment in the programs due to its
success, with plans to extend Master’s degree course
offerings in the future.
Wharton West: dining hall serves as communal learning center
SF State University Downtown Campus: Interior Quad (IQ)
Pedagogy
What are the guiding teaching principles that are
important to the institution, and what are the identified
needs associated with these principles? How do these
principles translate into specific curricula, and what
physical facilities best support them? How do these
qualities influence decisions regarding technology,
ergonomics, lighting, acoustics and furnishings? What
is the best physical manifestation of the principles?
How are they adaptable to possible future research and
pedagogic theory?
for project-oriented teamwork. Visual connections are
maintained throughout the school as workstations on a
mezzanine level overlook the large group area, which
also may serve as a lounge or smaller group areas
when reconfigured.
Sustainability
Addressing issues of sustainability articulates the
institution’s position with respect to responsible
stewardship of the environment. The institutional vision
of how it responds to global ecology defines how it
is to inspire and inform current faculty and student
populations to be responsible citizens of the world.
New campus facilities, when designed and executed
with sustainable principles in mind, can be vehicles
themselves for teaching and learning about the defining
challenges of our time.
When the opportunity arose to create a West Coast
presence, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton
School chose a building in San Francisco because
its brick-faced exterior harkens the main Campus
in Philadelphia. The design reflects Wharton’s
collaborative approach to teaching: two-tiered
classrooms provide interactive learning environments
and several study areas for large groups were created
Huntsman Architectural Group 3
Essential Ingredients for Successful 21st Century
Teaching and Learning Environments
Inspiration
As the constituencies are engaged in the planning
process, values clarified, programs developed and
spaces defined, the design of the teaching and
learning environments must also respond to the
psychological, intellectual and physical needs of
its users. These places of learning may range from
stimulating and thought-provoking to quiet and
contemplative. They must do more than respond to
modes of learning or the teaching pedagogies that
support them to reflect the fundamental human needs
that transcend the academic experience. Versatility of
function, healthy indoor air quality, thermal comfort,
access to daylight and views, relationship to nature
and ergonomic furniture all contribute to the wellbeing of the occupants. Similarly, the overall visual
aesthetics can support a level of pride and motivation
to perform. Technology must be accessible and everpresent. These healthy, sustainable and technologyrich environments encourage community, inquiry
and curiosity and the intellectual and emotional
development that today’s higher education institutions
seek to provide their students, faculty and staff.
References:
“The Space is the Message: First Assessment of a Learning Studio”
Jim S.C Tom, Kenneth Voss and Christopher Scheetz; Educause
Quarterly, Number 2, 2008: pages 42-52.
“Make way for Milennials! How Today’s Students are Shaping
Higher Education Space” Persis Rickes; The Journal of the Society
for College and University Planning, Volume 37, Number 2 JanuaryMarch 2009: pages 7-17.
“The Serious Matter of Informal Living” Peter Jamieson; The Journal
of the Society for College and University Planning, Volume 37,
Number 2 January-March 2009: pages 18-25.
“Design of the Learning Space: Learning and Design Principles”
Chris Johnson and Cyprien Lomas; Educause Review, Volume 40,
Number 4: pages 16-28.
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/Designof
theLearningSpaceL/40557
4 Huntsman Architectural Group