Historically, classrooms have utilized stationary furniture, facing front toward a centralized instructor position, and limiting student-to-student interactions. Such classrooms often stem from design processes that tend to focus on building codes and feedback from investors, architects, and planners, which leaves little input from instructors and…

An elementary school teacher and an architect taught six third graders some principles of designing ideal classrooms. These subjects' ability to observe and design environments was shown to be significantly greater than that of students in an uninstructed control group. (Author/WB)

The traditional division of the school into discrete classrooms does not fill today's diverse student and faculty needs. The alternative might be a school divided into 40 individual carrels, 15 project rooms, 5 offices, 2 seminar rooms, and 1 multipurpose room. (Author/JM)

Further explains the theory of "experiential time," which argues that children can process more information and have more time for complex play when the size of the learning environment is decreased, which increases a child's command of space. (SD)

Construction costs, building form, design, and space planning are compared with regard to teaching and the learning needs within educational facilities. Photographs and diagrams emphasize the importance of functional and flexible facilities to quality education and environments for learning. Building types presently popular and successful are…