Blueprint for Tomorrow: Redesigning Schools for Student-Centered Learning

by Prakash Nair

The United States has about $2 trillion tied up in aging school facilities. School districts throughout the country spend about $12 billion every year keeping this infrastructure going. Yet almost all of the new money we pour into school facilities reinforces an existing—and obsolete—model of schooling.

In Blueprint for Tomorrow , Prakash Nair—one of the world’s leading school designers—explores the hidden messages that our school facilities and classrooms convey and advocates for the “alignment” of the design of places in which we teach and learn with twenty-first-century learning goals.

Blueprint for Tomorrow provides simple, affordable, and versatile ideas for adapting or redesigning school spaces to support student-centered learning. In particular, the author focuses on ways to use current spending to modify existing spaces, and explains which kinds of adaptations offer the biggest return in terms of student learning. The book is organized by area—from classrooms to cafeterias—and is richly illustrated throughout, including “before and after” features, “smart idea” sidebars, and “do now” suggestions for practical first steps. It outlines key principles for designing spaces that support today’s learning needs and includes tools to help educators evaluate the educational effectiveness of their own spaces.

Blueprint for Tomorrow will open educators’ eyes to the ways that architecture and learning are entwined and will challenge them to rethink the ways they teach and work together.

Genres: Education

216 pages, Library Binding

First published October 7, 2014

Reviews

[Carrie Froese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots to consider when designing educational facilities to support progressive changes in educational philosophy. Good overview of issues to ponder.

[Shelby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Written by an architect, but accessible to educators, Nair discusses the four design principles for schools and the six educational strategies that the design principles should support. Thinking about how form should follow function, he argues that as long as school buildings don't change, then education itself won't either. The book is a good mix of theoretical and practical. I enjoyed the case studies, ideas for action now, and the motivation to think big about the future.

[Anaid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leí el título en español "Proyectar el futuro: Como rediseñar los espacios escolares para favorecer el aprendizaje" de la editorial SM.

El libro presenta con un lenguaje accesible una nueva forma de ver y organizar la escuela. Me encantó en general, y lo único que exigiría es que utilizara referencias bibliográficas más sólidas.

[Mills College Library]

371.6 N158 2014