This case study looks at the effectiveness of policy instruments aimed at reducing the number of underperforming primary schools in a system with a long tradition of school autonomy. It reviews relevant Dutch policy developments in education since 1998 and provides an in-depth analysis of five...

The government of New Zealand delegates property expenditure decisions to each individual school. Such a decentralised environment creates a challenge for school boards and principals to obtain advice on the complex issues around designing schools. To inform schools, the Ministry of Education...

The New Zealand Ministry of Education is undertaking a project to provide information that can assist schools to design quality environments that will improve student learning outcomes. The project started in 2004 with the ministry surveying boards of trustees, principals, teachers and students...

A Sydney University, Australia, case study by John Simmons, Facilities Management Office, University of Sydney, and Kenn Fisher, Woods Bagot Architects, Australia.

This overview of designs for learning in the Knowledge Age briefly explores the relationship between learning and the built environment, and the role of teachers in designing educational spaces; it calls for a collaborative campaign and suggests future action.

This article is a report on the Time Workshop held at the international conference on “Innovative Alternatives in Learning Environments” in November 2000. The report, written by Prakash Nair, a U.S. expert on school facilities and technology, includes significant input from Hans F. Van...

What is involved in creating learning environments for the 21^st century? How can school facilities serve as tools for teaching and meet the needs of students in the future? What components are required to design effective schools, and how does architecture relate to the purposes of schooling?...

Extensive efforts world-wide have been made to develop performance measures for the physical infrastructure of educational institutions. However, this issue is not easy to resolve given the differences in data collection and management within individual countries and between countries. The...

What follows is an edited transcript of an interview with Glenn Meeks and Prakash Nair by Randall Fielding, U.S. architect and planner, contributing editor to “School Construction News” and the editor of “Design Share”.

Designing school buildings to respond to change is not a new idea. But perhaps what is different today is the kind and degree of change which we have to anticipate. The OECD is carrying out projects that can help in the planning and design of future educational facilities – exploring trends in...