THE ROLE OF EVALUATION AS AN EDUCATIONAL SPACE PLANNING TOOL

Abstract

When an educational facility is to be built or refurbished, ideally a team of educators, designers and governing educational bodies’ representatives work together to ensure the facility reflects the educational institution’s beliefs, the needs of the teaching staff, and the desired learning outcomes of its students. The ultimate aim should be to ensure the new facility supports the learners in the most effective way based on latest developments in educational theory, and research into ‘what works’ in spatial design. In reality, however, few educational space designs enjoy this level of scrutiny, most being designed and built with little input from educators. Under some circumstances an educational space planner (ESP) is employed as an intermediary between the designers, the builders, policy stakeholders, the school administration, the teaching teams, and the students. The role of the ESP is to ensure the design accommodates the school’s educational vision and performs pedagogically as well as operationally. In this regard, the ESP occupies a highly advantageous position, owning equal insight into the design and educational aspirations of a build and being uniquely positioned to evaluate the degree to which the project is successful. Interestingly, little research has evaluated the impact of the ESP on the actual outcome of an educational project of this sort. This chapter explores the evaluative potential of the educational space planner.