Towards Typological and Spatial Diversities: Learning from the typological solutions of the Finnish comprehensive public-school buildings
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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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en
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12
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Architectural Research in Finland, Volume 6, issue 1, pp. 189-200
Abstract
The Finnish peruskoulu, comprehensive school, has succeeded well in the OECD’s PISA study since the study was first carried out in 2000. This success is a result of the long-term development of compulsory basic education in Finland from the 1940s to today. The changes in teaching have also resulted in changes in the layout of school buildings. This paper explores how the Finnish physical learning environments have developed and supported evolving pedagogy throughout the history of comprehensive school. This study is a qualitative and comparative case study, and the research questions are: What kind of a role have the comprehensive school physical learning environments played in the development of learning and education? How have the Finnish physical learning environments adapted to the development of pedagogy and curriculum reform? Questions like these are necessary to answer in order to support the transformation of physical learning environments towards diverse learning spaces, which serve the Finnish learning paradigm. The spatial and physical learning environment is the physical part of the extensive concept of the learning environment. The physical learning environment should support the schools’ and the teachers’ ability to combine evolving pedagogy into their practices for good learning outcomes. Pedagogy is the social interaction between teachers and pupils, and it promotes learning. The quality of air, sound and voice, temperature, and other physical learning environment conditions have an effect on health and wellbeing. There is clear epidemiological evidence whichproves that health and wellbeing impact learning. However, systematic research on the relationship between pedagogy and typology of school buildings is still needed. There is also a need to create understanding on how that relationship affects learning.The study is based on a series of case studies starting at the beginning of the comprehensive school system in the 1970s and continuing through the development phases to the 2010s. The sampling of the caseswas selected from school buildings reviewed in the Finnish Architectural Review magazineensuringthe architectural quality in the Finnish context. The buildings present either a solution typical to their time or solutions critical to the developmentphases. The building sizes vary, the number of students is dependent on the size of the school, the level of education varies, and the intended use may include some other activities too, but the study concentrates on the general learning spaces of the buildings, and their relation to the underlying pedagogical paradigm.The analytical framework is triangulated and applies comparative perspectives on the development phases of the building types. The selected methods consist of cross analysis of content analysis of the articles, timeline analysis of the evolvement of the pedagogy and learning spaces, the Finnish national core curriculum, the PISA results, and building design of the general learning spaces using a thematic coding frame. The results explain how the learning supporting spaces support users, how learning supporting environment support the didactic needs, and how the development of typology has evolved through the years towards typological and spatial diversities. They also may explain some of the trends in design aims through the history of comprehensive school and highlight the interplay and interdependence of pedagogy and spatial typologies.Description
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Lehtonen, S & Kuuskorpi, M 2023, 'Towards Typological and Spatial Diversities: Learning from the typological solutions of the Finnish comprehensive public-school buildings', Architectural Research in Finland, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 189-200. https://doi.org/10.37457/arf.130449