>On a rather smaller scale, each new school year sees countless teachers
>trying to create the setting in their classroom that will enable them to
>enact the practice of education as they understand it. Some teachers do
>this unilaterally by promulgating the rules of conduct and procedures
>that are to be observed by their students; others invite the students to
>share in the process by discussing the sort of setting they think will
>enable them to work together collaboratively and productively.
>Reminds me of a classroom environment that I worked in for five months that
was designed by educator Doreen Nelson. It's called City Building, and it
embeds the course curriculum at any elementary or secondary grade level
within the construct of creating and running a city of the future. As part
of the class, students and teachers negotiate the layout of the classroom
and critically discuss and evaluate why their classroom might have been
built the way it was. They then discuss common household gadgets, and build
models of these gadgets. Through this exercise, they reflect upon how and
why these gadgets were invented and given the particular spatial form they
were given. Doreen calls it "thinking backwards." She wants the children to
think about how design solves problems, and she wants them to think about
how these objects and forms they take for granted today solved specific
problems at some time. As the year goes on, the students form a city
government and spend the year building a city out of recycled trash. They
design the urban plan, and each student gets a tract of land and a planning
code (also student-designed) that guides the development therein. It's a
fascinating program that has been widely adopted in Japan.
Louise