Learning by Design: Live Play Engage Create

A major premise of this book is that the physical environments in which we learn should reflect our most powerful aspirations and our most promising ideas about learning. The designs that are showcased here are about expanding rather than containing learning, opening access rather than controlling access, adapting to differences in learning modalities and preferences, rather than restricting modalities and controlling preferences. Learning by Design uses the school building as a metaphor for everything we know and think about learning and education. The authors argue that a shift to deliberate design requires a shift in mindset, from predictability and stability to informed choice and adaptation, from established patterns and procedures to flexibility and responsiveness, from established truths to inquiry and questions. This is book is for everyone who cares about education. It describes how the thoughtful design of learning environments can become the catalyst to redesign education itself in a way that allows it to fulfill its ultimate promise as the vehicle to build a more fair and just society for all.

Prakash Nair is a futurist, a visionary architect and the Founding President & CEO of Fielding Nair International, one of the world s leading change agents in school design with consultations in 47 countries on six continents. He is the recipient of many international awards including the A4LE MacConnell Award, the highest honor worldwide for school design. Roni Zimmer Doctori has over 17 years of professional architectural and project management experience. She has served as an Architect and Design Team Leader at AlefBet Planners since 2007 and also as a Principal Architect with Fielding Nair International. Roni travels around the globe to implement highly innovative, student-centered curriculums in new and renovated schools. Richard Elmore joined the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1990. He has held positions in the federal government as a legislative liaison with the U.S. Congress on education policy issues. He is currently director of the Doctor in Educational Leadership (Ed.L.D.) program at HGSE. Dr. Elmore is exploring how schools of different types and in different policy contexts develop a sense of accountability and a capacity to deliver high-quality instruction. He has also researched educational choice, school restructuring, and how changes in teaching and learning affect school organization.