Government shuts the door on open-plan classrooms
Photo:
RNZ / Mark Papalii
The government has called a halt to building open-plan classrooms, even though most teachers who actually use the structures believe their students benefit from them.
The buildings - known variously as modern, flexible, or innovative learning environments - have attracted consistent criticism, with some schools spending their own funds remodelling the rooms to create separate classrooms.
But surveys by the Council for Educational Research showed most teachers who worked in the structures liked them and believed their students benefited from learning in that kind of environment.
At Wellington's Newlands Intermediate School today, Education Minister Erica Stanford said she had been thinking about the issue for a long time.
"This government is calling time on open-plan classrooms. We will no longer be building those barn-yard-style open classrooms without any doors that separate classrooms," she said.
Stanford said successive governments had been flip-flopping between open plan and single-cell classrooms for years.
She said the big open spaces were too noisy and distracting for many children, and they would learn better in individual classrooms.
"My message to parents is that your children will be learning in single-cell classrooms that are modular so there will be open-and-close sliding doors that will allow for those classrooms to become bigger for when events require," she said.
"But when they are learning using explicit teaching, the new curriculum, the new maths books they will be learning in single-cell classrooms."
Newlands Intermediate School principal Chris Els said modern learning environments had their place - but they had drawbacks too.
"For neuro-diverse kids, kids that are struggling - really hard. Then you have your kids who know how to hide within the nooks and crannies of open learning spaces, so a lot relied on teachers to know their learner but you'd have the same in a single-cell. Personal preference, I like the idea of a flexible, open-up-close-when-you-can. It gives options," he said.
Stanford visited the school to announced that it would get 10 new classrooms.
Els said he did not know how often his teachers might want to open the glass doors the minister mentioned and turn their single-cell classrooms into a big open room.
"You basically are trying to create an environment that best suits both student and teacher. So if it needs to open and they can work together, so be it," he said.
"It depends on what the curriculum area is. If it needs quiet, the door gets closed and if that's the case those kids work within the single-cell."
While Stanford said the overwhelming feedback from schools was that they did not like open plan rooms, NZ Council for Educational Research (NZCER) surveys showed the opposite.
The council's 2019 survey of primary teachers found most of those who worked in modern learning environments enjoyed it and thought their teaching had improved, though most agreed some children find the rooms overwhelming.
"Sixty-two percent of those who taught in an innovative learning environment enjoyed teaching in such an environment, and 55 percent thought their teaching had changed for the better," the survey report said.
"Just over half thought they could cater for all students, and 45 percent thought that students were more engaged in the flexible learning environment than traditional classrooms, and 30 percent were neutral about this. But 78 percent of the teachers thought that some students find innovative learning environments overwhelming."
The council's 2022 survey of secondary teachers found 49 percent enjoyed their innovative learning environment, 27 percent were neutral, and 24 percent did not enjoy it.
Similar proportions agreed that their students enjoyed learning in the space and that it allowed them to teach in ways that benefited their students' learning.
But they were less likely to agree that their space was well-designed for teaching and learning with 40 percent agreeing, 30 percent neutral and 30 percent disagreeing.
Two-thirds percent agreed that some students found learning in an innovative learning environment overwhelming and 27 percent were neutral.
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