LEARNING IN PLACE AND BY DESIGN RATIONALE Children are constantly learning, and the landscapes they inhabit offer varied potentials for learning. Robin Moore and Herb Wong provide a useful framework to view different learning contexts: “Informal education includes all learning… that results from children’s daily interactions with the social and physical environment.... Formal education is what we usually associate with schools—lessons delivered to children, in classrooms, by teachers.... Nonformal education provides the bridge between the informal and formal modes of education.”1 These kinds of learning opportunities may involve a mentor or interpreter to a place. 1 Moore, Robin C. and Herb H. Wong. 1997. Natural Learning : The Life History of an Environmental Schooylard. Berkeley, CA: MIG Communications. pp. 195-196.
Zhehao Huang
MAIN TAKE AWAYS The readings for this theme raised several considerations for design that may support learning. Two key insights are seeking relevant learning opportunities and providing the tools for open-ended discovery. Learning happens through meaningful experiences in our local environments. Authors Mannion and Adey wrote, “Through intergenerational place-based education, all participants, places, and the relations among them are co-produced.”1 From Nicholson’s “theory of loose parts” we discovered the importance of natural objects as potential learning tools: “In any environment, both 1 Greg Mannion and Clair Adey, 2011. “Place-Based Education Is an Intergenerational Practice”.. Children, Youth and Environments 21 (1): p53.
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UW MLA Capstone Studio 2016
the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it.”2 And he proposed an approach for how we design with this in mind: “1. Give top priority to where the children are. 2. Let children play a part in the process. 3. Use an interdisciplinary approach. 4. Establish a clearing-house for information.”3
2 What do Playgrounds Teach? Simon Nicholson: ‘The Planning and Design of the Recreation Environment,’ University Extension, University of California, Davis, 1970, pp.5-1 to 5-11 3 Simon Nicholson. 1971. “How NOT to Cheat Children The Theory of Loose Parts”. Landscape Architecture magazine. October. pp. 30-34.