Adolescents’ positive attitudes towards school: a reflection on the spatial configuration of school buildings

Abstract

Evidence connecting the socio-spatial properties of a school building with adolescents’ positive attitudes towards school is rare. This study examines whether the socio-spatial context of school along with individual parameters of adolescents (such as gender and perception of attainment) influence their positive attitudes towards school. It harnesses spatial data by implementing analytical approaches to the understanding of the school layout, observational data, qualitative insights, and adolescents’ perception surveys in two finger-plan secondary schools in Cyprus. Two statistical models have been developed explaining 32% and 41% of the variation of students’ positive attitudes. The most important factors contributing to the models include the visibility potential of students’ classrooms and their perceptions of academic performance. Thus, the findings of this study are expected to help designers to understand the impacts of their design interventions and leaders in education to appreciate the role of the school building in adolescents’ positive attitudes towards school.

Acknowledgements

Both authors contributed equally to the manuscript. The authors would like to thank the students and teachers from both schools who participated in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Tim Sharpe, Deljana Iossifova, and Doreen Bernath, ‘Research in Practice: A Call to Arms’, Journal of Architecture, 27 (2022), 635–8.

2 Dianne Mulcahy, Benjamin Cleveland, and Helen Aberton, ‘Learning Spaces and Pedagogic Change: Envisioned, Enacted and Experienced Pedagogy’, Culture and Society, 23 (2015), 575–95 (p. 579).

3 See Unesco, A Place to Learn: Lessons from Research on Learning Environments (Montreal: Unesco Institute for Statistics, 2012), pp. 9–48; Bodil H. Bøjer, ‘Unlocking Learning Spaces: An Examination of the Relationship Between the Design of Learning Spaces and Pedagogical Practices’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, 2019), pp. 1–43; Daniel L. Duke, ‘Does It Matter Where Our Children Learn?’, National Academy of Sciences, 1998 <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=ED418578&site=ehost-live> [accessed 15 December 2023]; and Neil Gislason, ‘The Whole School: Planning and Evaluating Innovative Middle and Secondary Schools’, in School Space and its Occupation, ed. by Alterator Scott and Deed Craig (Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill and Sense, 2018), pp. 187–201.

4 Jos Boys, Towards Creative Learning Spaces (London: Routledge, 2010), pp. 1–187 (p. 7).

5 See Bill Hillier and Juliene Hanson, The Social Logic of Space (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 1–66 (pp. 26–9); and Bill Hillier and Laura Vaughan, ‘The City as One Thing’, Progress in Planning, 67 (2007), 205–30 (pp. 206–7).

6 Pamela Woolner and Thomas Ulrike, ‘A School for the Future : Design, Democracy and Student Expectations in England 2016’, ECER (2016), 1–16 (pp. 5–11).

7 Pamela Woolner and Elaine Hall, ‘Noise in Schools: A Holistic Approach to the Issue’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 7 (2010), 3255–69 (p. 3263).

8 See Cynthia L. Uline, Megan Tschannen-Moran, and Wolsey D. Thomas, ‘The Walls Still Speak: The Stories Occupants Tell’, Journal of Educational Administration, 45 (2009), 400–26 (p. 402); Cynthia L. Uline, Thomas D. Wolsey, Megan Tschannen-Moran, and Chi-Dean Lin, ‘Improving the Physical and Social Environment of School: A Question of Equity’, Journal of School Leadership, 20 (2010), 597–632; and Neil Gislason, ‘Mapping School Design: A Qualitative Study of the Relations Among Facilities Design, Curriculum Delivery, and School Climate’, The Journal of Environmental Education, 40.4 (2009), 17–34 (p. 19).

9 Uline, Megan, and Thomas, ‘The Walls Still Speak’, p. 15.

10 See Celen Pasalar, ‘The Effects of Spatial Layouts on Students’ Interactions in Middle Schools: Multiple Case Analysis’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, North Carolina State University, 2003), pp. 97–263; and Mayoko Taguchi and Tatsuya Kishimoto, ‘A Study on Space Configuration of Elementary Schools and Children Activity in Free Time’, Proceedings of the 8th International Space Syntax Symposium (2012), 8093:1–18.

11 Tatsuya Kishimoto, and Mayoko Taguchi, ‘Spatial Configuration of Japanese Elementary Schools: Analyses by the Space Syntax and Evaluation by School Teachers’, Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 13 (2014), 373–80.

12 Taguchi and Kishimoto, ‘A Study on Space Configuration’, pp. 8093:16–7.

13 See Kerstin Sailer, ‘The Spatial and Social Organisation of Teaching and Learning : The Case of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’, Proceedings of the 10th International Space Syntax Symposium (2015), 34:1–17; and Yelena Mclane, ‘Choreographing Collaborative Academic Experiences: The ‘Quiet Building’ and the ‘Airport Lounge’, ibid., pp. 27:1–14.

14 Revathu Kuman, Patric M. O’Malley, and Lloyd D. Johnston, ‘Physical Environment of Secondary Schools and Student Problem Behavior: A National Study 2000–2003’, Environment and Behavior, 40 (2008), 455–86 (p. 455).

15 World Health Organization. ‘Orientation Programme on Adolescent Health for Health-care Providers. Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development’, 17 May 2006, pp. 1–300 (17/ B-8) < https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9241591269> [accessed 15 December 2022].

16 See Benjamin Kutsyuruba, Don A. Klinger, and Alicia Hussain, ‘Relationships Among School Climate, School Safety, and Student Achievement and Well-being: A Review of the Literature’, Review of Education, 3 (2015), 103–35 (p. 103); and Amrit Thapa, Jonathan Cohen, Shawn Guffey, and D’Alessandro A. Higgins, ‘A Review of School Climate Research’, Review of Educational Research, 83 (2013), 1–29 (pp. 4–7).

17 See Eva I. Diaz, ‘Perceived Factors Influencing the Academic Underachievement of Talented Students of Puerto Rican Descent’, Gifted Child Quarterly, 42 (1995), 105–22; Leslie M. Gutman and John Vorhaus, ‘The Impact of Pupil Behaviour and Wellbeing on Educational Outcomes’, Research Report by the Institute of Education, University of London and the Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre (London: Department of Education, 2012), pp. 1–49 (pp. 26–7) <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a747ef340f0b604dd7ae609/DFE-RR253.pdf> [accessed 20 December 2022]; and Carol Goodenow and Kathleen E. Grady, ‘The Relationship of School Belonging and Friends’ Values to Academic Motivation Among Urban Adolescent Students’, The Journal of Experimental Education, 62 (1993), 60–71 (p. 60).

18 Kevin Marjoribanks, ‘The Predictive Validity of an Attitudes-to-school Scale in Relation to Children’s Academic Achievement’, Educational and Psychological Measurement, 52.4 (1992), 945–9.

19 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), ‘The ABC of Gender Equality in Education: Aptitude, Behaviour, Confidence’, reports for International Student Assessment’s (PISA) (OECD Publishing, 2015), pp. 3–180 (pp. 24–32) <http://doi.org/10.1787/9789264229945-en>.

20 Hanke Korpershoek, Esther Canrinus, Marjon Fokkens-Bruinsma, and Hester De Boer, ‘The Relationships Between School Belonging and Students’ Motivational, Social-emotional, Behavioural, and Academic Outcomes in Secondary Education: A Meta-analytic Review’, Research Papers in Education, 35 (2020), 641–80 (pp. 666–8).

21 See David Reynolds, ‘The Search for Effective Schools’, School Organization, 2 (1982), 215–37 (p. 230); and Kurt K. Eschenmann, ‘Student Perceptions of Teaching Style in the Health Occupations Classroom’, Journal of Health Occupations Education, 6 (1991), 45–54 (pp. 51–2).

22 Goodenow and Grady, ‘The Relationship of School Belonging’, p. 60.

23 Daniel Solomon, Marilyn Watson, Victor Battistich, Eric Schaps, and Kevin Delucchi, ‘Creating Classrooms that Students Experience as Communities’, American Journal of Community Psychology, 24 (1996), 719–48 (p. 720).

24 See Korpershoek, Canrinus, Fokkens-Bruinsma, and De Boer, ‘The Relationships Between School Belonging’, pp. 665–7; and Christopher O. Walker, ‘Student Perceptions of Classroom Achievement Goals as Predictors of Belonging and Content Instrumentality’, Social Psychology of Education, 15 (2012), 97–107 (p. 104).

25 Goodenow and Grady, ‘The Relationship of School Belonging and Friends’ Values’, pp. 60–1.

26 Kristin E. Voelkl, ‘School Warmth, Student Participation, and Achievement’, Journal of Experimental Education, 63 (1995), 127–38 (p. 127).

27 See Pasalar, ‘The Effects of Spatial Layouts’, p. 258; and Taguchi and Kishimoto, ‘A Study on Space Configuration’, p. 8093:1.

28 Kishimoto, and Taguchi, ‘Spatial Configuration’, pp. 377–80.

29 Taguchi, and Kishimoto, ‘A Study on Space’, p. 8093:16.

30 Woolner and Hall, ‘Noise in Schools’, p. 3263.

31 Kim Dovey and Kenn Fisher, ‘Designing for Adaptation: The School as Socio-spatial Assemblage’, The Journal of Architecture, 19 (2014), 43–63 (pp. 46–9).

32 Mclane, ‘Choreographing’, pp. 27:11–3.

33 See Uline, Tschannen-Moran, and Thomas, ‘The Walls Still Speak’, p. 2; and Uline, Wolsey, Tschannen-Moran, and Lin, ‘Improving’, p. 627.

34 Uline, Tschannen-Moran, and Thomas, ‘The Walls Still Speak’, p. 43.

35 Sailer, ‘The Spatial and Social Organisation’, p. 34:14.

36 See ibid., pp. 34:14–5; Kerstin Sailer, ‘Corridors, Classrooms, Classification: The Impact of School Layout on Pedagogy and Social Behaviours’, in Designing for the Future of Schooling, ed. by Hau Ming Tse, Harry Daniels, Andrew Stables, and Sarah Cox (London: Routledge, 2018), pp. 1–25 (p. 3); Frieda D. Peatross and John Peponis, ‘Space, Education, and Socialization’, Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 12 (1995), 367–85 (pp. 368–9); and Chrystala Psathiti and Nadia Charalambous, ‘Assessing School Environments: A Temporal, Syntactical, Socio-spatial Approach to Basil Bernstein’s Framework of Classification and Framing’, Proceedings of the 13th International Space Syntax Symposium (2022), 1–18.

37 Basil Bernstein, Class, Codes and Control (London and New York, NY: Routledge, 1973), pp. 158–75.

38 Hillier and Hanson, The Social Logic of Space, pp. 256–7.

39 Sailer, ‘The Spatial and Social Organisation’, p. 34:6.

40 Bill Hillier, Alan Penn, Juliene Hanson, Tadeusz Grajewski, and J. Xu, ‘Natural Movement: or, Configuration and Attraction in Urban Pedestrian Movement’, Environment and Planning B, 20 (1992), 29–66 (p. 65).

41 Hillier and Hanson, The Social Logic of Space, pp. 256–7.

42 World Health Organization. ‘Orientation Programme’, p. 365, X-5.

43 Marjoribanks, ‘The Predictive Validity’, p. 947.

44 Korpershoek, Canrinus, Fokkens-Bruinsma, and De Boer, ‘The Relationships Between School Belonging’, p. 665.

45 Eschenmann, ‘Student Perceptions’, p. 45.

46 See Jeffery A. Lackney, ‘History of the Schoolhouse in the USA’, in Schools for the Future: Design Proposals from Architectural Psychology, ed. by Walder Rotraut (Wiesbaden: Springer, 2015), pp. 23–40; and Neil Gislason, Building Innovation: History, Cases, and Perspectives on School Design (Big Tancook Island: Backalong Books, 2011), pp. 1–135 (p. 19).

47 Chrystala Psathiti, ‘Assessing Educational Environments: A Temporal Socio-spatial Approach to Lower Secondary School Buildings in Cyprus’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Cyprus, 2021), pp. 1–227 (pp. 164–201).

48 Chrystala Psathiti, ‘Assemblages and Built Form : The Case of Secondary School Buildings’, ISUF 2019 XXVI International Seminar on Urban Form: Cities as Assemblages, Assemblages (2019), 509–25 (p. 517).

49 See Alasdair Turner, Maria Doxa, David O’Sullivan, and Alan Penn, ‘From Isovists toVisibility Graphs: A Methodology for the Analysis of Architectural Space’, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 28 (2001), pp. 103–12; and Michael Benedikt, ‘To Take Hold of Space: Isovists and Isovist Fields’, Environment and Planning B, 6 (1979), pp. 47–65.

50 Laura Vaughan and Tad Grajewski, Space Syntax Observation Manual (London: Space Syntax Ltd, 2001), pp. 1–18 <https://dokumen.tips/documents/space-syntax-observation-manual.html> [accessed 22 December 2022].

51 Mikel Aickin and Helen Gensler, ‘Adjusting for Multiple Testing When Reporting Research Results: The Bonferroni vs Holm Methods’, American Journal of Public Health, 86 (1996), 726–8.

52 DepthmapXTeam, Depathmap X, (Version 0.6.0) <https://github.com/SpaceGroupUCL/depthmapX/releases/tag/v0.8.0> [accessed 15 December 2022].

53 See Roger Bivand and Colin Rundel, ‘Rgeos:Interface to Geometry Engine – Open Source (“GEOS”)’ <https://cran.r-project.org/package=rgeos2019> [accessed 10 January 2023]; Roger Bivand, Tim Keitt, and Barry Rowlingson, ‘Rgdal: Bindings for the “Geospatial” Data Abstraction Library’, <https://cran.r-project.org/package=rgdal2019> [accessed 10 January 2023]; Roger Bivant and Nicholas Lewin-Koh, ‘Maptools: Tools for Handling Spatial Objects’ <https://cran.r-project.org/package=maptools2019> [accessed 10 January 2023]; Petros Koutsolambros ‘Dxfspatial: Extract Spatial Information From Structured dxf Files’ <https://github.com/orange-vertex/dxfspatial2020> [accessed 10 January 2023]; Edsel A. Pena, ‘Gvlma: Global Validation of Linear Models Assumptions’ <https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/gvlma/index.html> [accessed 10 January 2023]; and Simon Urbanek, ‘Png: Read and write PNG images’ <https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/png/index.html.> [accessed 10 January 2023].

54 Kuman, O’Malley, and Johnston, ‘Physical Environment’, p. 456.

55 See Woolner and Ulrike, ‘A School for the Future’, p. 14; Uline, Tschannen-Moran, and Thomas, ‘The Walls Still Speak’, p. 43; and Taguchi and Kishimoto, ‘A Study on Space Configuration’, p. 8093:1.

56 See John Peponis, ‘Interacting Questions and Descriptions’, Proceeding of the 3rd International Space Syntax Symposium (2001), xii–xxvi; and Kerstin Sailer and Thomas Marcus, ‘Using Office Accommodation to Calculate an Organization’s Propensity for New Ideas’, Proceedings of the 12th International Space Syntax Symposium (2019), 140–57.

57 Ann Briggs, ‘Managing the Learning Environment’, in Managing the Curriculum, ed. by Middlewood Davide and Burton Neil (Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications Inc., 2001), pp. 175–90 (p. 176).

58 Uline, Tschannen-Moran, and Thomas, ‘The Walls Still Speak’, p. 41.

59 Zaky T. K. Fouad, ‘Implications of the Spatial Design of School Buildings on Student Interactions and Student Self-directed Learning Activities’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University College London, 2021), pp. 1–283 (pp. 265–6).

60 See ibid., p. 112; Peponis, ‘Interacting Questions and Descriptions’, p. xvii; and Sailer and Marcus, ‘Using Office Accommodation’, p. 140.

61 Sailer and Marcus, ‘Using Office Accommodation’, p. 156.

62 Pasalar, ‘The Effects of Spatial Layouts’, pp. 1–2.

63 Kerstin Sailer, ‘The Space-organisation Relationship: On the Shape of the Relationship Between Spatial Configuration and Collective Organisational Behaviours’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, TU Dresden, 2010), pp. 158–60.

64 Pamela Woolner, Jill Clark, Karen Laing, Thomas Ulrike, and Lucy Tiplady, ‘Changing Spaces: Preparing Students and Teachers for a New Learning Environment’, Children, Youth and Environments, 22 (2012), 52–74.

65 Michael Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1975), pp. 3–293 (p. 203).

66 Paul Hirst, ’Foucault and Architecture’, AA Files, 26 (1993), 52–60.

67 Henry Lefebvre, The Production of Space (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1991), pp. 27–169 (pp. 26–7).

68 Paula Cardellino and Pamela Woolner, ‘Designing for Transformation: A Case Study of Open Learning Spaces and Educational Change’, Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 28 (2020), 383–402 (p. 401).

Additional information

Funding

The first author received financial support for this research from the National Scholarship Foundation of Cyprus; Youth Board Cyprus.