Abstract:

Research suggests the importance of the physical school environment in helping children fulfill their academic potential, and in providing appropriate working conditions for staff. However, few tools have been developed that enable post occupancy, multistakeholder consultation which take into account the views of children. In Saudi Arabia, despite large scale investment in education, few guidelines exist for primary school design. Using design checklists and existing Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) methods, a mixed methods approach was developed to evaluate three international primary schools. The combined methods identified common weaknesses and individual differences in the schools, differences in the views of the three stakeholder groups (children, teachers and parents) and elements of cultural bias in the measurement instruments. Conclusions drawn from the study are that greater efforts need to be made to draw together research in this area to improve teaching and learning environments, to increase their effectiveness and levels of user satisfaction and that POE should be used as a means of driving up standards of existing educational facilities.

Keywords:

Educational environments, teachers, children, evaluation.