“At the moment of commitment the entire universe conspires to assist you.”Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Key Points:
The physical environment has a tremendous impact on our sense of well-being, our ability to learn, and our ability to succeed in the world.
We can understand the essential design patterns underlying healthful environments and leverage this knowledge to consistently create environments where students and teachers flourish.
The path to creating effective learning environments can be an adventure in design thinking. As with any adventure, there are obstacles along the way. When we identify and commit to the design principles that are important to us, we gain the confidence and motivation to overcome those obstacles.
Twenty years ago, I presented “21 Design Patterns for 21st Century Learning” to the Singapore Ministry of Education. The night before, I ate barbecue Stingray from a street vendor and I became sick to my stomach, slightly green, and was hallucinating during the night.
The next morning, the practical thing to do was to cancel the talk, but I had already traveled 9,000 miles from Minneapolis to Singapore to share these ideas and I was VERY excited about their potential to impact the design of learning environments. So, in the end, my excitement about the design patterns won out over practicality, and I’m grateful it did.
The success of that presentation led me to co-author The Language of School Design: Design Patterns for 21st Century Learning, the following year, a publication that has transformed school design in the two decades that followed. The Language of School Design was published in three editions between 2005 and 2013, and read widely by educators and architects around the world.
The book fueled the growth of Fielding International, an interdisciplinary team of architects and educators committed to designing schools where learners thrive. Since its founding, Fielding International has worked in more than 50 countries, building a shared language around design patterns that impact learners everywhere.
In 2021, Fielding International created a digital library of 71 design patterns and made them freely available under a Creative Commons license at SchoolPatterns.com. The firm continues to innovate and is a Certified B Corporation, committed to transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Today, I serve two roles: one as the Founding Principal of Fielding International, and second as the Founder and CEO of Design Emerging LLC, a software startup devoted to empowering human-centered design.
Design Emerging's first initiative, ClassroomRenewal.AI, was developed to serve 80 million classroom teachers and their more than two billion students worldwide. Today, on the 20th anniversary of the Singapore talk, we share “21 Design Patterns that Will Transform Learning.” Each pattern was developed using AI and can be accessed at ClassroomRenewal.AI.
I've never eaten barbecue Stingray again, but I continue to take on new adventures to make the world better through creative learning environments…and I invite you to join me!