Green Schools Attributes for Health and Learning (2007) / Chapter Skim
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2 Complexity of the Task and the Committee's Approach
2 Complexity of the Task and the Committee's Approach
Pages 29-39
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From page 29... ...
These include lack of a clear definition of what constitutes a green school; variations in current green school guidelines; the difficulty of measuring educational and productivity outcomes; the variability and quality of the research literature; and confounding factors that make it difficult to separate out the effects of building design, operations, and maintenance from the effects of other variables. Each of these factors is discussed below to provide context for the committee's approach to meeting its charge.
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From page 30... ...
Thus, research on green schools might be conceptualized as having two quite different outcomes: improved student and staff health and development or improved environment and community. Because they were first developed to minimize adverse environmental impacts, current green school guidelines place less emphasis on supporting human health and development.
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From page 31... ...
In the studies reviewed by the committee, multiple and quite varied measures were used. One measure, absenteeism, was used as a surrogate measure for student health, teacher health, student learning, and teacher productivity (Table 2.1)
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From page 32... ...
In addition, environmental factors in a school may interact with genetic factors to determine the degree to which a child develops language skills or displays asthma symptoms. An additional challenge is the great variability in the characteristics and standards used by different disciplines to conduct research.
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From page 33... ...
A variety of confounding factors will be present in any study that attempts to link features of school buildings with student and teacher health and development. Age differences among students will influence the outcomes of research into health and learning: Young children inhale more air per pound of body weight than teenagers; their tissues and organs are actively growing; they are still developing language and cognitive skills; and they spend more time in school than anywhere else but home.
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From page 34... ...
Another confounding factor is that building systems and characteristics operate in an integrated fashion to effectively deliver (or not) overall building performance, whose components include thermal comfort; air, visual, acoustic, and spatial quality; and long-term building integrity.
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From page 35... ...
Another challenge is that the effects of physical environments might be trumped in some way by other forces -- teacher quality, parental involvement, or financial resources, for instance. To help inform the committee about mechanisms by which the physical environment might affect student learning, teacher productivity, or the health of students and teachers, the committee developed a conceptual model for evaluating links between green school buildings and outcomes for learning, health, and productivity (Figure 2.1)
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From page 36... ...
Finally, the model assumes that the indoor environment can affect student learning and health and teacher health and productivity. The committee's initial review of the literature focused specifically on identifying studies that purport to address the connections between green school design, student learning and health, and teacher productivity and health.
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From page 37... ...
Furthermore, other research on the factors that influence student learning does not typically look at factors related to building design and maintenance. A much more robust body of scientific evidence is available that looks at building characteristics emphasized in green school design -- envelope, mechanical and engineering systems, lighting, acoustics -- and their relationships to occupant health, development, and productivity.
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From page 38... ...
The effects of the built environment may appear to be small given the large number of variables and confounding factors involved. Finding 2b: The committee did not identify any well-designed, evidencebased studies concerning the oerall effects of green schools on human health, learning, or productivity or any evidence-based studies that analyze whether green schools are actually different from conventional schools in regard to these outcomes.
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From page 39... ...
Once specified, it may be possible to design appropriate research studies to determine whether and how these attributes affect human health, learning, and productivity.
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