Abstract

The paper investigates the connection between the school architecture and didactic-methodical organization of teaching in the conditions of traditional (old) schools. School architecture was analysed regarding school premises (classrooms and equipment) and the school environment (playgrounds with special emphasis on school gardens). The traditional (old) school in Croatian conditions is situated in the period from the introduction of the state public education (General School Order 1774) to the 1930s. The research was based on the analysis of archival and published materials, and field research. Field research was conducted in the school area of Velika Kopanica on two occasions, in 1980 and 2021. The descriptive and post-causal method was used in the research, and the connection between the school architecture and didactic-methodical organization of teaching was determined. School buildings (classrooms), school desks and equipment with a large number of students in the same class limited the didactic and methodological organization of teaching within traditional teaching (frontal, verbal, passive for students, asocial and repressive). At the same time, the school environment with special emphasis on school gardens opened up a number of possibilities that were characteristic of the new school movement: groups and individual activities, work of students, socialization and collaborative relationships, connecting theoretical with practical work. School gardens enable the introduction of a part of nature into classrooms, providing pupils with visual activity, systematic observation and the beginning of intellectual cognition. School architecture is in a direct connection with the didactic-methodical organization of teaching. How is it possible that in modern school architecture there are a number of forms characteristic of the traditional (old) school?