Enhancing Building Performance and Environmental Learning

Abstract

School buildings directly affect their natural and socio-cultural environments. They do this through their construction, maintenance, operation, and demolition. Most of the school buildings we have in stock today drain natural resources and inadvertently perpetuate a culture of environmental, social, and long-term economic ignorance and misuse. When approached thoughtfully, however, the design of school buildings can help inform and enrich society. Well-designed buildings can impart environmental knowledge and values. They can foster more effective behaviors among the people who learn in and from them. Effectively designed buildings can also conserve natural resources and—at their best—even help replenish the natural environment. For many school leaders today, participation in green certification programs represents one important step toward improved building and learning performance. This chapter provides a case study of successful learning approaches developed by Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS).

SΔp: The missing discriminative stimulus for nonpunishment.

“…It is with this goal in mind that we revisit the definition of the S Dp . The discriminative stimulus for punishment had been discussed long before O’Donnell (2001) proposed the term and symbol, S Dp (e.g., Chance, 1999; Malott et al, 2000; Michael, 1980; Miller, 1997; Sulzer-Azaroff & Mayer, 1991); however, at the time, people were using different symbols and there was no consensus as to what to call a stimulus correlated with punishment contingencies. The S Dp filled an important need, as precise and consistent terminology facilitates scientific communication within a discipline.…”