Landscaping the environment for learning in Malaysia: The characteristics of the Klang-Langat Valley’s school landscapes

Beside enhancing the scenery of school surroundings, landscape features with specific conceptual designs should be able to assist in the educational learning processes. This article aims to classify the characteristics and identify the concept of landscaping in schools within the Klang-Langat Valley. For such purposes, the present study obtained secondary information from various agencies and collected primary data from 104 schools in the region randomly selected through field observations using checklist techniques. Results showed that 44.6% of schools in the Klang-Langat Valley tend to have artificial landscape concepts, especially in schools located in urban areas, most popular being those of English and Nusantara landscaping. Traditional landscaping represents 89.4% of the typology. School landscapes in the region are often adorned with rigid components such as garden steps and furniture, flower pots, signboards, murals and gazebos. Shade trees, shrubs, ground covers, grass, fruit and herb trees are amongst popular soft components. Fish ponds and fountains are man-made components often observed. Widely present facilities include guardhouse, dustbin, pedestrian walkways, parking lots and telephone booths. Popular fauna featured were birds and butterflies while bougainvilleas were the most common floral shrubs, the pandan the herbs, and the cow grass the ground cover. Aesthetically, the majority of schools were only moderately appealing. Overall results of this study indicate that the school landscapes in the Klang-Langat Valley have yet to be developed to support the learning processes as envisaged in the national education philosophy.