The changes had also involved a reworking of the craft of teaching at Hadlow School, he said, which was the first school in Wellington to create an MLE from existing facilities.
Mr Mercer, who has been principal at the school since 1996, said the success of the open plan learning environment wholly depended on the change in teaching practices.
"The open plan was an experiment of the 70s that did fail because all they did was continue doing what they had always done in a different space. It's the teaching practice that needs to change to make it work, and that's what future-focused learning and teaching is.
Hadlow School had recorded significant improvements in learning and behavioural outcomes among Year 5 to 8 pupils since the teaching practices had been updated. The number of behavioural incidents in that age group had fallen from up to 60 in past years to only four to date this year, he said.
"And as far as their academic achievement goes, we didn't see a huge change in the children who were achieving at the standard because we had always looked at who had or hadn't achieved the standard.
"But this year we looked at those who had achieved above the standard, and that was significantly better," he said.
"We have seen an incredible lift in engagement in the children because they're interested in their learning."
Questions were also raised about self-directed learning and noise levels generated in an open plan classroom.
Mr Mercer said staff at Hadlow School "still teach our children" and noise was unavoidable in any classroom, especially at primary level:
"There is always a degree of noise. We don't have our children sitting in rows in silence listening to the teacher. They talk to each other and they collaborate. But with the modern learning environment there are places they can go.
"They can go to a quiet place, a meeting area. It's not like they all have to sit and listen to the teacher.
"We also have instructional groups so the children are being taught, they are being told, just not as a whole class.
"They are told depending on their ability or their needs in a group situation, and the difference is the rest of the class are not just sitting about listening, they are actually getting on with other work. That's the difference," Mr Mercer said.
Secondary schools would likely also benefit from future-focused learning, Mr Mercer said, toward which Masterton and South Wairarapa primary schools were already moving.
"For the Masterton (primary) cluster of schools, we've all agreed we want our schools to be future-focused -- we want to prepare children for the future -- and the South Wairarapa cluster want the same thing.
"And when you think about 17 or 18-year-old students, they are surely independent and self-directing already.
"If teaching practices were geared toward modern learning spaces at a secondary level, they would most likely get the same results we have seen."
