Responsiveness can be broken down into components from short term to long term ability to change:

Agility is the ability to change the settings, or the environment, on an almost instantaneous basis, such as by adjusting lighting and temperature levels, ventilation, and moving furniture and fixtures.

An example would be the ability to create an instant blackout of windows in a science lab to view an experiment, and the subsequent restoration, without it taking significant time and effort on behalf of the learners or staff.

Having increased control over basic environmental factors has proven to be prerequisites for higher quality teaching and consequently implied benefits to better learning, though it is not always necessary to have the ability to move furniture, and this ability can come at a cost in terms of quality and type of furniture.

Flexibility is the ability to change the size, shape, purpose or function of spaces relatively quickly. This term is commonly maligned as expensive and unused, associated with acoustic partitions, but there is a range of other design strategies that also allow flexibility, if it is needed.

Adaptability is the ability to provide for the potential need to change the size, shape, purpose or function of a space over the long term at reasonable cost.

Adaptability relates more to the structure of the building; the degree of adaptability will depend on the original structural design, servicing strategy and fixtures and finishes of the building.

This includes such examples as the moving or taking down walls to change the size or openness of the space. These changes are more likely to be factored in at the facility or design level rather than at the user level. This ‘future-proofing’ of spaces allows for designs to accommodate to changes in educational philosophy or pedagogy over time.