Learning spaces, learning environments and the dis‘placement’ of learning (original) (raw)

Place and space in the design of new learning environments

Higher Education …, 2000

The development of online and virtual teaching and learning environments to augment formal face-to-face environments raises questions about the way the new communication and information (CIT) technologies are being incorporated into the on-campus environment. More importantly, this development challenges the meaning of the on-campus student learning experience. The new CITs require institutions, teachers and researchers to reconsider the relationship of the physical setting to the student learning experience. The paper highlights examples of recent developments of new learning environments which have been enhanced by the contribution of educational developers at several Australian universities. It also proposes a set of pedagogically-informed principles to guide the development of on-campus teaching and learning environments (which may feature the use of CITs).

Learning spaces for the digital age: blending space with pedagogy

This chapter shows how virtual and physical learning spaces are shaped by pedagogy. It explores the shift in pedagogy from an orientation to teaching to an emphasis on student learning. In so doing, it touches on Net Generation literature indicating that this concept has a poor fit with the diverse nature of student populations engaged in lifelong learning. The argument is that the skill set required for lifelong learning is not age related. At the core of the chapter is a case study of the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) which describes a history of learning environments that have been variously shaped by pedagogy and the limits of technology. It refers to the concept of the "edgeless university", which acknowledges that learning is no longer cloistered within campus walls, and it describes how USQ is engaging with this concept through the development of open source learning materials. An important point in the chapter is that the deliberate design of quality learning spaces requires whole-of-institution planning, including academic development for university teaching staff, themselves often ill-equipped to take advantage of the potential of new learning environments. The import of the discussion is that higher education learning spaces are shaped by deliberate design and that student learning is optimised when that design is pedagogically informed and properly managed.

Learning spaces: built, natural and digital considerations for learning and learners

Reimagining Education: The International Science and Evidence based Education Assessment

T he goal of this chapter is to assess research that can inform understandings of places and spaces of learning. The chapter assesses evidence across three types of learning spaces: built spaces, digital spaces, and natural spaces. It looks at the role of these di erent kinds of spaces for learning, attainment, interpersonal relationships, skills development, wellbeing and behaviours-across four pillars of learning to know, to be, to do and to live together. The chapter also explores how learning spaces can be actively shaped, felt and understood through practices and policies that occur within and around them.

Learning Spaces for the Digital Age

Concepts for the Modern Learning Environment

This chapter shows how virtual and physical learning spaces are shaped by pedagogy. It explores the shift in pedagogy from an orientation to teaching to an emphasis on student learning. In so doing, it touches on Net Generation literature indicating that this concept has a poor fit with the diverse nature of student populations engaged in lifelong learning. The argument is that the skill set required for lifelong learning is not age related. At the core of the chapter is a case study of the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) which describes a history of learning environments that have been variously shaped by pedagogy and the limits of technology. It refers to the concept of the 'edgeless university', which acknowledges that learning is no longer cloistered within campus walls, and it describes how USQ is engaging with this concept through the development of open source learning materials. An important point in the chapter is that the deliberate design of quality learning spaces requires whole-of-institution planning, including academic development for university teaching staff, themselves often ill-equipped to take advantage of the potential of new learning environments. The import of the discussion is that higher education learning spaces are shaped by deliberate design, and that student learning is optimised when that design is pedagogically informed and properly managed.

Spaces where learning takes place: Rethinking contemporary approaches to learning and teaching

Proceedings of The Annual International Conference of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA), AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand, 1-4 July., 2013

This paper discusses a variety of approaches to utilising different spaces, places and environments to make learning and teaching in higher education more effective, socially engaging, and relevant. It starts with the proposition that, in anthropological and pedagogical sense, spaces only become places through human action and imagination, the two essential human qualities critical for acquiring, applying and creating new knowledge. In addition to reflecting on different learning spaces and places, the authors discuss students’ experiences with spatial (and social) contexts applied in the postgraduate unit Contemporary Learning Environments, an integral part of Monash’s Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice. While the paradigms of experiential, reflexive and blended learning have been the underpinning pedagogical philosophies of this unit, an attempt has been made to closely align learning content with learning contexts by conducting the ‘classes beyond the classrooms’—in public places such as museums, community centres and parks as well as in more traditional venues like seminar rooms, lecture theatres and simulation labs. Upon finishing the unit, the students completed the standard Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units (SETU). While providing an analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data from the students’ evaluation and feedback, the paper goes beyond a mere audit of the unit—arguing that learning and teaching in higher education, even when they take place in a ‘purely’ virtual environment, still remain deeply embodied and meaningful social events situated in real places rather than in some dislocated, depersonalised ‘non-place’.

Which way is up? Space and place in virtual learning environments for design

Proceedings of 2nd International Conference for Design Education Researchers, 2013

The role of ‘place’ in design education is essential in providing a structured learning experience that can be trusted and which allows dynamic social connections to emerge in the development of reflective practice. With increasing demand for distance and online learning resources, this paper considers how such a sense of place can be arrived at using ‘virtual architecture’. Analogies with physical architectural space – for example ‘homes’, ‘forums’, ‘studios’, ‘libraries’ can be useful, but in many ways the opportunities for design learning in virtual architecture go far beyond what is possible with physical architecture. We describe how the virtual architecture of an Open University course in Design Thinking has consciously tried to create place rather than space, in crafting an environment with intrinsic learning opportunities, and the benefits this has brought to students studying the course.

Editorial: Perspectives on Spaces for Teaching and Learning

2018

… I believe that the anxiety of our era has to do fundamentally with space, no doubt a great deal more than with time. (Foucault, 1984, p.2) This special issue focuses on a wide range of Perspectives on Spaces for Teaching and Learning. Discussion on this theme began in a series of questions following a PhD Conference at the University of Aberdeen in 2017 on 'Perspectives on Space(s) in Our Research Contexts'. What spaces are offered or used for when teaching and learning take place today is worth further investigation locally as well as universally. As we all encounter different educational contexts, cultures, societal needs and technological achievements, it is not possible to conceptually limit spaces offered for teaching and learning into what they represent for each individual practitioner or researcher. Instead, different arguments can broaden individual perspectives and benefit all, while leading to self-reflection for one's own research perspectives.

Towards creative learning spaces

Routledge

There has been increasing interest in learning spaces over recent years. Experts across the fields of architecture, education and estates management are producing a considerable number of publications and many new and innovative examples have now been built (Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) 2006, Tertiary Education Facilities Management Association (TEFMA) 2006, Oblinger 2006, Scottish Funding Council 2006, Neary et al 2010). Yet key basic questions about what we mean by 'space' and what matters about it in relation to learning, remain unanswered. What kinds of space are we talking about -conceptual, physical, virtual, social and/or personal? What are the relationships between the nature of these various spaces and how they actually impact on learning activities? What are the different spaces in which learning takes place (both in and beyond the formal teaching environment) and how can we interrogate the effectiveness of different kinds of learning spaces? What needs to change both in the 'conceptual' spaces we have about learning, and in our physical and virtual spaces, in order to enhance learning experiences?

Innovative Learning Spaces in the Making

Frontiers in Education, 2020

This article details a qualitative, case study focusing on the affordances of innovative makerspaces for teaching and learning. The theoretical perspectives framing the research include embodied learning, materiality, neuroarchitecture, and structuralism as it relates to power, inclusion, and engagement within a learning space. Findings provide an overview of how the physical space (including the architecture of, and the furniture and materials within, the space) became an actor in the learning process. Three schools are highlighted as the case study examples. A detailed overview is provided of each of the spaces and the findings are supported through rich descriptions and a variety of data sources (i.e., teacher quotes, Twitter posts, images). This study is timely given that many Ontario schools have been and continue to build makerspaces to respond to the need to develop students' global skills and competencies (critical thinking; innovation and creativity; self-directed learning; collaboration; communication; and citizenship).