Learning Spaces & Learning Outcomes: Connecting the Dots
Deb Cox, B.A., Dip. Ed. Pricipal, Stanthorpe State School. If you ask any teacher if they want their students to be able to make effective decisions, reflect, communicate, self-manage, inquire, evaluate, and create etc, the answer is inevitably…. "of course". Yet so often our classrooms are not set up to for this. |
Our school was selected as a Trial School for the State Schools of Tomorrow project in 2008, and as our Year 7 students who graduate today, it seems appropriate to reflect on what we adults and students have learnt.
While we have had research for a while now around the needs of 21st C Learners, the quantifiable data confirming that Flexible, Creative, Stimulating and Comfortable Learning Spaces improve both Intellectual and Social-Emotional Learning Outcomes is just beginning to emerge (see "Making the Case for Space: Three Years of Empirical Research on Learning Environments", by Whiteside, Brooks and Walker). Until now we have been working on anecdotal evidence and our intuition, believing that, of course, it will make a difference.
My beliefs have been confirmed as I reflect on the significant learning gains made by these students in the past 18 months. We have measured these gains using a variety of formal and informal measures, including National Testing. Our research and the evidence of student improvement (and pictures) is all available on our school website: www.stanthorpess.eq.edu.au.
The most obvious, but still most significant learning is that Teacher's Pedagogy provides the strongest link between Learning Spaces, and the resultant improvement in Learning Outcomes. |
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You can connect the dots….you can create sensational learning spaces and have resultant improved learning outcomes if as teachers and leaders we understand what the dots are:
Knowing the Learner
Knowing their learning styles, intelligences, and data;
Effective Design
Effective design of both Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Learning Environments;
Explicit Teaching of concepts, skills and processes
By the teacher, but also by other students. We use a pedagogical "Threads" model of TO, WITH, BY, FOR ie Modelling, Guided Practice, Independent Practice, and Reflection-Feedback.
Choices in Learning
Student voice, control and self-management of their learning is an important factor in success.
Assess and Redesign
Be prepared to measure the learning, and then redesign both the curriculum and the learning space to suit the changing needs of the learners.
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Jill Willis B.A.,M.Ed.
Lecturer and Researcher Faculty of Education
Queensland University of Technology
Creativity, teamwork, self-management and social competence are 21st century learner capabilities outlined in the Australian Curriculum (2010: 20 -21) and well-designed learning spaces can support students to learn these skills. |
Principles for designing effective learning spaces
Peer collaboration, and feedback are pedagogical strategies with the greatest impact on improving learner outcomes (Hattie 2009). Flexible table groupings lead to more discussion, active student learning and frequent informal teacher help, with students in these environments outperforming those who were taught the same course in a traditional classroom (Whiteside, Brooks and Walker 2010).
Learning is enhanced in stimulating spaces. Visual and kinesthetic experiences motivate and engage students and teachers, aiding memory as "humans associate what they learn with where they learned it" (Gee 2006). Engagement is a mixture of deep understanding, active participation, and feeling valued (Munns and Woodward 2006).
Stimulating learning spaces can be designed to provide for active group learning, as well as teacher directed, individual learning, allowing responsive flexibility to suit daily learning needs. According to Gee (2006) learning spaces need to:
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Be welcoming and Familiar
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Be flexible
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Allow adequate space for movement
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Allow user ownership that enables people to change them easily
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Enable changeable focus points
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Have mobile displays that support collaboration and teaching with digital media
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Anticipate future needs
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