More fabulous learning spaces

The space in which a child learns is important. If a school gets it wrong, learning can be constrained or even completely stifled. I remember the dire environment that was provided for me as a kid in one particular school. The room had bare floorboards, and the desks were fixed to the floor. The classroom echoed with every footstep, and there was no central heating. All we had was one fireplace which was never lit, due to 'health and safety' issues. The toilets were in a block across the playground, and we avoided going there because they were exposed to the elements. We therefore made sure we didn't drink at all during the school day, so we wouldn't need to find our way across to the toilet block. We were often cold and thirsty, because the environment dictated it. It didn't lead to very good learning outcomes. Recent research has shown that drinking water regularly actually improves concentration and focus. It's often the simple things that improve the learning environment, and as Stephen Heppell says, better school toilets = better results.

Last year I wrote about  some fabulous learning spaces I had seen while visiting schools in New Zealand. I wrote about the idea of knocking down walls and joining three classrooms together to provide more circulating space for students. At Albany Senior High School in Auckland, three classes are conducted next to each other, with students given the freedom to move between the classes as they wish. Last week I heard Stephen Heppell talk about another version of this, which he called 'Super Classes' where three classes join together for one lesson, and the three teachers team teach. The lead teacher (or narrator) is responsible for conducting the session, whilst teacher 2 (the 'breakdown engineer') offers the intervention when students are struggling, and teacher 3 provides differentiated intervention for those learners who require it. Conducting classes in this way drives the session forward with fewer stops and starts. Teachers can focus on their individual roles and in so doing maintain the impetus of the lesson without being sidetracked to respond to the needs of individual learners.

In Australia, Stephen Harris, principal of the Sydney Centre for Innovations in Learning has devised a range of metaphors that describe different kinds of activities that can take place in shared learning spaces.  Such space and activity juxtapositions rely extensively on the teacher's willingness to be flexible and adaptable to change and responsive to needs as they arise, but also tap into the huge potential of young people's innate ability to be agile and adept at using new technologies. Schools are often designed by architects and designers who may have spent little time in school since their childhood days. Getting those who actually use the school every week - the students - to design them in conjunction with their teachers seems to be a much better strategy and might lead to creative learning spaces.

It's clear that learning spaces are a vitally important component of the school to get right. If we don't provide the best possible spaces that are conducive to learning, we are letting the children down. It's not just what we provide in schools that make a difference, but how we provide it.

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More fabulous learning spaces by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Fabulous learning spaces

I have been keenly interested in the design of learning spaces for some time. I guess my background as a designer (I attended Hereford College of Art and Design in the 70s) and my professional life as an educator draw me back to this again and again. It was with great pleasure then, that I was able to visit Albany Senior High School in North Auckland yesterday to talk to a group of educators from across the city. The vision statement of the school is simple but powerful: We nurture each other, we inspire each other, we empower each other.

The first thing that strikes you about ASHS when you arrive is the pristine condition of this new build. With an under-building car park, and serene woodland surroundings, it is in an ideal position to provide high class education for young minds. Entering the reception area via the lift, I encountered a cafeteria area similar to any found in the corporate world. Mark Osborne, the deputy principal told me: "We offer the students an environment where they are treated like adults. When they are dealt with in this way, they take on adult responsibilities and behaviour." Moving through from reception into the main school, it was evident to see that open plan, flexible spaces were the key design feature, and personalised learning the norm. Students sit in areas where they can interact with each other and the teachers, and there can be up to three separate classes taking place in the same space, with student able to move around the room, and across the curricular topics seamlessly. Gone is the silo mentality of 'Now you are in a science class'. A central tenet of the school's curriculum delivery is that students know why they are learning something, and can then connect it to real life contexts.

It was refreshing to see that the school is also fully open source in its software use.  Mark Osborne told me this is because the school also practices a Bring Your Own Device option for all its students. He argued that the most equitable way to manage this to avoid any digital divides is to provide Open Source Software to all students. If they have no device of their own, there are computers available in all the spaces. I was impressed with the fully equipped dance studio and next door, another studio for audio and video projects, complete with a green screen room. ASHS even has its own YouTube channel.

Barbara Kavanagh is the principal of the school, and she is a visionary, seeing the school as one of many that will emerge in the next few years across the region. She told me that the 800 or so students have over 50 teaching staff to support them. That by any estimation is a great student to teacher ratio. The free, open, flexible spaces and the policy of BYOD ensure that the school is both an attractive and sustainable place to learn. Furthermore, all the resources the teachers create for teaching and assessment are licensed under Creative Commons for free use by other educators. My hope it that we will still other schools using this model in the future, both in New Zealand, and farther afield.

Image courtesy of Albany Senior High School


Fabulous learning spaces by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.