Space matters: framing the New Zealand learning landscape

‘The best guess for the future?’ Teachers’ adaptation to open and flexible learning environments in Finland

“…The curriculum and school reforms also have links with the focus on so-called twenty-first-century learning skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, creativity and leadership (Binkley et al, 2012;Carvalho, Nicholson, Yeoman, & Thibaut, 2020;OECD 2017;Wells, Jackson, & Benade, 2018) and the influx of digital technologies. The remodelling of school and classroom spaces away from deskbound whole-class instruction settings towards spaces allowing flexible and versatile use of groupings and instructional formats is seen among the factors facilitating achievement of the aims of the new curriculum and twenty-first-century learning skills (e.g.…”

“…Open learning environments are a timely issue, not only in Finland, but in various countries where a corresponding reform of school architecture has been initiated already some time ago, such as Australia (Deed & Lesko, 2015;Saltmarsh et al, 2014), New Zealand (Carvalho et al, 2020;French, Imms, & Mahat, 2019;Wells, Jackson, & Benade, 2018), England (Boys, 2011;Cardellino & Woolner, 2019;Daniels, Tse, Stable, & Cox, 2019;Woolner, 2010) and Iceland (Sigurðardóttir, 2018;Sigurðardóttir & Hjartarson, 2016). In Finland, since 2016, open learning environments have become mainstream in basic education.…”

Innovative learning environments in New Zealand: Student teachers’ perceptions

“…Nevertheless, the study did highlight key areas that could be the focus of professional learning development, and the key role of school leadership and professional learning development have been evident in other studies around innovative learning environments (Carvalho et al 2020 ; Colleagues and author 2017; 2018). The notion of a shared vision between the school leadership team and the teachers was highlighted in the findings of a national questionnaire in New Zealand by Carvalho, Nicholson, Yoeman and Thibaut ( 2020 ). Although teachers often were supported by their school leaders, they reported a lack of time and advice on how to transition successfully to co-teaching in multi teacher learning spaces.…”

Performativity of Materials in Learning: The Learning-Whole in Action

“…If we pause, to watch the ebb and flow of learners and educators as they carry out daily routines of learning in these bright new learning landscapes, the leap from shared space to shared knowledge is often not so easy to see. Teaching in innovative spaces can be challenging, with some educators still struggling to understand how they can create opportunities for the participatory practices of a networked world or adopt innovative pedagogical models more attuned to the contours of their new learning spaces (Carvalho, Nicholson, Yeoman, & Thibaut, 2020;Deed, Blake, & Henriksen, 2020;Kokko & Hirsto, 2020). Indeed, the move from traditional to flexible spaces for learning requires educational designers (e.g., teachers, space planners, architects, instructional designers and others) to re-think their practices, in pursuit of more productive ways of connecting the physicality of the space to theoretical developments in teaching and learning (Beetham & Sharpe, 2019).…”