Ideas on planning and designing learning spaces from Lennie Scott-Webber, Ph.D., Director of Education Environments for Steelcase Education Solutions
Learning By Doing
It’s really not a new idea. As long ago as 1916, leading educational reformer John Dewey referred to interaction as the defining component of education that occurs when students transform information into knowledge with personal application and value.
Fast-forward to today’s world: Award-winning and widely-quoted educator and author A. W. (Tony) Bates says that interactivity should be the primary criteria for selecting media for educational delivery. Professor Terry Anderson, the keynote speaker at the 2012 Next Generation Learning Conference, contends that deep and meaningful learning can be developed if at least one form of interaction is at very high levels: student–teacher, student-student, student-content. Steelcase believes you need to add student-environment to this model.
Clearly the critical role of interaction in supportiing and even defining education has long been recognized. At Steelcase Education Solutions we use the term “active learning”, and we’re continuing the journey of discovery by studying this engagement factor from a variety of perspectives.
Interaction/engagement/active learning is becoming embedded into pedagogy as a critical teaching and learning strategy. Active educators are working hard to generate active learning all over the world.
But there is a problem. Often, the classroom environment is a barrier. When pedagogy moves from a passive-learning format, “sit and get,” to an active one, the design of the space in a row-by-column seating arrangement, packed as tightly as possible, doesn’t support the need or the intent. It takes more square feet or meters per-person to move. To move from a transmission of knowledge model to include immersive interactivity and engagement, space matters more than ever before.
Beyond the need to interact with their teachers and each other, today’s learners need to interact with tools, especially those that Professor Anderson describes as “net centric.” The research we’re doing at Steelcase is delving deeply into the spatial implications of active learning and these new tools. And a paradigm shift is emerging. We believe it is the first wave of educational change.
Within Steelcase Education Solutions, we view learning as an ecosystem where space, technology and pedagogy converge. In the convergence is active learning. Technology and space are tools that should be specifically developed to support the pedagogy and user behaviors of active learning.
Each institution is different. The march for change is different. With that said, it is appropriate—indeed, we believe vital—for each institution to put a stake in the ground and say, “Here is where we are on this journey of change, and in five years here is where we want to be in terms of active learning.” Armed with a vision for the near future, constituents from information technology, facilities and academic professional development can come together, develop a road map, and chart incremental change with tangible tasks and assigned ownership for completion. The slow-moving tortoise will not win this race.
We truly learn by doing. Engagement is about learning, not just a transfer of knowledge. Going forward, it’s important to look at the picture holistically, design for behaviors and be ready for change.
About the Author
Whether as a designer, instructor or administrator, I’ve spent years researching educational environments and have seen the insides of more classrooms than I can count. My passion, and my job, is helping people understand the behaviors that come from different environments, and creating classrooms that truly support new ways of teaching and learning. Email your ideas and questions to Lennie Scott-Webber.
