Learning Environments Action Research Network (LEARN)
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Criteria: Excellent research study, application of results to multiple domains of educational experience
Key Takeaway: This insightful Australian study highlights the profound impact of transforming traditional classroom layouts into flexible learning spaces, which spark student engagement, rekindle motivation in disaffected learners, and promote social and physical well-being among both students and teachers. The adoption of these versatile environments naturally fostered student-centered pedagogies, technological integration, self-regulation skills, and collaborative learning. The universal enthusiasm from students, teachers, and principals for these adaptable spaces, alongside the surprising reduction in vandalism, reveals a promising place-based tool for education.
Summation and Insights: When asked to picture a school classroom, many of us instantly conjure up an image of a traditional classroom, with a large teacher desk facing rows of individual student desks. But what happens for students and teachers when these traditional classroom spaces are re-envisioned and redesigned? This qualitative Australian study used interviews and focus groups to chronicle the experiences of 12 principals, 35 teachers, and 85 students within 4 primary and 4 secondary schools. They found that flexible learning spaces, with a variety of furniture, resources, and lay outs promoted engaged student learning as well as social and physical well-being for both students and teachers.
In all of the schools surveyed, dismantling the traditional classroom instantly shifted classroom pedagogy to styles of student-centered learning that more naturally suited the flexible spaces. Teachers fostered student-centered learning by providing less explicit instruction and moving toward more project-based learning, where students are co-investigators of problems that involve high order critical thinking skills. The shift in space, including getting rid of the “teacher’s desk or no go zone,” also reduced teacher authoritarianism and taught students valuable self-regulation skills. Students were empowered to manage their own learning choices. Flexible learning spaces had the additional benefit of being conducive to technological integration. All of these aspects – student self-regulation, use of technology, and teachers’ ability to empower students through student-centered learning – were naturally interrelated in flexible spaces. For example, one secondary student in this study remarked, “She [the teacher] doesn’t give us much instruction. We get to tackle the challenge in any way we want to; so we can do it with technology, we can do it on paper or we can do it in groups or individually. It’s all unique and we get to do the work we want in our own way.”
Conversely, these flex spaces and their benefits also came with some challenges, including the potential for students to be distracted or for potential noisiness in the classroom. Teachers seemed to embrace these challenges in turn, with one teacher noting that flex spaces promoted the creation of assignments that were engaging and encouraged students to stay on task. It is of note that these issues were less prominent in classrooms with older students, who have a greater ability to self-regulate.
Flexible learning spaces also promoted collaboration. More opportunities for group work fostered collaborative environments and heightened peer learning. As one secondary student stated, “When you don’t understand a concept, it feels like I can’t go and just ask the teacher because they’ve just explained it to us 10 times. Could someone give me a new insight on what this kind of concept is? Then your friend explains and then you also explain to each other and it’s just really beneficial in the long term, like teaching your friends kind of just solidifies it in your mind as well.”
An increase in student engagement was another major finding of this study. Several principals commented upon this transformation in both student engagement and overall positive behavior. In the words of one principal, “It became pretty clear pretty quickly that teachers wanted to work in that space, that most students wanted to work in that space, that their engagement levels had increased, and that the quality of work they were producing had improved.” Factors related to increased student engagement included that the flexible spaces were more conducive to student autonomy and student motivation. Students across all schools reported feeling more positive and motivated to learn. The level of autonomy afforded by flexible spaces (choices to work individually or with groups, furniture and technology choices) had a particularly positive effect for students who had previously seemed disinterested and disaffected. Many of these students, who teachers had found prone to “switching off” in traditional classroom layouts, became engaged students invested in self-regulating their own behavior in flex classroom spaces.
Finally, flexible classrooms had amazing social, emotional, and physical well-being benefits for the students. As one secondary school head teacher stated, “…really important are those social outcomes too. Particularly in this day and age when we have the levels of anxiety amongst our youth and the depression, it’s really amazing how kids interrelate when working together.” Flexible classroom spaces lent themselves to higher rates of interaction and higher quality interpersonal relationships among students and between students and teachers. One unexpected effect was the reduction in vandalism of furniture in flex learning spaces as compared to other classrooms in the schools. Physical well being was promoted in some more obvious ways – when students had more comfortable furniture and the ability to move around, they learned better. Social and physical well being had positive outcomes for inclusivity, especially for students with learning needs. For example, one primary school teacher told the researchers: “I’ve got a child in a wheelchair… I feel that it’s such a more inclusive environment for him because everyone is at different levels and there’s no judgement … and he can access
everything in the room because he’s not getting through rows of chairs and tables.”
In conclusion, flexible classroom spaces had a number of positive results and were enthusiastically embraced by students, teachers, and principals in this Australian school system. This research on flex spaces, and their ability to enhance learning environments had results for a broad range of themes and policies that are significant for educators, including student-centered learning, student engagement, social and physical well-being, technology integration and inclusivity.
Year: 2017
Author: Katharina E. Kariippanon, Dylan P. Cliff, Sarah L. Lancaster, Anthony D. Okely, Anne-Maree Parrish
Primary Author: Katharina E. Kariippanon, https://scholars.uow.edu.au/display/katharina_kariippanon
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