Designing NEW spaces for effective learning.

We are all very aware that the COVID-19 ‘situation’ has and will continue to impact our learning environment. There continues to be a reactionary effort to cobble together partitions, new layouts and ‘innovative’ policy to social distance the student population.  What is certain from this ‘situation’ is that the traditional, industrial, cellular learning environment has little place in the current and future education landscape (Charteris, Smardon, & Nelson, 2017, p. 810)

This sentiment is not new, as the irrelevance of a traditional/industrial learning environment has been commonplace in rhetoric, with an understanding that the learning environment and available space contributes to the success of teaching and learning, and the traditional learning environment does not emulate the twenty-first-century workplace (Charteris, Smardon, & Nelson, 2017, p. 810). The way teachers and learners behave in these spaces are fundamental to the learning that takes place (Ravelli, 2018, p. 65). It is necessary to understand that space itself is a learning tool, one that is able to connect pedagogy, design and technology (Li, Locke, Nair, & Bunting, 2005, p. 17).

Whilst there is an understanding of these concepts, how do we now move forward into this crisis and plan for the post-crisis learning context. There are significant changes that are facing organisational management structures, with how to manage pedagogical changes required for social distancing, whilst we still embrace a social-constructivist epistemology (Campbell, 2020, p. 188), there’s the changes with accelerated integration of technology and there are the challenges facing Vocational teachers/trainers in needing to learn and understand structural changes to workplaces as a result.  It is a monstrous undertaking that will undoubtedly and manifestly change education.

My initial investigations have not uncovered any new or innovative concepts to meet the COVID-19 challenges, rather it is bringing existing rhetoric to the fore and accelerating already developed concepts. For many years active learning environments, that utilise flexible and fluid spaces to support adaptability have been considered innovative. Combining active learning with enhanced blended learning within these blended learning environments will allow individuals to bridge the gap between forced social distancing and social learning (Campbell, 2020, p. 188). What this highlights is that there is a clear need for an integrative design approach that helps to reach an optimal alignment of pedagogies and the physical environment (Merrienboer, McKenney, Cullinan, & Heuer, 2017, p. 265).