The Environment

As part of the II team’s work we had to read about the environment and the part it plays in learning. This was to help build our belief statement.

One thing that struck me is just how lucky we are at Shotover; we don’t have to be concerned about acoustics, peeling old paint, or any of the dilemmas facing schools who are moving towards teaching an learning in an Innovative Learning Environment without the physical structure to support them. One discussion we had was that the actual building is the “hard” stuff and what goes on inside is the “soft” stuff.

Most of what I took out of the readings is to do with the soft stuff – the environment is far more about people than it is about structure (especially when learning is occurring in buildings like ours).

Core Education White Paper (2016) states that;

So when we think about our space we need to ensure that we consider the social context and the pedagogical one – we need to look closely at our practise and think about the how and where learning occurs – “soft” stuff.

What the paper made me think most about is how we use our spaces, why we do it this way and what can we change to improve our practise and therefore outcomes for our learners. We started the year defining spaces in terms of the kinds of learning that could occur based on noise level – a noisy space we could block off, a creating space that is actually very close to our quiet space (the gallery). The quiet space where direct acts of teaching could occur, a meeting space for the whole habitat, a space for collaboration and another space for quiet reading (or reflection).

The white paper talks about 3 essential zones; reflective/creative, creative/interactive and interactive and I think this could be a good place for us to start looking at our environment and how we can better use the space we have.  However, I do believe that we adapt to needs and are flexible and willing to try using spaces in different ways, so re-thinking this as a team might bring about some great changes that our learners will love.

Whilst the “soft” stuff is paramount I think that elements of our “hard” stuff could be improved with the number one thing being shelving – in order to increase out student’s agency and help their learning, an easily accessible way for them to access the resources they need would be advantageous, and as Ben says “from structure comes freedom” (Ben Witherford 2015).

In another paper by the OECD motivation and the part that the environment plays was highlighted;

• again, giving students agency,
• creating a space that is emotionally positive,
• having space to allow for learning through exploration,
• having learning occur in a social context,
• connecting “formal” learning with learning happening elsewhere
• knowing the why of the learning in the space
• enabling learners to become self-directed

As is mentioned in the media, as we try and re-define education we need to make sure that the learning experiences and the environment in which they occur support the development of the life-long, soft skills that our learners will need.