2. “Look at your learning space with 21st-century eyes: Does it work
for what we know about learning today, or just for what we
knew about learning in the past?
“Does this learning environment support a
child’s natural instinct to learn through creation
and discovery?” (Trung Le, OWP/P p56)
3. “If we are looking for new pedagogical practices,
we have to have facilities that will enable those
to happen. So you want flexible spaces where
people can group and re-group, where you’re
not stuck in one configuration with teachers at
the front.”
4. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
Theory is implicitly asking the designer of
the learning environment to consider a
variety of learning spaces – spaces in
diverse sizes, materials and colours, as
well as spaces with different
transparency, connectivity and agility. The
one-size-fits-all idea really isn’t
acceptable any more. (Rick Dewar p63)
5. Note the MS Classrooms are spaces with
fantastic potential for:
– Multiple ‘Zones’
– Agility / Flexibility of learning spaces
– Active Learning
– Bringing the Outside in
– Display Learning
– Resource Learning
– Social/Collaborative Learning
– Sensory Learning
6. It is about more than the furniture!
The physical environment of the building is very
important, but what really makes an institution
is the habits of mind that become taken for
granted in the community that occupies the
institution. An institution is the people and their
ways of thinking. If you really want to shift a
culture, it’s two things: its habits and its habitats
– the habits of mind and the physical
environment in which people operate.” (Sir Ken
Robinson “The Creativity Challenge” p57)
8. Make classrooms agile: A
learning space that can be
reconfigured on a dime will
engage different kinds of
learners and teachers.
9. Option to screen view
to minimize
distractions
Individual
work zone
10. Injecting a learning space with playfulness
and humour creates a warm and welcoming
atmosphere. This aligns with Abraham
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs: if children feel
safe, they are ready to learn, and if they are
having fun, they feel safe.
11. Define the learning landscape by providing
environmental experiences that are
developmentally appropriate. In all
developmental stages children desire
immersion, solitude and interaction in a close,
knowable world; however, from ages 12 to 15
… social gathering places … take on a new
significance. (“Beyond Ecophobia” p182)
Collaborative Zone
12. Bring the outside in: Transport the community, the
landscape and faraway places into the classroom
with visuals and objects that call them to mind. Use
outdoor learning spaces – let them ‘push in’ to the
indoor space.
13. Display learning – track
progress in a visible way.
Active Learning –
museums invite
learners to act on
available information
– including
information from
one’s own thoughts,
feelings and
impressions - in order
to form new ideas. An
environment rich in
evocative objects,
whether it’s a
classroom or a
museum – triggers
active learning by
letting students pick
what to engage with.
Sound, smell, taste, touch and movement power
memory. An environment rich in sensory
experiences helps students retain and retrieve
what they learn.
14. Storage for Resource-Based Learning items and
other materials that is easily accessible without
crowding or having to ‘wait in line’.
A cleverly designed entrance helps
students begin and end the lesson
efficiently – labelled trays or boxes
where students can leave homework or
teachers can leave notes or materials
for the beginning or end of the lesson.
Students ‘home’ space which could
have a box or cube to store personal
items such as stationery and items
brought to class but not required for
the lesson, to replace ‘tidy trays’.
15. Plan for the unknown: new
technology brings with it new
teaching opportunities – design
a learning environment that will
allow teachers to modify their
methods and expectations as
technology changes.
