(Re) Design of Teaching Rooms to enable teaching excellence
1. When pedagogy collides with
physical reality: the (re)design of
teaching rooms to enable
teaching excellence.
Gunter Saunders,
Federica Oradini
Peter Hartley
2. This session: why worry?
• Much of the literature about teaching excellence and the concerns
about learning gain (e.g. Arum et al, 2016) seem to assume that
lecturers can readily employ the most effective pedagogy if they wish.
There is little or no mention of physical constraints on teaching
innovation.
• The growing literature on the impact of physical space on learning
and teaching (e.g. Brooks, 2012; Scott-Webber et al., 2013; Harrison
and Hutton, 2014) tends to examine broad institution initiatives such
as transitions from ‘traditional library’ to ‘flexible learning centre’.
4. Learning spaces:
What is happening across the sector?
View from HELF, 2016*
• Growing interest in the design of formal learning
spaces. Most HEIs don’t currently have institutional
plan/strategy.
• Funding is the major barrier.
• Standard IT equipment is the norm.
• Easier to change informal space.
4
* HELF is the Heads of E-Learning Forum and these conclusions are taken from their most
recent survey, which can be found on the website (http://helfuk.blogspot.co.uk ) alongside
links to other useful sources - http://helfuk.blogspot.co.uk/p/projects.html
5. Some trends to reflect upon
• Growth of interest in learning spaces as a ‘campus initiative’, e.g
• New campus at Northampton with ‘no lecture rooms’
http://hellowaterside.northampton.ac.uk
• The new Learning Spaces Toolkit at https://www.ucisa.ac.uk/learningspace
• Rooms set up for specific pedagogies, e.g Team-Based Learning.
• Experimental rooms, e.g. Nottingham Trent.
• Flagship rooms, e.g. new lecture space at Leeds.
• Technology in the rooms, e.g. polling/voting.
BUT …
10. SCALING UP - Active Collaborative Learning
for Student Success (new HEFCE project)
http://www4.ntu.ac.uk/apps/news/192812-15/NTU_and_partners_lead_the_way_in_demonstrating_innovative_teaching_method
15. Back to the trends … and the but clause
• Growth of interest in learning spaces as a ‘campus initiative’, e.g
• New campus at Northampton with ‘no lecture rooms’
http://hellowaterside.northampton.ac.uk
• The new Learning Spaces Toolkit at https://www.ucisa.ac.uk/learningspace
• Rooms for specific pedagogies, e.g Team-Based Learning.
• Experimental rooms, e.g. Nottingham Trent.
• Flagship rooms, e.g. new lecture space at Leeds.
• Technology in the rooms, e.g. polling/voting.
BUT …
• Hasn’t the ‘seminar room’ been neglected/left behind?
17. Teaching room innovation
at Westminster: the plan
• 5 year programme covering ~ 260 ‘standard teaching
spaces’
• Now in year 3: 100 rooms done by this summer
• End year 2 - 72 rooms completed
• Investment to date ~ £10M
• AV/IT standard (with minor variations)
• Furniture arrangement variable
• To date 5 room types identifiable
• Now adding a 6th (‘active learning’)
17
18. Room types
18
Room Type - Furniture
Standard tables and chairs - Tables slightly smaller than standard;
stackable. Chairs light and not on wheels
Audi rotating chairs –rows of chairs with writing tablet; chairs
rotate to facilitate short periods of group discussion
Tablet chairs on wheels - Chair with pull across writing tablet
Plectrum tables and chairs - 6 seater plectrum tables with wheels;
chairs not on wheels
Curved sofas with shared table - Informal seating; table provides
range of device connectivity
27. Q. Has teaching in a new room led you to try things/ways of
running a session that you may not have previously tried?
Around 50% have indicated that the new rooms have led them to
engage in more interactive approaches with students or that
students have been more engaged in the classrooms or that it has
been possible for them to more easily undertake
activities/approaches they have previously tried using in older
classrooms.
STAFF FEEDBACK
28. Q1. Do your classes in new classrooms tend to be more
interactive, engaging i.e. is there less of the tutor ‘lecturing’
and more of you (the student) contributing/engaging in
activities?
45%
33%
22%
Yes
Sometimes
No
STUDENT FEEDBACK
36
46
33
58
40
47
24
32
40
33
48
32
40
22
27
9
12
21
ABE
LAW
MAD
FST
SSH
WBS
Yes Sometimes No
29. Q2. Do you feel differently in the new classrooms as
compared to old classrooms? For example, do you feel
more positive or motivated in a new classroom?
42%
25%
33%
Yes
Sometimes
No
STUDENT FEEDBACK
39
41
25
46
42
48
15
22
42
25
26
29
46
37
33
29
32
23
ABE
LAW
MAD
FST
SSH
WBS
Yes Sometimes No
32. Your task
• Organise the pictures of redesigned teaching rooms into a ‘pyramid of
preference’ to enable your teaching approach.
• Which devices/facilities are likely to have most impact on the
behaviour of lecturers in redesigned teaching rooms?
e.g. see the list from the 2016 HELF survey.
36. And so?
Final considerations
Does your institution have:
• strategic and implementation plans for teaching room development
(based on pedagogy and not just on ‘capacity’ and ‘efficiency)?
• senior management champions?
• pedagogic models to support specific designs?
• ‘sandpit’ area for experimentation?
• evaluation and feedback mechanisms?
• staff development to support adopters?
37. Thank you
Please contact us if you want to explore any of these ideas further:
• Gunter Saunders
g.saunders@westminster.ac.uk
• Federica Oradini
f.oradini@westminster.ac.uk
• Peter Hartley
profpeter1@me.com
Editor's Notes
Gunter Saunders is responsible at Westminster for a range of support and the development of that support to underpin learning and teaching.
This includes a programme to modernise our 260 or so standard teaching rooms over the next 5 years - now in its 3rd year or phase .
This room has a single smartboard. All walls, front side and back, can be written on with whiteboard pens. The chairs are easily moved and have built in writing tables as well as under chair storage. The chairs allow rapid adaptation of layout from rows facing front, to groups for discussion or the chairs can be pushed to the sides to create space in the middle of the room.
This room has a different type of all in one chair, no underchair storage but a still quite large writing table. The room actually has 2 screens, both TVs – the one at the front and one along the side. A group in the room can potentially be split into 2 and each can have a dedicated display screen. You can see at the front the standard lectern we use which is height adjustable, has a touch screen control panel for the AV and IT in the room and connectivity cables for HDMI, VGA and lightening. The lectern has a touch screen PC and visualiser.
In this classroom we see standard 600 x 600mm tables with chairs. The room has 3 smartboards each capable of independent operation. Lighting in this classroom, as in all of the new classrooms, can be dimmed and the front row of lights nearest the main display screen can be dimmed and turned off independently of the rest of the lights in the room.
In this room there is single projector screen. The room has fixed audi swivel chairs which means that students can spin around to speak to those sitting beside or behind them. Other features of the room are similar to those previously described.
This room (we have 2 of them) is affectionately known as the Bridge of the Starship Enterprise. Within the room there is a range of informal seating from sofas to barstools to chairs on wheels. The sofas (there are 2 per room) are arranged around a table with recessed connectivity via HDMI, VGA or lightening cables. The room also has 2 smart display boards one facing each sofa.
In a small proportion of rooms (6 out of 22 rooms refurbished in phase 1) we tried a very different lectern shown here on the left. This is side on to the main display wall. You can see here the touch screen control panel I mentioned previously on the standard lectern. The rationale for the side on lectern is to remove as far as possible any physical barrier between tutor and students.
We are building a staff development strategy around the theme of mobile learning and we are focussing on simple systems that we believe even the most technophobic staff can engage with if persuaded of the advantages of doing so. Our focus is on the online writing wall web service Padlet, that can be used to gather input from individuals and groups before, during and after a class; on in class voting using the web service Polleverywhere and on the Reflector 2 software mentioned earlier. The latter we hope will encourage and enable staff to engage with the devices students use and give mobility to the tutor in a classroom through wireless sharing to the big screen from any device.
Anyone can of course go beyond these basic tools if they wish and incorporate more expansive technology based engagement approaches.
A major problem is making change is that our academic staff are extremely busy. What we have done to underpin the strategy of a simple set of core tools to engage them in the agenda of engagement in class through exploiting technology is to develop a series of short workshops that can be taken face to face, completely online through distance learning or in a mixed blended manner. Each workshop has a small component of reflection and planning that is linked to the award of a digital badge.
So a member of staff can build a recognised profile of development through completing these workshops and showcase their development to internal and external audiences.
