Learning space development is notorious complex, costly and protracted. This presentation considers what can be done spatially and behaviourally to develop student belonging and becoming. It focuses on ways, often within the discipline, of creating a sense of place through the concept of non-formal learning and the idea of zones. A range of approaches are listed that are easy to implement and comparatively cheap.

1. Easy-to-adapt approaches to creating
Informal Learning Zones
Andrew Middleton, NTF, SFHEA
@andrewmid
Reimagining Spaces for Learning in Higher
Education
(Palgrave Teaching and Learning)

2. Learning space development is usually complex and costly.
Short interactive session
How do ‘we’ easily create learning spaces that foster belonging and engender
becoming amongst students?
What makes space place?
Zoning - creating a sense of place

3. Comes from experiencing space – it is “lived”
Lefebvre’s idea of the ‘lived space’ (1974/1991) as part of the ‘spatial triad’:
• Conceived - by others
• Perceived - by all
• Experienced - by users
What we need and want, and what we actually do
Agency and Placemaking
It is what students make of space that matters
Place
ABSTRACT
REAL

4. (Oldenburg, 1989)
Neutral ground – where individuals are free to come and go with little obligation;
Leveller – rank and status are mostly left at the door and participation is open to all;
Conversation – the main mode of participation is conversation, especially noted for its
playfulness and wit;
Accessibility and accommodation – the place is easy to access and use;
Regulars – the narrative and identity of the place is sustained by a core group of regulars;
Low profile – the space is unpretentious and homely;
A home from home – exhibiting traits of rootedness, feelings of possession, spiritual
regeneration, feelings of being at ease, warm (Seamon, 1979).
Third Place

5. Characteristics of formal learning
• a prescribed learning framework;
• an organised learning event or
package;
• the presence of a designated teacher
or trainer;
• the award of a qualification or credit;
and,
• the external qualification or
outcomes.
Formal and non-formal learning
Characteristics of non- formal learning
• Deliberative learning – for which the learner
sets time aside;
• Reactive learning – that is near spontaneous
and unplanned;
• Implicit learning – that gives rise to tacit
knowledge.
To what extent do universities understand and intentionally
accommodate non-formal learning?
(Eraut, 2000)

6. from your own experience of developing non-formal learning places:
Zoning: what can be done?

7. • establish learning hub spaces;
• encourage societies to hold ‘soap box’ events in open, informal spaces;
• allow classrooms to be taken over by groups outside of scheduled teaching as
‘home bases’;
• encourage students to book classrooms for independent or group study or peer
mentoring activities;
• give commuting students a place to go between scheduled teaching;
• provide noticeboards or targeted digital signage to promote social or academic
activities and use walls to display discipline-specific work and photographs;
• learning walks;
Zoning: what can be done

8. Zoning: what can be done
• name or decorate rooms and other spaces to reflect disciplinary identities;
• mount physical or digital exhibitions of student work in communal spaces;
• widen corridors to create ‘adjacent space’ for breakouts and ‘working alongside’;
• install vending machines to sell course-specific materials;
• locate tutor offices in zones to more open staff-student relationships;
• welcome alumni, employers and clients to friendly, disciplined ‘owned’ spaces;
• dedicate spaces for use by local professionals and societies;
• establish common rooms and ‘common times’ with free coffee;
• plan open day activities for ‘course spaces’ to make ‘course’ concrete;
• Tweetchats.

9. References
Eraut, M. (2000). Non-formal learning and tacit knowledge in professional work. British Journal
of Educational Psychology, 70, 113 - 136.
Lefebvre, H. (1974/1991). The production of space. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Middleton, A. (2018). Reimaging spaces for learning. London: Palgrave.
Oldenburg, R. (1989). The great good place: Cafés, coffee shops, community centers, beauty
parlors, general stores, bars, hangouts, and how they get you through the day. New York:
Paragon House.