Learning Location
From UpdateNet English
First we design rooms, then they create us.
Contents |
Actively providing learning places
Everything is dependant on the context, which means human behavior is inspired by the environment. Related to school this means the rooms and the design of the learning environment determines behavior.
This effect can always be watched when people enter a room. In the front is the screen, black board or flip chart and that signals that the focal point is on the front. In the back it is comfortable, we can wait for the things to happen.
Work and social behavior in school is highly influenced by the place where it actually happens. How are the rooms furnished? How does learning smell? What attitude (for example the state or condition) is communicated by the rooms? How is the out-of-school environment included? What work methods are possible (and with that apparently desired)?
Students and their environment influence each other. The environment forms the behavior and the behavior forms the environment. Not without reason we speak about the room as the third pedagogue . If we want to encourage successful learning we have to pay attention and respect to the environment.
The learning environment is what encompasses learning through a complex network of impressions. The interplay of the different elements not only expresses a certain understanding of learning but also an attitude towards learning and the people who learn. Learning becomes tangible and receives form through the environment. We will divide this into four categories:
Micro-environment
The micro-environment is a student’s actual work place, the very personal environment, the space in which we find a poster of the favorite soccer player, a memory of the last summer vacation or a card from a friend. This personal work space has the function as a home base where we feel comfortable and at home.
Work areas can be designed on the principle of an open alcove. They are little niches in a large environment that provide security and the possibility for retreat. And they are open so communication in groups is still easy. Work areas have a very functional role too and have to be accordingly furnished with everything we need to work.
Meso-environment
The meso-environment is the room that holds the working areas. Whenever possible, various activities (group work, individual work, and assembly) have different functions allocated. For example, the students go to a certain area of the room for an input and thereafter they go back to their work space.
Learning needs motion in more ways than just gym class. The learning rooms have to be organized in a way to invite ‘small’ movements within the room: computers on stand-up bistro tables, open floor spaces where one can also work lying on the floor, sitting corners to read, stand-up bistro tables for meetings and discussions, shelves for dictionaries and materials, tables for cutting and gluing works.
Rooms don’t only have a function they also have an aesthetic and atmospheric importance. They are inspiration sources with the ‘soft’ factors playing an important role: pictures, colors, smells, background music and plants. In this relationship not only the existence of these things is important but also important is our exposure to them. The half-dead plant, the yellowed poster, or the disarrayed shelves all signal a message. They show the degree of care towards the environment (and the people within).
Macro-environment
The macro-environment is the house in which learning has its habitat. Learning houses are convivial and inviting for active actions therefore they are literally, open. The work spaces go inside the house and the corridors.
When we learn we connect and link things. The houses of learning follows this principle too as they connect and link rooms and people. That has an impact on the outside too because inviting schools show signs of conviviality through the setup of their rooms, colors, plants and affectionate decoration.
It is important schools show if people care for them and if they are looked after and not only cleaned. Teachers have a role of ‘atmospheric-didactics.’
They feel responsible for the appearance of their school. Role model instead of regulations is the motto.
Mondo-environment
The mondo-environment is the connection of ‘world’ and school. We can learn anywhere as learning is not bound to rooms and living spaces are often ideal learning spaces. The natural flow of the water in a ditch is a more attractive and challenging environment in which to find ourselves in the world than staring at static water in the test-tube lab environment.
Learning is based on experience and not instruction and experience is the base for all knowledge. This demands an opening of school into learning relevant living spaces, and vice versa. A network of out of school partners – clubs, companies, social establishments, parents, authorities – create a practice and life skills focus type of learning. The connection to partner institutions crossing language or country boundaries opens another window onto the world. An enlargement of the school activity rooms has to happen systematically and the connection to the ‘world’ has to be part of a culture and attitude.
Locations have emotions
Of course, if it is about telling a group of students what it is all about, it is definitely not wrong for somebody to stand in front of them and tell them something. The school developed out of the tradition of church and army, and this casern style can still be seen in many school buildings.
But, when it is about connecting learning with living, replacing teaching with experience, it is not possible to do so without giving the location the necessary attention. A culture of learning develops easier in a place where the corresponding needs are met, because the classic teaching organization tends to be a hindrance to learning.
Architecture and bureaucratic regulations often focus on the front facing class as the measurement, and the space problems don’t make it easy to turn class rooms into inspiring learning places. But still, it is possible! The existence of space and equipment is no guarantee at all for a learning friendly environment. The state of things is the real messages. In other words: soul creates matter. Learning places consist of many signs and many messages: plants and pictures, order and arrangement, sights and sounds, all these small signs create a picture. And this picture can tell what relationship the people have to the place and to the things they do in this place. And what they don’t do…
Sources, resources, links
Müller, Andreas: Mehr ausbrüten, weniger gackern. Denn Lernen heisst: Freude am Umgang mit Widerständen. Oder kurz: vom Was zum Wie. hep-Verlag. Bern. 2008
