ADVANCING LEARNING SPACES PROJECT

WHY DO WE DO IT?

We enact our values in the spaces in which we live. The classroom is the heart of learning and must reflect the values, dreams, and aspirations we have for our children. The first step is to disrupt the traditional standardized industrial classroom model, a space designed for assimilation, which ignores the individual, their identity, and their culture as the main fabric of the learning process and the main contributor to collective growth. The second step is to determine the skills necessary to thrive in today's world. The third step is evaluating how classroom spaces support the learning process and the standards for effective teaching and learning.

So what are the skills necessary to thrive in today's world? The speed of current breakthroughs in science and technology has no historical precedent and compared with previous industrial revolutions; the Fourth is evolving at an exponential pace. The following are some of the skills necessary to meet the demands of this new era (OECD):

Most importantly, research today focuses on the need to adapt to influences that shape the world. It stresses the importance of developing students' capacity to adapt from an industrial to a learning model of society, from a linear learning model to a complex one, to adapt to today's world's volatility and uncertainty. The classroom space must support the enactment of learning principles that support the development of today's skills by:

The following is a list of characteristics required of student-centered environments:

The goal is to empower students to impact the world while fully believing in their potential.

HOW DOES IT LOOK

Student-centered learning spaces are responsive to the user's needs, adapting and changing in response to the learning process to accommodate daily life demands in the classroom.

The classroom is the heart of teaching and learning. Consequently, the classroom experience demands flexibility in moveable furniture that contributes to a welcoming and inviting environment giving educators and students flexibility to create, design, and learn. Fluidity, flexibility, and choice make a safe environment that meets individual learners' demands and encourages students to take risks and rise to challenges. A flexible space increases inquiry-based lessons and learner-centered environments, emphasizing active participation and the learner's responsibility to discover new knowledge. Our bodies and learning are deeply connected to our settings. Education should be centered around a motivating question that students want to solve because it is relevant to them and will make the world a better place.

Complex Problem Solving
Critical Thinking
Creativity
People Management
Coordinating with others
Emotional Intelligence
Judgment & Decision Making
Service Orientation
Negotiation
Cognitive Flexibility

ensuring equally high outcomes for ALL students;
removing the predictability of success or failures that currently correlates with any social or cultural factor;
Interrupting inequitable practices, examining biases, and creating inclusive multicultural environments; and Discovering and cultivating the unique gifts, talents, and interests that every human possesses (National Equity Project)

Support for authentic relationships
Learning is Student-centered
Design for rich differences that biodiversity and neuro-divergence bring
Safe and supportive environments
Build a community
Student's voice
Student choice
Criticality
Reflection
Constructivism
Collaboration
Communication
Problem-solving

We know students are more successful when they are "doing" the learning. The environment can promote this "doing" attitude by opening up space options in the classroom.
We know students are more successful when they are motivated and curious about their learning. The environment can support motivation by triggering the curious mind by freeing up space and areas for exploration.
We know students are more successful when they communicate and collaborate (HOM) on ideas. Learning is a social endeavor. Space must allow for flexibility for co-creation and construction.
We know there is power in students constructing knowledge to support their deep understanding of concepts. The environment and space must allow for the construction of models/representations/etc. And have the resources to construct new knowledge successfully.
We know students find success when taking risks, posing questions, thinking flexibly (HOM), and opening their minds to new learning (growth mindset). The environment, as well as the educator's efforts, can significantly influence these habits.
We believe that creative thinking is vital. There is power in problem-solving and experimenting and moving learning from the generation of questions to creating authentic products.
We believe that learning is a consequence of thinking and that thinking is invisible. The classroom must offer the wall space to "download" and distribute student thinking and, as a result, tinker with ideas and concepts. Opportunities to make meaning of new content - The idea of interactive surfaces as an expressive element of the classroom as a community of learners.

3 DAY LEARNING SPACES PROJECT PBL for Teachers

Role: Teacher as designer
Issue: Knowledge and competencies for success in today’s world are vastly different than those of the 20th century. Research continues to solidify the argument that students learn better when they are personally and actively engaged in learning. (Nair)
Challenge: If judging the quality of American education based on the school building alone, we can predict that ten years from now we will still be graduating kids that are perfectly prepared for the 1950s. (PrakashNair)
Space limits teachers' and students’ capacity to create learning opportunities that are student-centered supporting flexibility, adaptability, and student agency. Schools are investing in renovating spaces and purchasing furniture that supports new pedagogical practices.
Are these spaces, equipment, and furniture amplifying student learning and supporting the pedagogical practices that augment student engagement, self-direction, flexibility, adaptability, and the 4 Cs?
Is this furniture durable and of high quality?
How can we support the design and selection of high-quality spaces for learning and furniture that compensates for the limitations of spaces designed for a teacher-centered environment of the 1950s?
Action taken: Engage teachers in the design of student-centered classroom environments through a modality of learning called Project-Based Learning (PBL). Over the course of three days, teachers engage with one another in solving complex questions about the latest research on space, cognition, and teaching. They demonstrate their new understandings through the presentation of their design projects.
Beneficiary: Student learning, teacher practice.