Inspirational Learning Spaces
By Dr. Karen Kenny, Senior Academic Developer
As part of the EduExe2023 festival of learning the Space Travel group hosted an open Mic session in our Creative Quadrant at Streatham, with a link to Penryn campus, to share ideas about our preferred spaces for teaching and learning. It was an inspirational session, lots of energy, and great ideas, thoughts, wishes, and one or two gripes!
Let’s start with a quick overview of EduExe2023. Through EduExe colleagues can develop their skills, showcase their own work, and collaborate across the university, discussing all things related to pedagogy. Historically EduExe held an annual conference, but this year it was decided that the month of June would be crammed with amazing sessions, provided by colleagues from inside the university as well as external contributors. In total around 80 sessions are planned.
This was too good an opportunity for the Space Travellers to miss. We are a small group, with big ideas, so this was an opportunity to reach a bigger audience.
The tech let us down a little – actually quite a lot. Links between campuses need to be much easier to set up, and much more flexible. We did manage to get there, but it took a long time, and really wasn’t as conducive to collaboration as we had hoped.
The session was set up with Playmobile © representations of learning spaces. These caused some discussion from the start, which really promoted the discourse to follow. The mini figures represented a traditional lecture, a small group work seminar, a role play scenario, and a music class to represent experiential learning by doing.
After a round of introductions, and an overview by Leo about the University’s Learning Spaces project, we launched into Lego©. Delegates were asked to build their own preferred learning space, in 2 minutes, and then discuss with someone they had never met before, what they had built. It was a highly interactive, and playful activity, but nonetheless with some really useful reflection, and conversation. The use of play, and playful resources can help foster a reflective space for thinking and dialogue (Koeners & Francis, 2020), and we aimed to capture that cognitive possibility.
The session then moved to images, and considering the impact of flexible use of space, Sue led this section with a discussion about Mae Klong Railway Market (figure 7) in Thailand. The railway line runs through the market and stops there. When the train comes in stallholders pull down blinds to protect their produce. When the train leaves, up come the blinds and the market trade resumes. There was some discussion over whether this was flexibility, or adaptability, or even improvisation as a response to constraints.
Sue’s picture inspired Stephen to upload this photo of a little girl – obviously bored at school. What he pointed out is how little an educational setting has changed. We could look at a lecture theatre from Victorian times and it would be strikingly similar to a lecture theatre today, and many classrooms are the same. Perhaps the desks are a little different to the one this little one is sitting at, but the format of the room, rows of desks facing forwards is replicated across educational establishments.
This musing led us to consider how we imagine learning spaces for future generations. Are we trying hard enough? There is a survey underway across all 3 main campuses but will there ever be enough funding to be able to fully address the flexibility that everyone agreed was essential. We wanted flexibility, but with purpose, and aesthetically pleasing builds. The space will always influence the activity, but without a knowledge and understanding of possibilities, perhaps even the most flexible space will still be a constraint.
We also discussed how we ‘belong’ in a space, and how other spaces could seem alien if we were not used to them. By working in an interdisciplinary way perhaps we could find space to build community across disciplines, and campuses. But can all colleagues access all spaces? Issues identified included timing, preparation, and lack of knowledge.
These are just a few snapshots of the fascinating discussions we can and should be having about the spaces in which we spend considerable parts of our life. Do join the Space Travel group if you would like to be part of our monthly conversations. We hope to blog about, to research, and to play with space. Email karen.kenny@exeter.ac.uk for more information or to join us.
Koeners, M. P., & Francis, J. (2020). The physiology of play: potential relevance for higher education. International Journal of Play, 9(1), 143-159. doi:10.1080/21594937.2020.1720128