For this blog post, I came across a reading from Graham McPhail on innovative learning spaces and an modern approach to learning. One particular passage from his work stood out and affirmed my thoughts when it comes to modern learning environments and the challenges schools face when introducing them.
“If schools dive straight into the curricular and pedagogical approaches implied by these new learning spaces, for example interdisciplinary and project- based learning, there is a danger that teachers may not be sufficiently well- equipped to be leaders of learning”.
In my 3rd and current practicum, I was fortunate enough to be able to observe an innovative learning space and the dangers when not implemented correctly. What struck me right away was the classroom design, one big class with whiteboards and projectors on both sides, teachers could decide what space was appropriate and they had different tables and chairs to use and move depending on the learners needs. However, what interested me was the limited use of the space as teachers I observed generally used one side of the room( their side), which meant students at the back were not as engaged as much as they preferred to be on the other teachers side of the room. This indicated teachers, who were more comfortable with their own space similar to a traditional classroom structure.
The other factors I took away from my observation was the importance the relationship was between the teachers. In this particular school, there were 3 teachers to a class of 40 with only 2 with them allocated per lesson. Each were from a different department and took turns working out what lessons were worth them teaching depending on the content. As a result, there was great collaboration between them as they each brought knowledge from their particular subjects. However expectations from the teachers varied and lead to inconsistencies in the messages they gave to students. I noticed numerous times that some student’s knew, which teachers would be more ‘lenient’ on certain rules than others.
Furthermore from my observation, the ability for teachers to be able to transition across multiple subject is also challenging. As McPhail indicated in the case of interdisciplinary learning, “making deep connections between subject areas requires teachers to have advanced understanding of both foundational and threshold concepts of a subject before meaningful links across disciplines are likely to occur”. For project based learning, teachers have to understand multiple subjects and how to teach them. Observing one teacher he was stepping into a topic on New Zealand land wars in Term 4 and had to explore the topic from multiple subjects such as social studies, English and P.E and Health and link them to the topic.
In my opinion, modern learning environments can only work if the teachers are upskilled in how best work in those spaces and work towards a common pedagogical principle. Otherwise it is the classic class of selling a new product but you don’t have anyone who knows how to use.
McPhail, G. (2015). Conceptual progression in innovative learning spaces. New Zealand Journal of Teachers Work, 12(1), 6-8.
Silly Point 
I have not done a placement in a school with open learning spaces, but I did have the opportunity to visit a school with this structure.From the outside it looked like chaos, but from the tour I concluded that from the teachers perspective it was at least organised chaos. I definitely agree with the idea that there can be problems when teachers aren’t set up well to teach in these spaces. Having a class so large, and working with another teacher across multiple subject areas seems like it requires a lot more planning as well as consideration to teaching strategies. Coming from only having taught in a traditional classroom setting I would probably end up like your teacher who preferred to teach on their side of the classroom leaving some students engaged. It will be interesting to see if I do end up in an innovative learning space and how I adapt to it, the collaboration between teachers seems like it would be an awesome learning experience for the teachers themselves.
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This cross sectional curricula infers that collaboration between subjects is at a premium, whilst also creating well balanced and knowledgeable kaiako. The drawbacks are immense – primary school teachers in a secondary school environment (expeditious knowledge expected across all subjects) and ensuring streamlined content and knowledge between peers and co-teachers is nigh on impossible.
Achieving a truely collaborative learning space would require production line teaching and a department that all fit within the same mould – this amounts to catch 22 however; collaboration involves incorporation of a collection of ideas and what do we offer to the students in regards to diversity (an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil Ware era).
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