Creating an Ideal Learning Space

Creating an Ideal Learning Space

The aim is to raise awareness of the importance of the learning environment and its impact on learning.

1. The teacher places a range of materials around the room for students to use.
2. The students are to produce a written/visual presentation or create a physical model for a challenge using any resources found around the classroom. Students should feel free to move tables around to help them complete their challenge.  The teacher will help the students to identify a suitable challenge.
3. Students organise themselves into groups of 4.
4. The groups move about the room gathering information for their presentation/model. 
5. The students move around the room collecting resources.
6. The groups create their presentation/product.
7. The groups present to the class.
8. The groups reflect on the activity and note on post-its the different way they used the room during different stages of the activity.
9. The post-its are placed on a wall under the headings Planning, Gathering and Presenting for the class to review.

This activity will raise student’s awareness of how best to use the room space at different parts of the activity. They should have the opportunity to move around and reorganise the room as they wish - they could also use an outdoor space for resources. The dynamic nature of the activity will stimulate engagement, motivation and innovation. It gives students full responsibility and control over their learning space and maximises creativity as students will have a wide range of resources to work from.
The activity could be done using online tools such as Padlet, virtual whiteboard and breakout rooms in Teams/Zoom.