Designing the classroom to match 21st century teaching

Our project features in an article published today (30 April, 2018) by the Australian Research Council, which summarises our work to date and recent findings…

An ILE can be designed with good sightlines, or with retractable walls, so that teaching can make use of indoor and outdoor space. The best ILEs start with the teachers talking about what sort of teaching and learning they want to see, and building the space around that, as opposed to architects having to solve both pedagogic and design issues by themselves. 

The design of a school classroom is intimately connected with the quality of education that students receive, but there is a limited amount of evidence to inform how new innovations in learning environments can be effectively used by teachers and students.

Educational researchers based at The University of Melbourne are using funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Projects scheme to study how innovations in school architecture affect student learning, and develop tools which are helping teachers to bridge the gap between the educational potential of classroom designs, and their actual performance. Read more…