Lets step back a bit. Technically a MLE (See above for translation) is only when a building is purpose built for learning: i.e, if I was to build a brand new school tomorrow what would I build? The answer seems to be that you wouldn't be building a four wall classroom with a teachers desk at one end and a whiteboard at the other. Learning spaces in these new visions tend to be large, with multiple learning areas with different types of furniture in each to enable multiple learning groups to cohabit. Feeling confused? OK look at the picture below...
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| http://www.furnware.co.nz/case-study/cambridge-primary-school |
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| http://www.class.net.nz/News++Updates/MLE+Modern+Learning+Environments.html |
Now as most of you know - 95% of the schools in New Zealand do not have the spaces to set up learning environments like this. But what if we adapted out current classrooms to work this way? This is not just curly furniture, it is is adaptable work space architecture. There are such things as whiteboard desks, technology specific desks, standing work stations etc. So I am semi interested in this. What would learning change into if we made our learning spaces 'adaptable' like this. I wonder if it would change attitudes and mindsets of those who we educate to be adaptable and open to learning and discovering when they are outside the classroom. This is an awareness that I didn't really discover until I was in my early twenties - what would happen if we introduced students to those skills earlier. I would argue and hope that this would allow and encourage effective and reflective collaborative work environments also.
This discussion made me feel somewhat comforted about this urge that I had during the first two terms of teaching - to push all the desks back in the classroom that I was teaching English in. In this class I always felt somewhat constricted by the uni-directional communication flow. We are taught at Teachers College not to expect teaching to be a one-way line from our brain to the student's brains, yet we seem to set up out classrooms enable this. In this English class at the beginning of the year, I would often clear the desks and we would sit on the floor for learning and discussion. I would teach often from the back, facilitating a discussion rather than leading it. I also (although this was a once off) got the students to make an obstacle course out of all the furniture to consider a character's journey in a short story.
So then I thought about my dream classroom and I came up with a very adaptable space. I would want furniture that could change the feel of the space so that every time we shifted the stuff around the space would feel different. This would be awesome in a Drama class as it would enable spaces to be imagined in different contexts. Then I also considered having a break out space with desks that you could raise to be either sitting or standing workstations so that planning or discussion could happen in a space that wasn't merely lying on the floor (which seems to be the norm in my current drama class but also immediately energy sapping). I would also have this break out space at a different floor level so that it could become a stage space if needed. When I considered teaching English in this space - I got even more excited. What would the pedagogical outcome be of having a space that you could constantly rearrange to imagine the text you were studying.
What has this done to my thinking? - Well assured me and encouraged me to not be so restricted I guess. I can do a lot of this stuff in the classrooms I currently have. Maybe one day I will get lolly- shaped and coloured furniture - but in the meantime I think I will proceed with trusting my instincts on collaborative work spaces: being flexible, imaginative and collaborative or a MNLE (Miss N's Learning Environment)
