A learning space is a prepared environment where the student can interact, play and learn from it. We can find a learning space in real life, however, I am thinking in a place that is designed, it pretends to simulate the real world in a challenging but also no-threatening way. It is a safe space of not judgment and where the student can feel free to investigate and challenge their abilities with the support of materials and knowledge.
I like the Reggio Emilia view that considers the physical space as the third teacher. I could try to say it with my own words, but I think this quote of Loris Malaguzzi is a perfect description of what I understand for a learning space, what should have and be.
We value space for its power to organize, promote pleasant relationships between people of different ages, create a beautiful environment, bring change, promote options and activities, and its potential to unleash all kinds of social, affective and cognitive learning. All of this contributes to a feeling of well-being and security in children. We also think that, as has been said, the space has to be a kind of aquarium that reflects the ideas, values, attitudes and cultures of the people who live in it.
Thanks for taking time to get onto this so early in the block: it really helps in this exercise where I want you to be able to see whether and how your conceptualisation of learning space has evolved through our conversations, readings and explorations across the two weeks.
‘A learning space is a prepared environment where the student can interact, play and learn from it.’
Interesting that you have a learning spaces as a ‘prepared’ environment. I wonder whether this accommodates the contemplative walk where we find ourselves working through a problem, or the moment in the middle of the night where we might be struck by an original idea, and so on? Can a learning space not also be somewhat more impromptu and unplanned? I suppose it depends on how we define learning?
‘It is a safe space of not judgment and where the student can feel free to investigate and challenge their abilities with the support of materials and knowledge.’
Yes, those certainly sound like desirable conditions for a learning space and something I strive to create. But then other things work against this, I think. Taking the example of this blog, I want it to be a place of safe experimentation, but it is also a piece of assessed work therefore I wonder whether some students might still feel a bit anxious when spending time composing blog posts? Of course, I’m not judging the individual, but as a piece of assessment perhaps the knowledge that this work carries a mark and grade might undermine how I want this environment to be experienced?