Innovative Spaces and Pedagogy (EDUC90728)

An exciting collaboration between Architecture and Arts Education, this subject examines how we should design, inhabit and maximise the use of student-centred learning spaces in schools and other educational institutions. Schools are increasingly adopting ‘innovative’ designs that are deemed to better suit the collaborative, creative, critical thinking, communication-focused characteristics required of graduates into the future. What do (and will) these spaces look like, now and into the future? In what ways do, and should, designers and educators collaborate on their design, implementation and use? How can we evaluate the effectiveness of these spaces, and develop an ongoing dialogue between designers and teachers that builds a broad understanding of the educational and design professions’ languages and epistemologies? In finding ways of maximising use of flexible learning spaces, this interdisciplinary subject introduces students to the links that should exist between new pedagogies and space.

This unique subject is delivered jointly by the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. Classes are typically made up of architecture students and emerging teachers who work collaboratively on design and education scenarios, informed by field trips to exemplary schools and design facilities. The subject is informed by research from the University of Melbourne’s Learning Environment Applied Research Network (LEaRN), a research centre formed by Education, Architecture and Medicine in 2008, and its material is underpinned by research emerging from this world-leading group.