Sunday, 12th October 2008

Next Practice in Resourcing Personalisation - The learning environment

How can we construct environments for learning that offer the support students need for personal learning?

Striving to meet the challenge of personalising learning is happening at the same time as a profound reconsideration of how schools are designed. The DCSF's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme demonstrates significant commitment to rethinking schools in this country, so that we may become more relevant and responsive to the needs of individuals and communities. A number of initiatives such as joinedupdesignforschools, are involving students in school design, and this move is being reflected in the BSF programme more generally. Schools are indeed beginning to change. Our learning environments (which might include media studios, farms, businesses or wherever students can plug in a laptop) are becoming increasingly varied, so much so that the concepts of 'school' and 'classroom' often seem outmoded.

When we talk about redesigning schools, however, we are not just talking about buildings, but the many spaces in which children and young people learn. Some educational leaders and practitioners are thinking beyond the actual bricks and mortar of the school building when they think about the kind of learning environment they want to construct - to a student's life beyond the classroom and the range of factors that might inhibit or enable effective learning. Providing Extended School facilities or building better bridges between schools and other agencies can provide students with support they may need to make the best of their education. Thinking about the learning environment, in this instance, means thinking about the best way of helping students to be in emotional space and place where they can learn effectively.