April 21, 2022

The Importance of a Healthy Learning Space for an Effective Learning Experience

F For the child to benefit and to ensure soaring learning outcomes, heed towards the learning spaces becomes essential whether it is indoors or outdoors as this is where the children learn through their own observations, participation and involvement. Today the learner needs more experiential learning spaces than just the regular classroom settings. Enhanced learning spaces that promote collaboration as well as individualized experiences will help and highlight the self-development and self-directed approach to learning.

Children need to be sensitized to keep their senses alert, to learn from every nook and corner of their own house, from the neighbor’s house, the next-door shopping complex the busy street, the bus stop, the cafeteria, the open grounds, the park, the beach, the mountains, the river bank, the railway station, the airport, the cinema hall, the coffee shop, the farms and so on. These spaces are interconnected locations that are informal areas for optimal learning opportunities and give a firsthand learning exposure to the child. A meaningful curriculum with subject integration can also be curated with outdoor learning spaces in the background setting.

During the pandemic World Health Organization recommended outdoor class setting to facilitate learning and many Schools reimagined conventional classrooms to take learning outside the confines of a traditional classroom. Excellent Metaphors of everyday learning spaces so well described and thought of by Scott Morris in the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Report (2009)

“The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.” Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore

For Primary and above, keeping in mind to create a learner-centered environment, the classroom furniture needs to be light, movable and adjustable. Space in the classroom should be free of excess clutter for movement to enable creating varied learning spaces as and when required. It also adds a surprise element and newness factor for the students. Again, easy accessibility to the learning material, encouraging collaborative set up, and a good storage area helps in building student friendly learning spaces in the classroom.

Learning spaces matters and is a key element in giving the children an excellent environment to learn where they are positively engaged and are confident self-learners.

Posted in Blogs and tagged Blogs, Learning Spaces, Learning Experience, World Health Organization, Flexible Furnitures, Social Learning
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