This project is supporting a national conversation about planning learning spaces that includes a colloquium, as well as a series of yearlong activities through which colloquium conversations are being extended, distilled, and disseminated. Participants include institutional leaders, faculty, and administrators responsible for shaping the intellectual and social learning environment (what and how students learn) and for shaping the physical learning environment (where students learn), who will be invited to the conversation. They are convening with architects and design, planning, and construction professionals responsible for translating institutional dreams and plans for learning spaces into physical reality. Beginning with and extending beyond the colloquium, the conversation are engaging pedagogical pioneers, cognitive scientists, reflective technologists, and others whose research and experiences can inform the discussion of what an ideal space for learning in the 21st Century should be.
With support from the National Science Foundation, and building on a foundation of almost two decades of activities relating to planning spaces for STEM learning and creative activity under the umbrella of Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL), a new initiative was undertaken. The designation of this initiative as a collaboratory signaled its intentional design. The collaboratory is designed to engage the diverse communities of practice giving attention to undergraduate learning, undergraduate learners, and/or undergraduate learning environments. From its beginning in 1991, PKAL had become a champion for the creative and productive renewal of the undergraduate learning environment—from the institutional perspective, as well as the programmatic, curricular, and pedagogical. As noted on the LSC website (www.pkallsc.org), The Learning Spaces Collaboratory is an emerging community of practice making the case that spaces matter to learning. It is a collaborating community of researchers, practitioners, and stakeholders working to develop resources, grounded in research and validated in the field, that will inform the process of planning, experiencing, and assessing 21stcentury learning spaces on campuses across the country. Planning of 21stcentury learning spaces is a very complex, often very costly, undertaking. It demands the intentional cross-fertilization of ideas around questions about learning and learning goals, about why and how research-based pedagogies work; it requires sharing and reshaping mental images of how students learn, of spaces that facilitate that learning, and of the institutional mission and identity. It requires that people with diverse expertise, in various spheres of responsibility, shape a common language that enables creative planning. The LSC reflects a conviction that sustainable and creative transformation of the undergraduate learning environment cannot be achieved without incorporating attention to spaces within the portfolio of institutional approaches for improving student learning, enhancing institutional distinction. Reflecting discussions and reflections on the questions, what do we know about planning learning spaces and what do we need to know, LSC leaders and collaborating partners have developed an agenda for 2011 – 2012 in which a growing LSC community will explore basic questions at the intersection of research and practice in the realm of planning 21st century learning spaces for 21st century learners. A diverse community of researchers and practitioners will seek to distill and extend what we know about whether or how 21st century learning spaces matter to 21st century learners. Establishing an LSC leadership cadre of individuals, institutions and organizations that bring a remarkable diversity of experience and expertise to the task was a significant outcome of this NSF-funded project. Some of these are engaged formally, as noted below. Others are involved more informally, including representatives of over fifty of the major architectural and design firms in this country. Activities funded through this NSF grant to the Learning Spaces Collaboratory included the evolution of the LSC web site, a national colloquium, three regional workshops, the development of a guide for planning learning spaces www.pkallsc.org/downloads/92. Woven throughout 2010 -2011 LSC efforts was establishing the agenda for the future of the LSC. As noted on the LSC website www.pkallsc.org/content/166: In 2011 - 2012, the Learning Spaces Collaboratory will engage the community in exploring questions about whether and how 21st century learning spaces matter to 21st century learners, questions such as: "What is the feedback loop connecting attention to spaces (the ‘where’ of learning) with attention to curricular reforms (the ‘what’ of learning), and pedagogical reforms (the ‘how’ of learning)?" "What can we learn from research and from practice in the field about what works in planning, experiencing and assessing 21st century learning spaces designed to serve 21st century learners?" If the LSC vision is to be realized as anticipated: There will be a valuable toolkit of practical planning approaches for the use of those responsible for shaping and maintaining the physical environment for learning. They will be practical because they will have been designed, vetted, piloted, and assessed by representatives of end-user communities (academics, architects, and other design professionals and stakeholders). Money, time, and other resources will be used more creatively and expeditiously in the process of building and maintaining the built environment for learning, with long-term value to learners as well as to institutions. Increasingly, new kinds of conversations, with a common language will be happening on campuses and across diverse communities of researchers and practitioners across the country, including within educational and disciplinary societies and architectural associations. Increasing numbers of undergraduates in our nation's colleges and universities will have opportunity to become active, engaged, and reflective learners, empowered as citizen leaders within our increasingly global community, as competitive candidates for work in the private or public sector and/or for graduate school. There will broader and deeper examination of findings from research and from the field about how spatial properties affect the quality and character of undergraduate learning in our nation's colleges and universities.
