Innovative Learning Environments: have you had your say?

New spaces in classrooms that cater to the changing priorities in education and provide more flexibility in teaching approaches through encouraging collaboration, creativity and personalised learning are currently underway.

These new spaces present both opportunities and challenges for teachers because they require new ways of teaching, interacting and organisation. Are teachers using these new spaces to their full potential?

A research project – the Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change (ILETC) project – conducted by the University of Melbourne is investigating how teachers in New Zealand and Australia can use learning spaces in today’s schools most effectively.

This $2 million project is funded by the Australian Research Council in partnership with the Ministry of Education and 14 other industry partners. The project aims to identify how teachers can realise the potential of these new learning spaces and provide them with the practical tools to adapt their teaching to the learning spaces in their school.

The first part of this study is a 5–7 minute survey of principals across more than 6,000 schools in New Zealand and Australia to identify the range of learning spaces in schools, the teaching practices and types of learning that occur in schools.

It gives every school in New Zealand a chance to contribute to greater understanding of these issues. Also by completing this initial brief survey it will ensure that your school remains a potential site for further explorations on how teachers can best utilise their learning spaces.

The survey has been emailed to all principals. If you have not received an email, contact joann.cattlin@unimelb.edu.au

For further information go to Innovative Learning Environments website(external link) or watch our video on Youtube(external link)