5/20 - in class discussion
What can space REALLY do with respect to learning?
• Create opportunities for learning by attending to the YD features of positive development and attending to needs for autonomy, belonging, and competence • Facilitate/promote the following kinds of activities: o Reflection o Critical dialogue o Displays of understanding o Joint activity • Creating the participation frameworks for learning o Location • Authentic • Sociocultural o Relationships • Joint activity o Content • Authentic/relevant • Integrative • Learner-driven o Pedagogy • Engender practices • Engender o Assessment • That is cyclical • That is informative of practice and ways to improve content • Non-comparative • Non-ranking • Ongoing feedback that informs pedagogy
Why this set of readings? • See learning principles in action. • DLS in action, can actually create testbeds for practice of theories. • Less constraints from political, economic, social, etc forces like public and formal education does.
Dan Gilbert: I like that there is a lot about how space can let things happen instead of forcing them to happen. I also think that space can inspire people to think about learning or inspire reflection etc…the frameworks that you mention though ultimately need to be created by people. In the best case space allows you to think in terms of frameworks – maybe there are reflective questions like how does this space help us meet our learning goals – I think the examples from nicolopolu and cole are on that path though neither the library nor b/g club talk about it in terms of learning…I think your last point about ‘why this set of readings’ is a critical one – the constraints about space are often thought of in the design and build phases and less in the operations phase where the focus is on the programs. There is hardly any discussion at all of fundamentally changing the physical layouts of schools for example the discussion is all around what the actors are doing in those places..I think creating testbeds is important also and that this idea is catching on in the larger audience – I think the emphasis on charter schools is an example of this…