Designing the Learning Environment

A part of the Learning in a Changing World Series, Designing the Learning Environment discusses how we develop effective learning spaces with an emphasis on understanding the needs of the major stakeholders of these spaces - students.

Designing learning spaces and, in particular, designing school libraries as learning spaces, is presented as an approach to understanding learning needs. Specifically, planning must be learning driven, human-centred and flexible.

Designing a learning environment begins with the end in sight - it looks at the research and learning theories and uses these as the foundation for planning. Various aspects of school library design are considered and discussed: types of spaces (from large group to individual, workroom spaces, reading spaces); ICT requirements; the impact of factors such as lighting and acoustics; and the aesthetics of the finished design.

The Learning in a Changing World Series looks at how the process of learning is evolving at a rapid pace- from the array of resources available in the digital age, changing curriculum, and different teaching strategies needed in order to use new media and technologies, school leaders in the 21st century need to adapt and learn in order to succeed.

Other titles in the series includes:

• Curriculum Integration
• Virtual Worlds
• Resourcing for Curriculum Innovation
• Connect, Communicate, Collaborate