Learning Space Design in Higher Education

One of the most significant recent trends in Higher Education has been the move from a focus on teaching to one on learning. But, as anyone who has ever run programmes or courses will recognise, both the physical geography and the ethos of the location have major impacts on the quality of the resulting learning experience. Hence the current interest in learning spaces – considered here as ‘sites of interaction.’

The fourteen chapters of this anthology, produced by the international Association Learning in Higher Education’s well-tested and rigorous methodology, discuss the concept of learning spaces, the pedagogy of learning spaces, and the way learning spaces are changing.

Learning Space Design indicates that the evolution of learning spaces is, and ought to be, a contested area which cannot be resolved just through a formal building commissioning process. It is important to make explicit the nexus between educational philosophy and architectural design of physical and/or virtual learning spaces, especially if the aim is to increase student agency, interaction, and collaboration.

Learning Space Design puts the spotlight on an important, but often overlooked, dimension of teaching and learning processes in higher education. It is a rallying call for a mission to explore further the nature and purposes of learning spaces, and it should be essential reading for all those designing, delivering or evaluating teaching and learning in higher education.

About the editors

Lennie Scott-Webber is Director Education Environments of Steelcase Education Solutions at Steelcase Inc. in Grand Rapids, U.S.A. John Branch is Academic Director of the part-time MBA programmes and Lecturer of Marketing at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, and Faculty Associate at the Center for Russian, East European, & European Studies, both of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, U.S.A. Paul Bartholomew is Director of Learning Innovation and Professional Practice at Aston University in Birmingham, England. Claus Nygaard is executive director of LiHE and executive director of cph:learning institute.