Recent years have witnessed the spread of purpose-built active learning classrooms throughout the higher education sector. While these innovative learning spaces are well-suited for a variety of active learning strategies, their lack of a single focal point means they are inconvenient spaces for lecturing. While educational developers often…

Non-traditional learning spaces have been a trending topic and investment opportunity during the last decade. Ostensibly their novel material settings promote active and flexible learning. This article traces the furniture layouts utilized in curricular teaching during three semesters across the first five years of use of an 80-seat…

This paper analyses the move by an Australian university faculty to a new building featuring open plan and alternative workspaces. Through the lens of the theory of practice architectures, the paper examines how the new built spaces both enabled and constrained the professional learning practices of academics. Drawing on a case study of the…

College unions are a common feature on the traditional American campus. The Association of College Unions International, the Association that advances the role of the college union, has long claimed that the college union assists with community building on campus and that the college union is a place where everyone on campus can come to gather.…

Creating a sense of community and belonging for students is a desired outcome for residence life staff. This qualitative study explored how campus housing directors defined a sense of belonging and how they implemented curriculum, programs, and services to enhance residents' sense of connection and community. Utilizing semi-structured interviews,…

Educators have used outdoor space to support learning throughout history. Over the past several years, the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled institutions of higher education to make innovations toward planning and constructing outdoor learning spaces on campus as a necessary measure for promoting student health and safety. This scoping literature…

Instruction based on active learning is being promoted in higher education by the creation of new collaborative teaching and learning spaces, but capacity does not yet exist for all courses to be held in these new spaces. In this study, we examined how students choose between sections of the same course, with the same materials and techniques used…

As part of the annual American Library Association 2019 Annual Conference, George Washington University Library in Washington, D.C., hosted a preconference workshop to inform librarians about the planning process necessary for a successful library renovation or new building. The workshop offered participants practical advice from architects and…

The main objective of the study was to understand specific ways in which a flexible, technology-enhanced space can create opportunities for student engagement. Despite a few studies that address classroom elements such as furniture, researchers argue for more-holistic attention to the materials of learning environments to better support the…

This study seeks to explore the physical spaces centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) occupy; with an emphasis on gaining a better picture of what CTL spaces look like; where they are located; how they developed: and what these spaces represent. We gathered visual, empirical, and qualitative data to take the first steps towards developing a…

In the conducted field experiment, we explore the intensity of university students' interaction related to the seating arrangement (circle or rows) in pre-service teachers' groups during the reflective practice. We also probe the differences across the various fields of study and evaluate the facilitator's influence on the interaction. We use…

Teaching introductory courses to college freshmen requires innovative pedagogies, which are often powered by new advanced technologies that potentially increase student engagement. In addition, instructors may also plan and deploy active-learning strategies that first consider the physical spaces in which learning will take place. Effective…

The term 'permeability' has morphed from is primarily technical origins into the lexicon of architecture as architects (and other professionals) sought better language to describe the relationships of spaces to their environments and other spaces and to the interactions of users with spaces. In higher education, permeability incorporates aspects…

In higher education, libraries are facing drastic spatial changes, transforming areas traditionally used for housing books to spaces for interaction and shifting from individual to team-based learning. This study (a) identifies space uses; (b) examines the environmental satisfaction, support for productivity, and perceived productivity depending…

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the buildings of higher education institutions in Turkey, where vocational music education is delivered, in terms of physical and acoustical sufficiency. This research is a descriptive study conducted with qualitative method and survey model. The population of the research consists of all of the…