The present article explores the experiences of two international graduate students who studied in the United States and how they dealt with the challenges of living in a new country. The researcher was inspired by Bhabha's (1994) third space theory and aimed to investigate how these students tried to create a space for themselves in the classroom…

Teacher education and social education are increasingly challenged to adopt student-centred approaches by focusing on learning spaces and materiality. This study reports on an integrative literature review to determine how space and materiality are approached in the research literature on playful learning in higher education. A thematic analysis…

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…

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…

This classroom technology pilot explored the ways in which three different tools yielded insights into instructors' and students' use of physical classroom space in a higher education environment. The tools of interest were a ceiling heatmap camera from Panasonic, small ultrawideband movement trackers from Pozyx, and an audio sensor from TSI. The…

Ball State University re-designed five classrooms--as part of an Interactive Learning Space (ILS) Initiative--to provide educators with learning spaces that could be used to implement and assess the effectiveness of student-centred instructional practices. The purpose of the current investigation was to explore how pedagogy implemented within ILSs…

In this article, we argue that physical rooms cannot be replaced by virtual space without literally losing the student's body and that experimenting with rooms and active learning is imperative for improving and advancing students' learning. Our case study offers insight into a 'soft room experiment' without hard furniture or audio-visual…

This study aims to improve understanding of the design studio as a setting where formal and informal pedagogies intersect. We argue that the informal dimension of learning has an essential but under-acknowledged role in contributing to the development of design students. Our research focuses on students' everyday routines and their associated…

Traditional management education has been widely criticized for an overemphasis on rational, analytic, arms-length approaches to the detriment of softer, more intuitive capacities. Most critics agree that today's management students are overdrilled in the routines of calculation and analysis, but underprepared for the dynamic and turbulent…

Beanbags, adjustable tables, retractable walls, high-speed internet and numerous digital devices dominate the current concept of the modern classroom. Urged by the Ministry of Education in New Zealand to build all new classrooms as Innovative Learning Environments (ILEs) (Ministry of Education, 2015), more and more students are finding themselves…

Purpose: The availability of new innovative learning spaces together with the introduction of new teaching and learning strategies have shifted the nature of the classroom from a place of instruction towards a place that produces authentic learning. Students in the 21st century are inclined to learn with peers, through the use technology to…

Scientists are shaped by their unique life experiences and bring these perspectives to their research. Diversity in life and cultural experiences among scientists, therefore, broadens research directions and, ultimately, scientific discoveries. Deaf individuals, for example, have successfully contributed their unique perspectives to scientific…

Although learning spaces research is not new, research approaches that target the specific teaching and learning experiences of faculty and students who occupy active learning classrooms (ALCs) is nascent. We report on two novels data collection approaches: Flashbacks and Re-Captures. Both leverage faculty reflective practice and provide windows…

In response to the so-called crisis in contemporary education in the institutions of higher learning (USA)--the encroachment of corporatism and pervasion of standardization--there is a move to offset this dominance by reconceiving the university in terms of an intimate space of dwelling in learning and education. In light of this moribund…

Although there is considerable interest in learning spaces in higher education, the relationship between spaces and learning is complex and not well-understood. Despite challenges, such as the lack of comparability between studies, we need to learn more about the interaction of space design and learning. A crucial step towards this is the creation…