21st Century Learning Environments
Thinkspace is committed to enabling 21st century learning through the design of creative and flexible spaces, which empower a school culture to evolve and transform supportive teaching and learning.
We implemented many 21st century learning principles, such as flexibility, adaptability, daylight and transparency, as well as safety, visibility, and supervision on projects such as Maddaugh Elementary School and Hugh Boyd Secondary School. Our work on Norma Rose Point Elementary School was also featured in a video from Fielding Nair International.
Design principles for 21st century learning
Supportive Environments for Flexible, Adaptable, Excellence in Learning
The BC Education Plan is an important response to the challenges of rapid change in the 21st century. It posits that to move education in the province from good to great, education must be adaptable, provide cross-cultural understanding, and remain flexible to support how, where, and when learning takes place.
It summarizes this broader goal with the following five key elements:
- personalized learning for every student
- quality teaching and learning
- flexibility and choice
- high standards
- learning empowered by technology
By extension, supportive space for learning must be flexible and agile in its ability to support varied modes of learning; it must provide environments that support teachers’ and student’s needs, be they intellectual, physical, social, or emotional; they must provide the tools to easily access information, digest it, and re-work and personalize it; they must support both individual and collaborative effort.
This kind of space for learning is not about grand gestures, but rather the fine fabric of supportive background space that allows the high standards necessary for quality teaching and learning. Space cannot create good learning, but it can greatly facilitate the learning process.
