Teaching in Flexible Learning Environments: Innovation Block

Growing enrolments saw Balmoral State High School identified for new buildings in 2020. The Standard DOE GLA design building, a $15.7 million three-storey structure, was to house two Science labs, a number of general learning area classrooms and a large staffroom. Architectural firm 8i Architects worked with the school’s executive to tailor important design features, like glass walls and a drone lab, in order to realise the student-centric learning environments the school visioned.

The opening of Balmoral State High School’s Innovation Block in 2023 presented an exciting professional learning opportunity to develop teacher capabilities working in flexible learning spaces. Forward-thinking on the part of principal Linda Galloway saw the school partner with QUT through Associate Professor Jill Willis, an experienced researcher in flexible educational environments. Together with Dr Julie Arnold and PhD candidate Elise Bray, a team of ten Balmoral teachers spent three terms exploring teaching and learning within these new flexible learning environments in a bespoke project: Making Space to Learn.

This professional learning was contextualised within the school’s broader priorities like feedback and inclusive practices, to optimise flexible learning environments that promote student agency. The team met before and during school hours, reading and unpacking research to trial new practices, engaging with feedback from students across their classes, and peer observations with project colleagues.

Affordances

An essential feature of the classrooms in the Innovation Block was the conceptual application of flexibility to the learning process. Room design as well as furniture inclusions are a fundamental part of flexible learning spaces. Room design on the ground and second level incorporates concertina glass walls between rooms allowing for expandable use of space for assessment implementation or large group training delivery. The spaces on the first level feature concertina glass walls between rooms, with the central corridor providing extendable space provision for whole staff professional learning, or large student cohort collaboration within our ever-growing educational hub.

Furniture within the rooms was chosen with a focus on comfort, style and learning flexibility. The learning environment includes a movable teacher station with shelves, often placed at the front of the room, to drive focus while delivering explicit teaching. The front wall of the room includes large sliding white boards, capable of enclosing the interactive screen along with substantial, convenient storage shelves. Maximising these spaces whiteboard spaces not only permits greater teacher flexibility but allows for student participation and co-creation. Most spaces include Trap height adjustable sit-stand student tables and counter stool chairs with high backs that benefit intrinsically motivated learners participating in peer teaching activities. Some spaces also include a combination of Curve desks with adjustable height and Penta height adjustable sit-stand tables.

Other spaces use Curve tables with fixed height and Rectangle tables with adjustable height, lending itself to collaborative learning. All tables are accompanied by sled-based student chairs and lab stools, all with high backs. To encourage student agency in learning and gradual release of teacher responsibility, spaces are furnished with a couple of Straight-backed Ottomans – mobile lounges, along with a few Angled mobile ottomans with and without backs. Lap tables/rests are also provided, for the purpose of ergonomics while using the Ottomans and provide a quiet space for students who prefer to move from a shared space to work alone.

Opening sessions of the Making Space to Learn project involved close examination of the interconnectedness of room set up, arrangement of furniture and student learning. This understanding highlighted the close alignment between student agency and design layout, and the importance of whole class consultative processes in maximising student learning. Students take the lead in developing protocols of learning, including respect towards the learning space, student accountability for their learning and developing a reflective mindset to maintain engagement. Some spaces are set up with the stadium mobile lounge setting or Angled lounge setting in the centre of the room (Figure 2: i105) followed by the sit-stand tables towards the back, along with a combination of Angled mobile Ottoman without backs and straight 2-seater Ottomans placed along the sides of the room. Rectangular or penta height adjustable tables, sled-based student chairs and lab stools are used as well allowing students to shift between sitting and standing as preferred.

While classrooms have a base layout that students need to reconfigure at the end of a lesson, flexible furniture affords a greater and clearer focus on collaboration. Room layouts are able to be negotiated at the beginning of the lesson, then swiftly changed during the class and finally, reformed at the conclusion. These affordances allow teachers to incorporate space as a teaching consideration in their lesson design and planning in a way not available in a fixed desk classroom: “Spatial competency underpins a teacher's capacity to navigate and evolve their practices to utilise the affordances of the new spaces for pedagogical gain.” (Byers, T. (2021). What Does Teaching and Learning Look like in a Variety of Classroom Spatial Environments?)

Digital Tech and Screens

Within the newly-designed flexible spaces, state of the art digital displays unlock the potential for new and exciting ways for student to collaborate. Through using stylus pens with the EZwrite application, multiple students can simultaneously construct responses to tasks, which can then be downloaded and shared with the class digitally. For a more ‘analogue’ approach to group work, the glass walls and large sliding whiteboards accommodate for larger-scale group work activities that engage the class as a whole. An example of this approach comes from one of our Senior Biology classes co-constructing a summary of the genetics unit by forming small student groups, each focusing on one topic, followed by group rotation around the space to continually evaluate and add to the work (Figure 1). This collaborative approach allowed for student agency in the creation of a full unit summary which could then be shared with all students in the class for their revision notes.

In 2024, teachers from the project team are connecting with those colleagues who were not participants, yet show interest in the learning approach adopted in these classrooms. Initially, the team produced an overview of the Project and its key findings for inclusion the school’s 2024 pedagogical framework document: Balmoral Blueprint. This collaborative response documents their collective understandings around the implementation of effective pedagogical practices in flexible learning environments. The newly launched ‘teachers leading teachers’ platform, Takeaway Tuesdays, offers a half hour weekly spotlight for collegial sharing with interested staff members, providing a high interest/low investment opportunity to pique curiosity. Structuring a suite of professional learnings from the Making Spaces to Learn will be the next step for the team this year.

Figure 1: Collaborative construction of Senior Subject Summaries[/caption]



Figure 2: i105 Flexible Teaching Space[/caption]



Figure 3: i105 Map for group work configuration



Article by Project members: Year 12 Coordinator, Jessica Brodbeck, Experienced Senior Teacher, Christabel D’Silva and Head of Pedagogy and Performance, Zena Carusi-Lees at Balmoral State High School.

Photography by: Rachel Shepherd, Marketing & Communications Officer - Balmoral State High School