Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications

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    Terrains 2015 Mapping Learning Environment Evaluation Across the Design and Education Landscape
    Imms, W ; Cleveland, B ; Mitcheltree, H ; Fisher, K ; Imms, W ; Cleveland, B ; Mitcheltree, H ; Fisher, K (LEaRN, University of Melbourne, 2015-09-03)
    Terrains, as its name suggested, was a cartographic examination of learning environment evaluation. It invited all higher-degree students working in learning environments to assemble and present a short synopsis of their research. Through the careful sequencing of papers, and input after each paper by expert interlocoteurs, Terrains explored how this research addressed evaluation of such spaces, and how this constituted a map of current thinking in learning environment evaluation. As such, Terrains was a working symposium, with new knowledge being generated from the exchange of ideas occurring around each presentation.
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    Sustainability vs. pedagogy: synergies and tensions to be resolved in the design of learning environments
    Cleveland, B ; Soccio, P ; Hes, D ; CRAWFORD, R ; STEPHAN, A (The Architectural Science Association, 2015)
    Learning environments in schools are purpose-built spaces. They are designed to be places of learning and are inclusive of the building structure, the furniture, fixtures, incorporated technology and learning resources. In the 21st century, it has become common practice for the design of new learning environments to be driven by issues of contemporary pedagogy and environmental sustainability. However the question that remains unanswered is what are the synergies and tensions between achieving environmental sustainability and contemporary pedagogy within the same learning environment? The purpose of this paper is to stimulate conversation around this topic. The findings relate to three researcher’s observation over a seven year period of learning environments research, undertaken at The University of Melbourne as part of the Learning Environments Applied Research Network (LEaRN) and two Australian Research Council Linkage Projects Smart Green Schools and Future Proofing Schools. Discussion of these observations highlights some of the issues and/or opportunities, which include more targeted research on how to deliver learning environments that are 3D textbooks; holistically integrated biophilic design, and greater occupant control of indoor environment quality.
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    Evaluating the pedagogical effectiveness of learning spaces
    Cleveland, B ; Soccio, P ; Crawford, RH ; Stephan, A (Architectural Science Association and The University of Melbourne, 2015)
    This paper describes the development and ongoing use of the School Spaces Evaluation Instrument (SSEI): an evaluation tool developed to gather information about how effectively school architecture supports teaching and learning. In 2009, the Australian Federal Government pledged $16.2 billion towards the Building the Education Revolution (BER). Over the following three years learning spaces were built or refurbished in 9,526 schools nationwide. In Victoria, Catholic Education Melbourne (CEM) encouraged schools to work with architects to design bespoke solutions. This process led to the design and construction of hundreds of new learning spaces, each with different spatial arrangements. Approximately five years on, questions remain about which architectural solutions worked best. To help answer these questions, and inform decisions about how capital budgets should be spent in the future, the Learning Environments Applied Research Network (LEaRN) and CEM collaborated to develop the SSEI tool, including Module 3 – Alignment of Pedagogy and Learning Environments. This tool will be used over the coming three years to evaluate school facilities in the Catholic education sector for the purpose of generating new knowledge about how best to design and use school facilities for contemporary teaching and learning.
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    The other half of the picture: Post-occupancy evaluation for alignment of space and pedagogy
    Newton, C ; Cleveland, B ; Crawford, RH ; Stephan, A (Architectural science, 2015)
    Prefabricated relocatable learning environments form an important component of school infrastructure in Australia but their light-weight construction means they often require air-conditioning for a comfortable indoor environment quality (IEQ). The ‘envi Sustainable Education Spaces’ were recently constructed by the Department of Education and Technology (DET) in Victoria to showcase a more sustainable alternative to the traditional ‘relocatables'. Evaluation had been undertaken by others to assess the design ambitions to reduce operational energy by 90% and lifecycle emissions of CO2 production by 50%. What was not known was how the spaces accommodated learning and learners. This was the focus of research undertaken by the authors in 2014. In this paper, we present the methodology and findings and argue a case for holistic post-occupancy evaluation in order to paint a more complete picture regarding the costs and benefits of innovative spaces even when innovation is primarily focused on environmental benefits. The research applies a mixed methods approach, utilising quantitative and qualitative data. Commentary by students and staff on the indoor environment quality, including acoustics and temperature, provides useful cross-linking data with earlier studies. This research is part of broader research on prefabricated learning environments undertaken by the authors and others.
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    Using video data to research pedagogic practices in new generation learning environments in schools: Development of a framework for analysing and presenting teacher practice
    Cleveland, B ; Aberton, H ; Baguley, M (AARE, 2015)
    This paper discusses the use of video data to research pedagogic practices in new generation learning environments (NGLEs) in primary and secondary schools. Using video footage drawn from a collaborative research project between the University of Melbourne and the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (2013), the paper charts the development of a framework for analysing and representing teacher practice across a range of NGLEs: learning spaces that provide a greater degree of spatial variation, geographic freedom and access to resources for students and teachers than traditional classrooms. Video of teacher practice collected in four Victorian government schools was used as the basis for developing the framework. This footage was initially coded using Studiocode, a software tool that has been employed to analyse teacher practice in classrooms across the world, including by the International Centre for Classroom Research (ICCR), but not as far as we know used to analyse teacher practice in NGLEs through a human geographic or spatial lens. The paper describes the research methodology, the data collection methods and the analysis framework that was developed to represent data about the ‘intersections’ between people, space, practice and time i.e. the complex spatialized pedagogic practice of teachers in NGLEs. The practical dilemmas and hurdles that were encountered during the process of developing a simple coding system and visual tool that could represent teacher practice in NGLEs are discussed, along with the final analysis framework and representational tool that arose from the empirical data.
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    Developing new approaches to the evaluation of physical learning environments: A return to the origins of post-occupancy evaluation in environmental psychology
    Cleveland, B ; Baguley, M (AARE, 2015)
    This paper calls for new approaches to the evaluation of physical learning environments and suggests future directions for research in the field. Prior research across the primary, secondary and tertiary education sectors has revealed a variety of metrics by which the performance of educational facilities can be measured. However, if physical learning environments are to be considered as spaces that provide a range of affordances for teaching and learning, improved methods are required to evaluate the effectiveness of ‘units of the environment’ as pedagogical settings. For more than 40 years, the field of post-occupancy evaluation has provided direction regarding how evidence can be gathered about the performance of educational facilities in use, yet such work has mostly overlooked the evaluation of learning spaces for pedagogical effectiveness. Research being conducted as part of the Evaluating 21st Century Learning Environments (E21LE) ARC Linkage project indicates that a return to the origins of post-occupancy evaluation in the field of environmental psychology is required in order to support the development of more rigorous methods of learning environment evaluation – methods that can provide valuable feedback about how effective ‘units of the environment’ are for their intended purpose, supporting teaching and learning.