Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change Project Phase One Report 2016-2017

Abstract

The ILETC project presents a unique opportunity for a team of experts in education and architecture from across governments, schools, business and academia to co-design new solutions to the challenges of delivering 21st century learning to students in Australia and New Zealand. The Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change project (ILETC) commenced officially in June 2016. The aim of this 4 year project is to build understanding of how physical classroom space impacts on learning and how best to support teachers in making the most of the spaces in their schools. It will develop resources and strategies to support educators, school leaders, policy makers and architects in developing and inhabiting new learning spaces. In its busy first 18 months the project has not only accomplished all planned milestones, but has achieved extensive engagement with partners, teachers, architects and researchers both within Australasia and internationally. This highly efficient and collaborative, cross-disciplinary group has maximised the expertise of the project team and partners in building a comprehensive base of evidence about teaching in innovative learning spaces in Australasia. The group has made it a priority to not only conduct their research in an open and transparent way, with regular newsletter updates, blog posts and articles, but to publish findings as soon as data is analysed and share these with an ever growing following of educators, designers and other researchers. This report provides a summary of the project’s activities, findings and engagement in the first 18 months of research. It draws together the many outputs, events, media and activities to highlight some of the key discoveries and how these inform the next stage of investigations.