Learning Spaces

A year to remember: David L. Schrader

The Annual LearningScapes Conference in Atlanta, Georgia marked the end of David’s role as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association for Learning Environments. While it was the culmination of his time as A4LE chairman, it was a continuation of a great legacy and a beginning for the next great year for this organization. Here, David reflects on the last twelve months.

Closing out 2017, A4LE is very proud to usher in the coming year with great a new publication, Learning Spaces. The last few issues of Learning Spaces have been available to members of A4LE to demonstrate the incredible examples of projects globally that advocate for innovative learning environments. The A4LE membership cannot continue to thrive and to provide these examples, without a strong basis from which to operate. 2017 was a year to entrench ourselves globally and as such has been a year of re-building. It has meant re-establishing many of our organizational practices to create that foundation from which we continue to thrive.

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      string(322) "... his sandwiches on the moon.With the help of support staff, David built acardboard rocket in class that day and decorated it.The teachers told David to bring a packed lunch thefollowing day for a ‘trip’.David entered our room to discover the rocket inthe centre and a moving starscape ..."
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      string(5642) "These boxes are an instant toolboxfor teachers looking to extend the learning.We support staff to develop and upload their owncontent to the system – so spaces are only limited bythe imagination of the staff and students who usethem. This creates potentially infinite scope for newtopics.Special needsThe rooms are used to engage all the senses – so everychild, whatever their age or ability, can enjoy andexperience the space. David is a pupil with additionallearning needs. He struggles with concentration andengagement. But he had become really interested inSpace, and was curious to know what it would be liketo eat his sandwiches on the moon.With the help of support staff, David built acardboard rocket in class that day and decorated it.The teachers told David to bring a packed lunch thefollowing day for a ‘trip’.David entered our room to discover the rocket inthe centre and a moving starscape on the projectionscreens. As the teachers counted for lift-off, soundeffects of the rocket thrust boomed from the deepbass of the surround sound system and the adventurebegan! The staff were amazed at David’s focus andexcitement – he loved it!The effect of our spaces on its users has beendiverse and positive. They are ‘safe spaces’ to explore.They are not hampered by outside distractionsand they encourage deep emotional engagementwithin learning. The spaces are designed to stimulateimaginative and creative thinking. They link narrativewith subject knowledge.Schools  have brought together l i teracy,numeracy, ICT and science teaching in our rooms.The rooms encourage a cross curricular approachto learning through creativity.World War Two in WakefieldOur rooms are often used as starting points totopics, and are particularly effective in encouragingstudents to connect emotionally with history.  Howcan we expect pupils to understand the horrorsof life in the blitz when they have no frame ofreference to draw on? A black and white photoin a text book may be historically accurate – butto most 14-year-olds, it seems unrelated to theirexperiences.We worked with a history and a drama teacherwhen we were hired at Kings High School, Wakefield.The students entered the room to find a bombedout building projected on the screen, songs of VeraLynn playing on the sound system and a large pileof materials (cardboard, scissors, bamboo canes)in a single spotlight with an envelope on top.The absence of any instructions from the teacherprovoked discussion among the students – shouldthey open the letter? Unsurprisingly, curiosity gotthe better of them.Inside they found an official letter instructing them tosplit into four ‘families’ (or groups). Using the resourcesin the pile, they each had to construct a simple shelter.The final line in the letter informed the students thatin 15 minutes, an air raid siren would sound – so theirshelters had to be complete.As the siren sounded, the lights darkened andthe projection image changed to a series of Germanbombers. The siren gave way to a soundscape ofdistant explosions and the drone of aircraft engines.The teacher took on the role of narrator, explainingthe passing of time and the events happening aboveground.  Students were encouraged to imagine thefear and anxiety. An ‘all clear’ siren sounded and it wassafe for the students to emerge from their shelters.  Theteacher explained that the town had been badly hitand one of the families had all died.  The young peoplewere asked to consider:How did it feel being in such a confined space?How did you cope with the boredom?What would have happened to your house in theraid?How many of your friends in other shelters survivedthe night?When would the next raid be?This session prompted lots of passionate and informeddiscussion. “I can’t believe people had to go throughthis every day”, one student said. The students also■■■■■Creative classroomwww.teachingtimes.com14 21 Century Schools  Volume 4:1Creative classroomwww.teachingtimes.comasked some important questions – like: “Why didthe war start?” and “Did this actually happen inManchester?”These questions then provided the ‘hook’ for theteacher to explain the context to a class that wasnow engaged in the topic. The project was thendeveloped to teach fractions through food rationing.Students made a war memorial with the art teacherand developed a piece of creative writing about theirexperience in English.Each school uses their room in a different way. Oneschool lets young children at the local Children’s Centreuse the space. Apparently, the baby massage group isin a peaceful state before the activity even begins!INSET TrainingWhat always excites us, once the rooms are installed,is the long term relationships we maintain with eachschool. By delivering INSET training, we stay connectedto our rooms and can see how they add value to theschools using them.In a recent INSET session, we covered the floorwith 40 small boxes of different colours and sizes. Weinvited the teachers to walk into the unknown space.They experienced a projection of moving cloudsand relaxing music. The lighting was soft with a slowmoving ‘chase’ effect – representing ‘movement’and ‘journey’.  We encouraged the group to interactwith the room slowly and open the boxes.  Each boxcontained a small insturuction written on a piece ofpaper… like “Find your feet” or “Remember what lastmade you smile!”After the exercise, we asked the teachers to reflecton their reactions to the boxes and the impact theyfelt the immersive space had on"
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Learning Spaces

Making Spaces

22 Sep 2009

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      string(355) "... Member Exchange(LMX) Theory of Leadership over 25 Years: Applying a Multi-Level Multi-Domain Perspective. Leadership Quarterly 6:2 (1995), pp. 219-247 ■Tolstoy, L. (1869; 1969) War and Peace. Translated by Rosemary Edmonds. Penguin. ■ Uhl-Bien, M and Marion, R. (2009) Complexity Leadershipin Bureaucratic Forms of Organizing ..."
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      string(3870) "chaos……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………➜How to…■■ The Journey from Hero to HostLeaders who journey from hero to host have seen past the negative dynamics of politics and oppositionthat hierarchy breeds, they’ve ignored the organizational charts and role descriptions that confine people’spotential. Instead, they’ve become curious. Who’s in this organization or community? What skills and capacitiesmight they offer if they were invited into the work as full contributors? What do they know, what insights dothey have that might lead to a solution to this problem?Leaders-as-hosts know that people willingly support those things they’ve played a part in creating—thatyou can’t expect people to ‘buy-in’ to plans and projects developed elsewhere. Leaders-as-hosts invest inmeaningful conversations among people from many parts of the system as the most productive way toengender new insights and possibilities for action. They trust that people are willing to contribute, and thatmost people yearn to find meaning and possibility in their lives and work. And these leaders know that hostingothers is the only way to get complex, intractable problems solved.Leaders-as-hosts don’t just benevolently let go and trust that people will do good work on their own Leadershave a great many things to attend to, but these are quite different than the work of heroes. Hosting leaders must:■ provide conditions and good group processes for people to work together.■ provide resources of time, the scarcest commodity of all.■ insist that people and the system learn from experience, frequently.■ offer unequivocal support—people know the leader is there for them.■ keep the bureaucracy at bay, creating oases (or bunkers) where people are less encumbered by senselessdemands for reports and administrivia.■ play defense with other leaders who want to take back control, who are critical that people have beengiven too much freedom.■ reflect back to people on a regular basis how they’re doing, what they’re accomplishing, how far they’ve journeyed.■ work with people to develop relevant measures of progress to make their achievements visible.■ value conviviality and esprit de corps—not false rah-rah activities, but the spirit that arises in any groupthat accomplishes difficult work together.(Wheatley and Frieze, 2011, pages 2-3)References: Graen, G. B. and Uhl-Bien, M. (1995) Relationship-Based Approach to Leadership: Development of Leader-Member Exchange(LMX) Theory of Leadership over 25 Years: Applying a Multi-Level Multi-Domain Perspective. Leadership Quarterly 6:2 (1995), pp. 219-247 ■Tolstoy, L. (1869; 1969) War and Peace. Translated by Rosemary Edmonds. Penguin. ■ Uhl-Bien, M and Marion, R. (2009) Complexity Leadershipin Bureaucratic Forms of Organizing: A Meso Model. The Leadership Quarterly 20:4 (August 2009), pages 631–650 ■ Uhl-Bien, M and Marion,R. and McKelvey, B. (2007) Complexity Leadership Theory: Shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge era. The LeadershipQuarterly 18:4 (August 2007), pages 298-318 ■ Weston, D. (2016) How to turn around a struggling school – ‘don’t use a “super head”. Tweetposted on David Weston@informed_edu August 2016 ■ Wheatley, M (1993) Chaos and Complexity: What can science teach? OrganisationalDevelopment. Fall,1993. ■ Wheatley, M. with Frieze, D. (2011) Leadership in the Age of Complexity: From Hero to Host Resurgence Magazine,Winter, 2011."
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Professional Development

How to … embrace complexity and chaos

12 Sep 2016

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      string(345) "... Spaces magazine sees its role as supporting that mission by celebrating and sharing the best projects, worldwide. “It’s an exciting time for us,” commented David Schrader, Chair of the A4LE Board of Directors. “This organisation is moving ahead quickly and is being recognised globally, which is important to us ..."
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      string(5624) "A4LE has around 4,500 members spread across the world, with formal partner organisations in Australasia as well as the UK (here in the UK, the organisation was previously known as UK Learning but has since adopted the A4LE brand, too) all with the same goal – in their words, “building healthy, safe, resilient and sustainable 21st Century learning places that inspire transformation in education, enhance student and teacher performance, and support culture and community vitality”. And as the official A4LE publication in the UK, Learning Spaces magazine sees its role as supporting that mission by celebrating and sharing the best projects, worldwide. “It’s an exciting time for us,” commented David Schrader, Chair of the A4LE Board of Directors. “This organisation is moving ahead quickly and is being recognised globally, which is important to us.”“We make a difference,” explained one of the UK Executive Directors, Terry White, “because we believe that by keeping the learner at the heart of the design process (through effective dialogue, collaborative enquiry, research, professional stakeholder debate) we will create innovatory environments for learning, resulting in improved outcomes for all learners.” A4LE believes that professional collaboration – the sharing of innovation and practice that makes a difference – will promote local, national and international learning-led design solutions. It recognises that it is the quality of the approach to learning and teaching, and the strength and the value placed on the relationships between students, staff and the learning community, that are central to the organisation and sustainability of successful schools.From across its regions,  A4LE brings together teachers, educators, design professionals and researchers who value the importance of improving learning opportunities and life chances for young people. It believes this is the best way to develop effective, sustainable and stimulating educational facilities for the future. The current and future learning needs of young people are at the heart of this approach: each year, A4LE promotes the engagement of young people in debating how to make learning personal for them as well as engaging them in the design of environments that will liberate their learning. Learners have the opportunity to attend regional and national conferences. Last October, the most recent ‘Schools Next’ international design competition was again held at A4LE’s annual International Conference, in Philadelphia, where IPACA (there’ll be a full case study in the next issue) was a finalist. A4LE UK believes:in advocacy on behalf of all learners.that learner and consumer dialogue should drive the design process.that learners and teachers facilitate change for future learning.in inclusive and collaborative planning processes.that facilities have a direct impact on learning.that quality and innovation can be created in the current economic climate.in diversity of professional and global perspectives.that technology is central to enable, motivate and inspire all aspects of future learning.that research and evidence based activity are essential to inform the design of learning spaces.that successful innovation and change is taking place in learning environments and that it needs to be shared.“Our current economic climate demands that we must examine carefully how best to deploy the levels of funding available for the much needed investment in our school facilities,” continued Terry, “so A4LE believes there is a need to promote an informed and engaged debate to celebrate the innovation within the design of learning environments that is currently being achieved. The challenge must be to ensure that the design process gives value over time. The design process needs to ensure that it is the critical vision, pedagogy and organisational culture that a school may wish to create to meet its current and future learning needs, which drives the design-delivery process. The purpose of this approach is to provide world class learning environments where all students thrive”.It is self-evident that greater recognition needs to be given to the extensive research and good practice that has now been developed within the UK and internationally. This demonstrates the importance of translating vision, values and an organisational approach, into learning and teaching outcomes. This background work and understanding is crucial to designing effective learning spaces. Through our features and reports within this magazine, we represent a diverse community of professionals who experience and participate in the organisation, design and delivery of learning spaces. Our aims are entirely consistent.A4LE UK believes that with collaborative enquiry, research and professional stakeholder debate, we will create ‘great schools’.  The challenge now is to ensure that the valuable knowledge and experience which has been built up by a range of professionals in the UK and internationally is disseminated and implemented.  A4LE considers that it must make the importance of good design in removing barriers to learning explicit, thereby enhancing and improving learning outcomes. These principles, as well as those we’ve mentioned before, must stay central to the process of designing new, or remodelling, schools.In developing this approach, A4LE UK and this magazine believe that greater importance needs to be given to active research and dissemination (across the UK and internationally) of effective practice and designs"
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Learning Spaces

New name, same game

14 Mar 2017

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      string(329) "... visual literacy strategies (e.g. walk in woods ‘what character is your favourite’,afterwards competition to find what is left out ofcharacter drawing as we remember)l Reflecting on experience of thoughts and emotions You seem to feel/You usually feel this when … You feel better when … I don’t ..."
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      string(5814) "Reader-response type of activity: prediction, retrospection,implication negotiation, resistance to narrative andsynthesis of own inner meaning into creative re-tellingin dramatic or cartoon characterisationl Narrative generation – borrowing from cartoon narrativesand depicting emotional reactions from stimulus toresolutionl Image manipulation, juxtaposition and reframing– his own emotional experiences turned into cartooncharactersl Visual puns and jokes – details of emotional stories andcontexts with characters’ props etc.l Emotional expression and depiction – facial/bodyexpressions of cartoon characters, and directing an actorinto emotional expressionsl Media pastiche – compiling photo, animation, print, andsound to tell a narrativel Printed language supporting visual narrativel Audio recordings involving musical, vocal and soundeffects and their integration into animated narrative,dubbing for video plays, etc.Conversational languageBetween adult and childl Noticing – natural events on a walkl Enquiring into and analysing visual literacy strategies (e.g. walk in woods ‘what character is your favourite’,afterwards competition to find what is left out ofcharacter drawing as we remember)l Reflecting on experience of thoughts and emotions You seem to feel/You usually feel this when … You feel better when … I don’t blame you; I would feel the same You tend to … You are good at …, I am good at… I feel (grumpy, interested, irritated, angry, I want)l Supervising – as ‘producer’ of the video, directing actorsusing procedural languagel Suggesting ideasl Informing, in passing, about history, biology, scienceetcl Negotiation about rules and boundaries (times, timeout)l Operational (planning, deciding, integrating, timing etc)– collaborating with adults and other childrenThe outcomesSam’s creative enquiries into meanings in his life resultedin the production of multi-media narratives as follows:Synthesis of media forms: Over the year between 2002and 2003, Sam’s use of art forms grew more complex: fromseparate drawings and Beanie drama activities, to thedrawing of cartoons (inspired by children’s films) and thepreparation of ‘storyboards’ for narratives that turned intovideo dramas. The following is a list of integrated visual andauditory forms of narrative, indicating a highly complexinterweaving of cognitive and affective skills.l Cartoons within cartoons with voiceover plus music.l Characters and puppets become cartoon characters.l Cartoon characters become ‘movies’ produced oncomputer.l Voices ‘in the head’ depict character’s thoughts.l Photographs of puppets, dogs, people digitised formoving stories.l Audio play with music and narrator.l Special effects dubbed over edited video clips following‘humiliation’l Choosing themes: Santa and dysfunctional characters.l Working with two or three adult actors, as puppeteerwith puppets he had mostly designed and made himself,telling a story of dysfunctional characters and vermin inthe kitchen meeting their dooml Creating DVDs out of the videoed stories, completewith menu, background music for dramatic effect andbackground imagery over menu.Examples integrating conversation and narratives:Excerpts from my diary show how specific emotions wereillustrated in conversational interaction and narrative. Therewas a special focus on the following emotions (names are ofcharacters Sam has made up):l Grumpy (rage and frustrated interests: real life and BobFilling always in a rage)l Frustration (nearly always ready everyday with an excitingcreative story and everyone else is so slow)l Irritation (between Sam and family and myself)l Argument (head to head confrontation with sister),l Happy but sad underneath’ (as a clown is)l You love me underneath somewhere (Bob Filling when hefalls in love)l Silly (Mad Lottey always makes a fool of herself) ,l Humiliated (judgement and retribution: Mad Lotteyagain). Words not used yetl Hate (all characters at some time).l Fear and insecurity (Bob and Lottey mainly)71Teaching Thinking&Creativity  Winter 2005www.teachthinking.com   creative supportDrawings, story boards, cartoons and collaborativecartoons: These were Sam’s primary activities, taking upthe largest part of his homseschool day. He drew withpen, paper and computer animation programmes. Theseactivities formed a continuum of experience that wasdeeply embedded in, and expressed Sam’s reactions andself identity in an intrepid flow. My conversations about hisdrawings were always authentically curious, praising andencouraging. Out of this positive bonding, the invitation tocollaborate emerged in the early stage of home education.It developed into an exchange of idioms. In collaborativecartoons, my thoughts can transfer, through Sam, to hispersonally-designed cartoon characters. Thus Sam tellsa story of rage and humiliation involving my characterinteracting with one of his characters. Typical moods andendings are thus changed and greater innovation results.The supporter’s roleThis study was about a non-directive approach tolearning that develops enquiry into meaning throughimprovisational and creative arts. It highlighted a distinctivehelping role, where I attempted to stay as a co-enquirer orsupporting questioner rather than a conventional teacher.I drew on Philosophy for Children and emotional literacydevelopment, which include listening and feeding back forlearning and enquiry. However, it was mainly in improvisedstory and character work that Sam could develop his social,emotional and conceptual tools in his own"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Cartoons, Computers and silly walks

1 Jan 2005