TRANSITIONS 2018 AUSTRALASIA

What are teachers doing (well) when transitioning from traditional classrooms to innovative learningenvironments? An international symposium for graduate and early career researchers.

Friday June 1st, 2018.Forum Theatre, Level 1, Arts West Building, Professors Walk, The University of Melbourne.

Organised by ILETC, Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change.

This research is supported under Australian Research Council’s Linkage Projects funding scheme (project LP150100022). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the

Australian Research Council.

Abstracts were blind peer-reviewed for Transitions 2018.Hosted by the ILETC project.

Design and layout: Lachlan Stewart.Editing: W.Imms, M.Mahat.

AcknowledgementsWe would like to thank Joann Cattlin, Marian Mahat, Roz Mountain, and Lachlan Stewart for their contributions to Transitions.

Cover images: (top to bottom): Australian Science and Mathmatics School, Woods Bagot;Anzac Park Primary School, Government Architect’s Office (NSW); Queen of Apostles School, EIW Architects, Silvertone Photography; Queen of Apostles School, EIW Architects, Silvertone Photography.

Contents

Schedule 4

Keynote presenters & interlocutors 6

Project update: Developing evidence based strategies to support teachers to utilize space as a pedagogic tool 9A/Prof. Wesley Imms and Dr. Marian Mahat

Session one: Collaboration

Open-plan learning environments and teachers’ digital technology use 10Joanne Blannin

How might design enable practitioners transitioning from traditional classrooms to ILEs? 11

Dion Tuckwell and Allison Edwards

Empowering teaching teams: An essential factor in the success of innovative learning environments 12Anne Knock

Session two: Developing spatial competencies

Ellie’s Story: Teacher-becoming with the ILE 13Caroline Morrison

Teaching Space: Developing a conceptual model for teachers’ environmental imagination and spatial competencies 14Vicky Leighton

Teachers transitioning to innovative learning environments through participatory action research 15Vanessa Miller

Session three: Using spaces

Beyond these museum walls: Educators as curators of learning 16Ethel Villafranca

Affect, pedagogy, and space: Lines of promise and threat 17Sarah Healy

Evaluation, teacher practice and the educational space planner 18Ana Sala Oviedo

Session four: Leading change

Change leadership and the transition to innovative learning environments 19Mark Osborne

Academics, emotions and innovation in an ever-evolving change environment. 20Claire Tubman

Shifts in teacher practice through the use of enabling constraints 21Raechel French

Our Partners 22

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8:30 - 9:00 REGISTRATION OPEN AND COFFEE

9:00 CHAIR - DR. MARIAN MAHAT

9:00 - 9:10 WELCOME - DR. JIM WATTERSTONDean, Melbourne Graduate School of Education

9:10 - 9:15 INTRODUCTION - A/PROF. WESLEY IMMSLead Chief Investigator, ILETC project

9:15 - 10:00 KEYNOTE ADDRESS - DR. JULIA ATKINLearning by DesignChallenging transitions: reflections on 30 plus years of learning deeply with educators and architects

10:00 - 11:00 SESSION ONE: COLLABORATION INTERLOCUTOR - CHRIS BRADBEER

Stonefields School

Dr. Joanne BlanninOpen-plan learning environments and teachers’ digital technology use

Dion TuckwellHow might design enable practitioners transitioning from traditional classrooms to ILEs?

Anne KnockEmpowering teaching teams: An essential factor in the success of innovative learning environments

DISCUSSION

11:00 - 11:30 MORNING TEA

11:30 - 12:30 SESSION TWO: DEVELOPING SPATIAL COMPETENCIES INTERLOCUTOR - DR. SCOTT ALTERATOR

La Trobe University

Caroline MorrisonEllie’s Story: Teacher-becoming with the ILE

Vicky LeightonTeaching Space: Developing a conceptual model for teachers’ environmental imagination and spatial competencies

Dr. Vanessa MillerTeachers transitioning to innovative learning environments through participatory action research

DISCUSSION

Schedule

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12:30 - 13:30 LUNCH

13:30 - 14:00 ILETC PROJECT UPDATE A/Prof. Wesley Imms and Dr. Marian MahatThe ILETC project team share their findings to date and plans for the next phase of

research.

14:00 - 15:00 SESSION THREE: USING SPACES INTERLOCUTOR - A/PROF. CLARE NEWTON

University of Melbourne

Ethel VillafrancaBeyond these museum walls: educators as curators of learning

Sarah HealyAffect, Pedagogy, and Space: Lines of promise and threat

Ana Sala OviedoEvaluation, teacher practice and the educational space planner

DISCUSSION

15:00 - 15:30 AFTERNOON TEA

15:30 - 16:30 SESSION FOUR: LEADING CHANGE INTERLOCUTOR - JILL LAUGHLIN

Camberwell High School

Mark OsborneChange leadership and the transition to innovative learning environments

Claire TubmanAcademics, emotions and innovation in an ever-evolving change environment

Raechel FrenchShifts in teacher practice through the use of enabling constraints

DISCUSSION

16:30 - 16:45 REFLECTION AND CLOSING REMARKSA/Prof. Wesley Imms

16:45 - 18:30 NETWORKING DRINKS

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Julia Atkin is an independent education and learning consultant who works across education settings in Australia and internationally. She has a passion for learning and understanding how we learn. Julia’s initial research involved developing an understanding of the thinking processes involved in deep learning and in helping learners learn how to learn. For over 30 years Julia has worked with teachers, school leaders, designers and architects across early childhood to tertiary settings to transform all facets of education from the industrial era to the knowledge era and the learning demands of 21C.

She has been recognised as an Apple Distinguished Educator Award; a fellow of the Australian College of Educators, the Sir Harold Wyndham Medal, one of The Bulletin’s Australia’s Smart 100 and awards for the design of educational facilities in collaboration with Mary Featherston, Hayball and Gray Puksand.

DR. JULIA ATKINLEARNING BY DESIGN

Keynote addressChallenging Transitions: ref lections on 30 plus years of learning deeply with educators and architects

Keynote presentors & interlocutors

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Interlocutors

Chris Bradbeer is an Associate Principal at Stonefields School in Auckland, where he has been involved in establishing and developing a vision for teaching and learning, building teacher capacity and having the opportunity to consider ‘what might be possible’ in a new school setting. He is a Research Fellow (part time) on the ILETC project. Chris’ interest is particularly focused on the opportunities engendered by the provision of new learning spaces. He is currently completing a PhD investigating the nature of collaborative teacher practices in Innovative Learning Environments in New Zealand. Chris is Chair-Elect for Learning Environments Australasia.

Dr Scott Alterator is a lecturer in the School of Education at La Trobe University, Australia. His current research in post occupancy evaluation focuses on meaningful links between education intent and spatial expression. His upcoming book (co-edited with Craig Deed) will focus on the occupancy phase of Innovative Learning Environments.

Session one: CollaborationChris Bradbeer

Session two: Developing Spatial CompetenciesDr. Scott Alterator

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Clare Newton is an Associate Professor in Learning Environments in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. Clare is an Architect and Doctor of Education She was first-named Chief Investigator on two Australian Research Council Linkage Projects funding three PhD students and multi-disciplinary research teams. The first, called Smart Green Schools, looked at the links between pedagogy, sustainability and space. The second, called Future Proofing Schools, considered prefabricated learning environments and incorporated an ideas competition at the heart of the research process. The research led directly to the instigation of PrefabAUS, Australia’s first peak body for prefabrication. Her expertise is in multi-disciplinary research collaborations between academics and industry. She is also currently a Chief Investigator on the ARC Linkage called Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change (ILETC).

Session three: Using spacesA/Prof. Clare Newton

Session four: Leading changeJill Laughlin

Jill Laughlin commenced her teaching career at Horsham High School in 1982. She taught at Springvale Secondary College during the mid to late 1980s and in this time taught many students from Vietnamese refugee backgrounds. Jill realised that she needed skills, knowledge and understanding to respond effectively to the learning needs of these students. She commenced a post graduate qualification in Teaching English to Speakers of other languages in 1990.

She worked at Dandenong High School from 1994 until 2010 and in this time took on many roles including Literacy, year level coordination, Professional Learning and Curriculum Coordination. Jill completed a Masters of Education in ESL while teaching at Dandenong. She led the ESL program at Dandenong High for 6 years, a significant role, in a school where most students use English as a second language and 25% are refugees. From 2006 Jill was an Assistant Principal and member of the school leadership team developing the vision and framework for the new school, merging 3 schools into one

and developing and constructing a new school on the existing Dandenong site.

She is currently Principal of Camberwell High School. She has been in this role since April 2010. Jill’s experience has resulted in a student centred educational vision. Her current work at Camberwell is focused on embedding the learning landscape, which she has developed and led in collaboration with the school community over the past 8 years. The Enterprise Centre, nome base for Year 9 students was opened in 2013. Currently three buildings are being redeveloped as learning spaces and home bases for Years 11, 8 and 7 students.

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A/PROF. WESLEY IMMS AND DR. MARIAN MAHATTHE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNEAUSTRALIA

Project updateDeveloping evidence based strategies to support teachers to utilize space as a pedagogic tool

Project update

Dr Marian Mahat is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. As the Lead Research Fellow and Research Manager of the Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change (ILETC) project, she oversees all research activities and the dissemination of project findings including the management of Research Fellows and graduate researchers. Marian has more than twenty years of professional and academic experience, spanning several universities, Federal and local governments, as well as the private sector. Her research focus is in student learning and outcomes in different learning and teaching contexts.

Dr Wesley Imms is Associate Professor of Education in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Head of Visual Art and Design, and Director of LEaRN@MGSE. He leads the Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change (ILETC) and the Plans to Pedagogy projects– which focus on teacher spatial competency skills in schools across Australia and New Zealand. He also led the recently completed Evaluating 21st century Learning Environments ARC Linkage project. He has authored more than 80 scholarly papers, government and industry research reports and books on learning environments including the forthcoming ‘Teacher Transition into Innovative Learning Environment’ due to be published by Springer in 2018.

The Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change Project (www.iletc.com.

au) is a major research partnership, funded through the Australian Research Council,

between the University of Melbourne and 15 industry partners over four years in

Australia and New Zealand. This project is building evidence about types and use of

learning spaces in primary and secondary schools, and from this, developing strategies

to assist teachers best use of the ‘new designs’ of schools sweeping the globe.

This extra-ordinary project is helping educators better understand the way the learning

environment affects quality of learning and teaching. Project Lead Chief Investigator Associate

Professor Wesley Imms and Research Manager Dr Marian Mahat will summarize the project

and explain results already achieved. This includes findings from a noteworthy range of

sources including systematic reviews, international think tanks and symposia, teacher

workshops, large scale survey, and over 30 case studies, which have been analysed and are

providing a robust evidence based platform to construct a unique Transitions pathway

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Having taught in four countries, Joanne has developed an in-depth understanding of learning and teaching in a range. Her many education roles have included curriculum director in outdoor education, technology tutor, bilingual teacher, curriculum leader, leading teacher, teacher trainer, Department of Education Project Officer, classroom teacher and school leadership coach. Her recently submitted Doctorate of Education focused on the use of technologies in primary education contexts. Joanne’s research at The University of Melbourne includes understanding teachers’ uses of technology and the development of teachers’ pedagogical skills to effectively engage with technology in the classroom.

KEYWORDS: LEARNING SPACES • OPEN-PLAN LEARNING DESIGN • TEACHER LEARNING • PROFESSIONAL LEARNING • DIGITAL PEDAGOGIES • EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES

This paper reports on research conducted over one year in four Victorian government

schools. The study sought to better understand teachers’ choices to use, or not to

use, technologies in their classrooms. This qualitative research took a Constructivist

Grounded Theory approach (Charmaz, 2006) to data generation and analysis,

and engaged nine teacher-participants as co-constructors of data.

Through iterative interviews, focus groups and classroom observations, teachers were seen

to engage in professional learning embedded in their daily professional practice. Teachers

reported and demonstrated that open-plan, shared teaching spaces impacted their learning

with and of technologies. These innovative learning environments were seen to provide

at point-of-need learning. Significantly, teachers positioned themselves as more likely

to take risks and trial new digital pedagogies within shared teaching spaces, where their

colleagues could share both successes and failures. This research has implications for leaders

seeking to engage effectively with digital technologies in innovative learning spaces.

JOANNE BLANNINUNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNEAUSTRALIA

Open-plan learning environments and teachers’ digital technology use

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Dion’s research interests derive from a transdisciplinary reappraisal of design practice. His research aims to study the role and agency of design as it veers with the kinds of complex systemic problems faced by society. This interest stems from a recognition that traditional disciplinary boundaries are dissolving and that design is expertly placed to aid with the facilitation of generative conversations by diverse arrays of stakeholders, re-positioning the expertise of the designer. He is currently a lecturer in the Department of Design, and a full time PhD Student, at Monash University. His PhD forms part of the ILETC research project.

KEYWORDS: COLLABORATION • PRACTICE • TEACHERS

Design Thinking has become catch-all language for creative, collaborative workshops that

address ‘wicked problems’ - the kind of problems that linear, determinate thinking processes are

less capable of resolving. But to what extent is Design Thinking an effective strategy? How does

it interact with other research strategies and methods? This paper searches for a more stable

definition of Design Thinking and its potential for teachers looking to disrupt their practice

through designing. Evidenced through work on the ILETC project, an examination of Design

Thinking workshops looks at how designing can ‘nudge’ practice toward more collaborative efforts

in realising the potential of Innovative Learning Environments, and how this augmentation of

practice has assisted in scaffolding complex research pathways through the ILETC research.

DION TUCKWELL AND ALLISON EDWARDSMONASH UNIVERSITYAUSTRALIA

How might design enable practitioners transitioning from traditional classrooms to ILEs?

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KEYWORDS: INNOVATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS • TEACHING TEAMS • TEAM TEACHING • TEAM DEVELOPMENT • COLLECTIVE TEACHER EFFICACY • SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

Anne Knock is a PhD candidate in the ILETC project at the University of Melbourne. Anne’s research within the project focuses on adapting teacher mindframes and pedagogy in order to take advantage of the affordances of innovative learning environments for student deep learning. Her career in education commenced as a primary school teacher in Sydney, teaching for 17 years in several schools.

Since leaving face-to-face teaching, Anne has held several roles in education and administration. Since 2010 she has worked as an educational consultant, facilitating workshops, writing and speaking on the future of learning and learning environments.

The innovative learning environment (ILE) is characterised by shared multi-modal

spaces, absence of walls, ubiquitous technology, and adaptable furniture. Student deep

learning in an ILE is supported by innovative teacher practice. The ILE challenges the

egg-crate model of school design, which is evident in separation of classes, teachers

and subjects; and is enabled when these elements are mutually shared.

The enduring effectiveness of the ILE for student deep learning is considered reliant on the

capacity of teachers to work as a team, potentially challenging long-held beliefs of teaching

as a solo profession. This multiple case study presents a number of implications for the

successful development of teaching-teams in ILEs. These include adapting pedagogical

approaches and enabling supporting systems in the shared space, the significance of collective

teacher efficacy, stages of team development, and leadership effects, both the teaching

team leader, as well as the leadership that the principal models to the community.

Empowering teaching teams: An essential factor in the success of innovative learning environments

ANNE KNOCKUNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNEAUSTRALIA

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KEYWORDS: AFFECT • ASSEMBLAGE • BECOMING • PEDAGOGIES • PRACTICES • RELATIONAL MATERIALITY

Currently a PhD Candidate at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Caroline Morrison trained as a primary teacher, teaching in Catholic schools in Melbourne for seventeen years before spending ten years in leadership positions. Her experience as a principal leading a school through an extraordinarily speedy design and renovation project funded by the BER policy (2008-2012) produced many questions about policy, practices and spaces. These experiences, these affective encounters, led to a PhD research degree looking at leader, teacher and learner practices assembling New Generation Learning Environments (NGLEs) in four Catholic schools in Melbourne.

This paper tells a pedagogic story as Year 1/2 teacher, Ellie, gathers a group of children for a reading

clinic in a large, open learning environment. Drawing on empirically researched data and deploying

concepts of assemblage and becoming, Ellie’s teacher-becoming is traced through her pedagogic

practices. Ellie’s story challenges conventional understandings of space as the physical surroundings

for learning, and of teachers as individual, human agents who use or resist the affordances of

space. Instead, the relational materialist ontology advanced here understands spaces and teachers

and other entities as processual, continuously emerging in relational practices, through which

affects f low, linking bodies (human and nonhuman) with the materiality of life. Ellie’s teacher-

becoming story shows that pedagogies understood as relational material practices cannot be fully

contained within a set of standards; rather, teachers, pedagogies and spaces are co-constituted in

practices, produced differently in each affective encounter, even as boundaries work to limit them.

CAROLINE MORRISONUNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNEAUSTRALIA

Ellie’s Story: Teacher-becoming with the ILE

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Vicky gained a first-class honours degree in Art History and Visual Art from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. She was subsequently awarded a scholarship to complete her Master’s degree in Art Theory and Fine Art, and continued to a custodial career in the heritage industry in the UK. Vicky completed a postgraduate certificate in education at Oxford Brookes University in 2008. She is currently the Head of Art at the ILETC partnership school, Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane, vice-chair for The Churchie National Emerging Art Prize in Australia and PhD student at the University of Melbourne. Vicky’s career has led to her current research which proposes to understand the interaction between a teacher’s spatial perception, imagination and cognition in order to evaluate the spatial knowledge and skills they need to successfully operate within traditional or innovative learning environments to positively impact student learning outcomes.

KEYWORDS: SPATIAL COMPETENCY • INNOVATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS • ENVIRONMENTAL IMAGINATION

The intended contribution of this paper lies in examining concepts and theories relevant to the

investigation of teacher spatial interactions within learning environments to arrive at a workable

conceptual framework for researching teacher spatial competency. Building on recent studies

that question how learning spaces can influence teacher behaviour, spatial concepts as well as

architectural and educational theories are examined to explore the dynamic and mutually dependent

relationship between teachers and learning spaces. A new concept of teacher ‘environmental

imagination’ is devised that incorporates a trinitarian interaction between a teacher’s spatial

perception, imagination and knowledge. This approach pursues a non-linear understanding and

analysis of space and teacher practice blending epistemological and ontological perspectives,

resulting in the development and proposal of a conceptual framework for the research.

VICKY LEIGHTONUNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNEAUSTRALIA

Teaching Space: Developing a conceptual model for teachers’ environmental imagination and spatial competencies

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KEYWORDS: PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH • PARTICIPATORY DESIGNING PROCESS • MOSAIC FRAMEWORK • LEARNING SPACE DESIGN, QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Vanessa Miller has worked in the education sector for 25 years spanning preschool to tertiary settings (Queensland and New South Wales). She has a particular interest in exploring how the principles of Reggio Emilia may be contextualised within Australian primary and secondary school settings, and is a member of the national Reggio Emilia Australia Information Exchange committee. In pursuit of her interest, Vanessa commenced an Education Doctorate (QUT) in 2014 investigating how an innovative participatory designing process may support school leaders and teachers who seek to align contemporary pedagogy with spatial intent. Vanessa graduated in 2017 and has been nominated for an outstanding thesis award.

The iterative process of participatory action research (PAR) enables teachers’ transition as

vernacular designers and future-focused educators to innovative learning environments.

Teachers as end-users of learning environments are well positioned to participate in designing

them, yet little is known about their experiences of the PAR process. This paper reports on a

component of a qualitative research project carried out with three teachers at an Australian P-12

Independent school who engaged in a series of action research cycles with their students to re-

imagine and plan for changes in pedagogy and learning space design. In particular, the paper

discusses the opportunities and challenges of teachers in transformative learning environment

design. It is of potential interest to school leaders, teachers, students, and architects, as key

stakeholders who seek to design innovative, student-centred learning environments.

VANESSA MILLERQUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGYAUSTRALIA

Teachers transitioning to innovative learning environments through participatory action research

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KEYWORDS: CURATED LEARNING • PEDAGOGY • SPACE • DEEP LEARNING

Ethel Villafranca is a PhD candidate at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, the University of Melbourne. Currently a recipient of the Melbourne International Research Scholarship, her research interests include museum education, visitor studies and evaluation, and pedagogy and space for schools.

She completed her master’s in Museology, on a Fulbright Scholarship, at the University of Florida and her bachelor’s in Philippine Arts (major arts management), at the University of the Philippines. Ethel has been involved in various aspects of museum/cultural work in the Philippines and the USA since 1998.

Museums curate the learning environment to facilitate student learning. Curated learning

is a pedagogical approach that involves purposeful selection, manipulation, and use of

objects and spaces within a learning environment to set up conditions for students’ deep

learning. In this research, two case studies were conducted to draw out strategies for curated

learning. This paper discusses results from one case study focused on how non-school-based

educators conduct programs in schools. It reveals what and how they use spaces and objects

within a learning environment that is not permanently assigned to them. Curated learning

strategies that maximise use of the learning environment can support development of school

teacher practice during their transition into innovative learning environments (ILEs).

ETHEL VILLAFRANCAUNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNEAUSTRALIA

Beyond these museum walls: Educators as curators of learning

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Sarah has a background in the creative industries and art education. She is now in the final stages of her PhD at the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education. Her research is grounded in an interest in poststructural theories related to new materialities with a particular focus on practice.

KEYWORDS: AFFECT • PRACTICE • SPACE • RELATIONS • PEDAGOGY

Affect is ubiquitous in everyday life. However, there are particular spaces that are affectively

charged. These affect-laden sites produce fertile grounds for research concerned with the role

of affective relations in the assembling of pedagogic spaces. This paper presents findings from

PhD research investigating affect and affective practice in three different affect-laden pedagogic

spaces - an outdoor sculpture exhibition, a human pathology museum and a combat sports club.

Data show the affective practices that stick out as pedagogically significant cannot be distilled

into any pre-given set of ‘best teaching practices’ nor tied to preferred types of learning spaces.

Instead pedagogic spaces assemble in more-than-human practices that activate entangled lines of

promise and threat, hope and fear, pleasure and risk, seduction and coercion. These can produce

generative (un)knowing spaces in which pedagogic relations variously stabilise, crack, and rupture.

SARAH HEALYUNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNEAUSTRALIA

Affect, pedagogy, and space: Lines of promise and threat

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Ana is an architect, academic and Director of educational planning consultancy, New Learning Environments. Ana’s principal role is to act as the interface between designers, educators, students, members of the wider community and other key stakeholders to co-create learning environments, that support new and emerging teaching, learning and research paradigms.

She is currently undertaking a PhD as part of the ARC Linkage Project ‘Evaluating 21st Century Learning Environments’ at the University of Melbourne. Her focus is on the role that the educational space planner has within the design process, in particular their use of continuous evaluation and evidence-informed research.

KEYWORDS: EVALUATION • TEACHER PRACTICE • EDUCATIONAL SPACE PLANNER • INNOVATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS • LEARNING SPACE DESIGN

This paper explores the role that educational space planners (ESPs) have within the processes

of designing and occupying innovative learning environments (ILEs), with a particular focus

on their use of evaluation to support teachers’ transitions into new learning spaces.

A case study of three ILEs provides the platform for discussion. Three different professionals - a

teacher, an architect and an ESP - each evaluated one of the ILEs using the same methods.

Preliminary findings highlight a series of issues or themes that can be

organised into three broad categories: socio-spatial considerations, socio-

cultural considerations and socio-temporal considerations.

The study seeks to better understand the potential for ESP’s to use evaluative practices

as part of their engagement in planning new educational facilities and having a

positive influence on the subsequent inhabitation of these spaces over time.

ANA SALA OVIEDOUNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNEAUSTRALIA

Evaluation, teacher practice and the educational space planner

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KEYWORDS: CHANGE LEADERSHIP • IMPLEMENTATION • INNOVATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Mark is the director of an educational consultancy in New Zealand, and has been a teacher, school leader and consultant for more than 20 years. He works nationally and internationally in future-focused education, innovative learning environments and educational leadership. As a practitioner researcher, Mark is in a unique position to research the process of implementing an Innovative Learning Environment from the perspective of those undertaking it. Being a member of a community of school leaders implementing significant change means he can employ qualitative, subjective methods in order to capture and analyse the experiences of this community, employing auto-ethnicity to do so.

While considerable effort goes into getting the design elements right in an innovative learning

environment, ultimately its success hinges on the teaching staff ’s ability to use the new spaces

to full potential. Despite this, what school leaders can do to support teachers to transition

their practice when moving into an ILE remains under-researched. This paper will explore a

theoretical framework to guide school leaders through the key stages of an ILE implementation:

• preparing for change- increasing readiness for change, building

energy for change and adaptive capacity,

• implementing change- making first steps, supporting shifts in

personal and group identity and working with resistance,

• sustaining change- embedding new practices into organisational culture

and ensuring that reinforcement systems and self-review ensure that

these new practices are ‘the way we do things around here’.

Without school leaders having a clear understanding of how to support shifts

in teacher practice, many ILE implementations may be unsuccessful.

MARK OSBORNEUNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNEAUSTRALIA

Change leadership and the transition to innovative learning environments

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Having worked in the corporate, vocational and higher education sectors for 14 years in a number of capacities including sales, marketing and project management Claire Tubman is now a PhD Candidate at the University of Tasmania. Claire has studied in areas including business, marketing, adult education, research and project management. Claire is interested in educational attainment for low socio-economic status students in regional locations and the development of product, place and experiential learning strategies that allow students greater success. In 2015, Claire received the Nick Cretan Scholarship in Marketing at the University of Tasmania and is currently working as a project manager specialising in learning technology.

KEYWORDS: CHANGE MANAGEMENT • RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT • HIGHER EDUCATION • INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Is change in higher education achieved by force of by an empathetic approach to managing human

transitions? This research discusses two theories, the Kubler Ross Five Stages of Grief Model and

Kotter’s Theory in Change Management in the case study analysis of the implementation of personal

learning space technology at the University of Tasmania.

This research applies to all organisations where change is likely, and has specific implications for

those implementing changes within learning and teaching environments with both professional and

academic networks.

The aim of the research is to determine if traditional change management models are sufficient in

the sustained implementation and adoptions of new technologies in the higher education sector,

or whether there is a need for the acknowledgment of other, more human, transition factors.

This research intends to contribute to change management theory and, in practice, contribute to

successful learning and teaching technology implementation projects in the education sector.

CLAIRE TUBMANUNIVERSITY OF TASMANIAAUSTRALIA

Academics, emotions and innovation in an ever-evolving change environment.

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Raechel studied both architecture and psychology at Texas A&M University and later earned a Masters in Human-Environment Relations from Cornell. She spent 2017 as a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar working on the Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change research project through the University of Melbourne. There she completed case studies on the transition schools are taking from traditional facilities to innovative learning environments. Raechel is extending this research to the United States context as she pursues a PhD through the University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education. She also works as a K12 Education Planner with DLR Group in Austin, TX.

KEYWORDS: DESIGN • CHANGE • TEACHER TRANSITIONS • FURNITURE • ORGANISATION

RAECHEL FRENCHUNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNEAUSTRALIA

Dubbed “enabling constraints”, this research examines how space, furniture, and time, or the

lack thereof, can nudge educators to shift their practice and see higher levels of deep learning

for students. While evidence is building regarding the positive correlation of innovative learning

spaces with innovative teaching practices, this research takes a critical view of the nuances of

such designs and associated organisational and leadership practices. Case study data from schools

transitioning teachers from traditional to innovative learning environments showed the purposeful

absence of common artifacts of schooling - no teacher desks, no classroom ownership, the lack of

traditional timetables, etc. While initially signaling unfamiliarity and constraint for teachers new

to these spaces, these design and organisational choices were perceived as eventual enablers of

innovative practice. This presentation explores these ‘enabling constraints’ through the literature and

proposes a framework through which to investigate further and inform strategies to shift practice.

Shifts in teacher practice through the use of enabling constraints

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Our Partners

EDUCATION

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Notes