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Publication
Education

Preparing students for the future: multidisciplinary perspectives on pedagogical activities and their spatial embeddedness

Author
Katri Sarkio, Tiina Korhonen, Kai Hakkarainen
Publisher
Education Inquiry
Year of Publication
2023
Abstract

To implement educational transformations that prepare young peo-ple for the future society, it is valuable to deepen scientific under-standing of socio-cultural, psychic, and physical aspects of learning environments. Towards that end, in this case study we examined educators’ and construction specialists’ perceptions of pedagogical activities and how design of physical learning environments intends to reciprocally support those activities in the context of constructing a new school building during the national renewal of general upper secondary schools in Finland. The study relied on multidisciplinary interviews (n = 22), observations and outcomes of participatory work-shops, teachers’ free-form notes on benchmarking visits to recently occupied learning environments, and the operational requirements and goals that architects had prepared for the new building. Our analysis resulted in a framework comprising spatio-pedagogically interrelated themes of collaboration and community building, teach-ing and learning transversal competencies, supporting students’ wellbeing and inclusion, and digital instruments and technologies in support of teaching and learning. The results appear to indicate that pedagogical activities and their spatial embeddedness would have interrelations when constructing new learning environments that aim at collaborative knowledge creation, creative problem- solving, and teaching practices that build on the learners’ knowledge and active roles in learning.

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