Abstract
Teaching practices respond to the prompts, resources and inherent potential of a school’s physical, social and cultural landscape. This study involved how teachers adapt their practice in response to contemporary flexible learning environments. An Australian case study focused on how teachers framed and enacted changes in practice by perceiving action possibilities of the flexible environment and (re)configuring the classroom environment over time through their professional agency. An enactment model of teacher adaptation is proposed, based on the case study and the relevant literature. The model suggests that the phases in the adaptation process are awareness, experimentation and coherence.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aldrich, H. E., & Pfeffer, J. (1976). Environments of organizations. Annual Review of Sociology,2, 79–105.
Alterator, S., Deed, C., & Prain, V. (2018). Encapsulating teacher expertise in action. Teachers and Teaching,24(4), 450–460.
Altmann, J. (1974). Observational study of behavior: Sampling methods. Behaviour,49(3), 227–266.
Biesta, G., Priestley, M., & Robinson, S. (2015). The role of beliefs in teacher agency. Teachers and Teaching,21(6), 624–640.
Boudett, K. P., Murnane, R. J., City, E., & Moody, L. (2005). Teaching educators how to use student assessment data to improve instruction. Phi Delta Kappan,86(9), 700–706.
Boys, J. (2010). Towards creative learning spaces: Re-thinking the architecture of post-compulsory education. Abingdon: Routledge.
Bronkhorst, L., Meijer, P., Koster, B., & Vermunt, J. (2011). Fostering meaning-oriented learning and deliberate practice in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education,27, 1120–1130.
Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher,18(1), 32–42.
Caballero, R. (2014). Thinking, drawing and writing architecture through metaphor. Ibérica,28, 155–180.
Carlgren, I., & Lindblad, S. (1991). On teachers’ practical reasoning and professional knowledge: Considering conceptions of context in teachers’ thinking. Teaching and Teacher Education,7(5–6), 507–516.
Charteris, J., & Smardon, D. (2018). A typology of agency in new generation learning environments: Emerging relational, ecological and new material considerations. Pedagogy, Culture & Society,26(1), 51–68.
Cheng, M. M. H., Tang, S. Y. F., & Cheng, A. Y. N. (2012). Practicalising theoretical knowledge in student teachers’ professional learning in initial teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education,28, 781–790.
Choi, J.-I., & Hannafin, M. (1995). Situated cognition and learning environments: Roles, structures, and implications for design. Educational Technology Research and Development,43(2), 53–69.
Clandinin, D. J. (1985). Personal practical knowledge: A study of teachers’ classroom images. Curriculum Inquiry,15(4), 361–385.
Clarke, D., & Hollingsworth, H. (2002). Elaborating a model of teacher professional growth. Teaching and Teacher Education,18(8), 947–967.
Cleveland, B. (2016). Addressing the spatial to catalyse socio-pedagogical reform in middle years education. In K. Fisher (Ed.), The translational design of schools (pp. 27–49). Rotterdam: Springer.
Cleveland, B., & Fisher, K. (2014). The evaluation of physical learning environments: A critical review of the literature. Learning Environments Research,17(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-013-9149-3.
Coburn, C. E., & Turner, E. O. (2011). Research on data use: A framework and analysis. Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research & Perspective,9(4), 173–206.
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (1999). Relationships of knowledge and practice: Teacher learning in communities. Review of Research in Education,24, 249–305.
Connelly, F. M., Clandinin, D. J., & He, M. F. (1997). Teachers’ personal practical knowledge on the professional knowledge landscape. Teaching and Teacher Education,13(7), 665–674.
Cox, P., & Edwards, D. (2014). Restructuring teaching and learning in open-plan schools. In V. Prain, P. Cox, C. Deed, D. Edwards, C. Farrelly, M. Keeffe, et al. (Eds.), Adapting to teaching and learning in open-plan schools (pp. 61–78). Rotterdam: Springer.
Craig, C. (2018). The contexts of teaching: More to know and more to know about. Teachers and Teaching,24(4), 329–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2018.1433285.
Dane, J. (2016). The effective teaching and learning spatial framework. In W. Imms, B. Cleveland, & K. Fisher (Eds.), Evaluating learning environments: Snapshots of emerging issues, methods and knowledge (pp. 211–228). Rotterdam: Sense.
Daniels, H., Tse, H. M., Stables, A., & Cox, S. (2017). Design as a social practice: The design of new build schools. Oxford Review of Education,43(6), 767–787. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2017.1360176.
Deed, C. (2015). A model of teacher adaptation to open-plan settings. In V. Prain, P. Cox, C. Deed, D. Edwards, C. Farrelly, M. Keeffe, et al. (Eds.), Personalised learning in open-plan schools (pp. 27–42). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Dewey, J. (1938/2008). Logic: The theory of inquiry. The later works of John Dewey (Vol. 12). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1938).
Donhost, M. J., & Anfara, V. A., Jr. (2010). Data-driven decision making. Middle School Journal,42(2), 56–63.
Edwards, A. (2005). Relational agency: Learning to be a resourceful practitioner. International Journal of Educational Research,43, 168–182.
Edwards, A. (2015). Recognising and realising teachers’ professional agency. Teachers and Teaching,21(6), 779–784. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2015.1044333.
Elbaz, F. (1991). Research on teacher’s knowledge: The evolution of a discourse. Journal of Curriculum Studies,23(1), 1–19.
Emirbayer, M., & Mische, A. (1998). What is agency? The American Journal of Sociology,103, 962–1023.
Eraut, M. (2004). Informal learning in the workplace. Studies in Continuing Education,26(2), 247–273.
Flores, M. A., & Day, C. (2006). Contexts which shape and reshape new teachers’ identities: A multi-perspective study. Teaching and Teacher Education,22(2), 219–232.
Gholami, K., & Husu, J. (2010). How do teachers reason about their practice? Representing the epistemic nature of teachers’ practical knowledge. Teaching and Teacher Education,26(8), 1520–1529.
Greeno, J. (2009). A framework bite on contextualizing, framing, and positioning: A companion to Son and Goldstone. Cognition and Instruction,27(3), 269–275.
Grimm, V., Revilla, E., Berger, U., Jeltsch, F., Mooij, W. M., Railsback, S. F., et al. (2005). Pattern-oriented modeling of agent-based complex systems: Lessons from ecology. Science,310(5750), 987–991.
Gulson, K. N., & Symes, C. (2007). Knowing one’s place: Space, theory, education. Critical Studies in Education,48(1), 97–110.
Holling, C. S. (2001). Understanding the complexity of economic, ecological, and social systems. Ecosystems,4(5), 390–405.
Kelly, P. (2006). What is teacher learning? A socio-cultural perspective. Oxford Review of Education,32(4), 505–519.
Korthagen, F. A. (2010). Situated learning theory and the pedagogy of teacher education: Towards an integrative view of teacher behavior and teacher learning. Teaching and Teacher Education,26(1), 98–106.
Leiringer, R., & Cardellino, P. (2011). Schools for the twenty-first century: School design and educational transformation. British Educational Research Journal,37(6), 915–934.
Levin, S., Xepapadeas, T., Crépin, A.-S., Norberg, J., De Zeeuw, A., Folke, C., et al. (2013). Social-ecological systems as complex adaptive systems: Modeling and policy implications. Environment and Development Economics,18(02), 111–132. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X12000460.
Lin, X., & Schwartz, D. L. (2005). Towards teachers’ adaptive metacognition. Educational Psychologist,40(4), 245–255.
Lindblom-Ylänne, S., Trigwell, K., Nevgi, A., & Ashwin, P. (2006). How approaches to teaching are affected by discipline and teaching context. Studies in Higher Education,31(3), 285–298. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070600680539.
Lovejoy, V., Mow, L., Edwards, D., Waldrip, B., & Prain, V. (2014). Adapting to teaching in open-plan up-scaled learning communities. In V. Prain, P. Cox, C. Deed, D. Edwards, C. Farrelly, M. Keeffe, et al. (Eds.), Adapting to teaching and learning in open-plan schools (pp. 107–123). Rotterdam: Springer.
Lunenberg, M., & Korthagen, F. A. (2009). Experience, theory, and practical wisdom in teaching and teacher education. Teachers and Teaching,15(2), 225–240.
McNeil, J., & Borg, M. (2018). Learning spaces and pedagogy: Towards the development of a shared understanding. Innovations in Education and Teaching International,55(2), 228–238.
Mehta, J. (2013). From bureaucracy to profession: Remaking the educational sector for the twenty-first century. Harvard Educational Review,83(3), 463–488.
Mulcahy, D., Cleveland, B., & Aberton, H. (2015). Learning spaces and pedagogic change: Envisioned, enacted and experienced. Pedagogy, Culture & Society,23(4), 575–595.
Oblinger, D. G. (2006). Space as a change agent. Learning spaces,1, 1–2.
Paechter, C. (2004). Metaphors of space in educational theory and practice. Pedagogy, Culture and Society,12(3), 449–466.
Prain, V., Cox, P., Deed, C., Edwards, D., Farrelly, C., Keeffe, M., et al. (2015). Personalising learning in open-plan schools. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Priestley, M., Edwards, R., Priestley, A., & Miller, K. (2012). Teacher agency in curriculum making: Agents of change and spaces for manoeuvre. Curriculum Inquiry,42(2), 191–214.
Putnam, R. T., & Borko, H. (2000). What do new views of knowledge and thinking have to say about research on teacher learning? Educational Researcher,29, 4–15.
Saltmarsh, S., Chapman, A., Campbell, M., & Drew, C. (2015). Putting “structure within the space”: Spatially un/responsive pedagogic practices in open-plan learning environments. Educational Review,67(3), 315–327.
Sfard, A. (1998). On two metaphors for learning and the dangers of choosing just one. Educational Researcher,27(2), 4–13.
Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review,57(1), 1–23.
Toom, A., Pyhältö, K., & Rust, F. O. C. (2015). Teachers’ professional agency in contradictory times. Teachers and Teaching,21(6), 615–623. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2015.1044334.
Van der Heijden, H., Geldens, J., Beijaard, D., & Popeijus, H. (2015). Characteristics of teachers as change agents. Teachers and Teaching,21(6), 681–699.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1980). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Woolner, P., Thomas, U., & Tiplady, L. (2018). Structural change from physical foundations: The role of the environment in enacting school change. Journal of Educational Change,19(2), 223–242.
Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (4th ed., Vol. 5)., Applied social research methods series Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by an Australian Research Council project entitled Improving Regional Low SES Students’ Learning and Wellbeing.
Funding
Funding was provided by Australian Research Council (Grant No. LP150100558).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Deed, C., Blake, D., Henriksen, J. et al. Teacher adaptation to flexible learning environments. Learning Environ Res 23, 153–165 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-019-09302-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-019-09302-0