Teaching and learning in new spaces: the pedagogy-suited learning space approach

Technological developments alongside global crises have affected education systems worldwide, including Israel, with a growing need to develop teaching methods and tools adapted to the current generation. Traditional teaching, which was primarily the transfer of knowledge through rote learning, evolved into teaching that is primarily creativity and entrepreneurship based on methods to develop skills of reasoning, discourse and self-expression, and creativity, responsibility and engagement. Concurrently, technological and industrial developments, together with aging buildings, have led to the renovation and new construction of classrooms and learning spaces. Despite the numerous innovations in teaching, teachers seem to be using traditional teaching methods even in these new spaces, or are using new methods in traditional classrooms, retaining the teacher-centric approaches of the past. This situation highlights the need to examine teachers’ teaching methods, role perceptions, practice, teacher training to use the new methods and whether their teaching methods are suitable for the physical spaces in which they teach. The current study examines physical spaces and the teaching that takes place in them. Its goal is to describe learning spaces that are not traditional classrooms and reviews the teaching methods in these spaces, in order to spark contemplation about teaching effectiveness in new learning spaces, and to shed light on the need to adapt pedagogical methods to the physical space in which these methods are applied, and to adjust existing learning spaces to pedagogical, social and emotional goals, in order to shape the future design of learning spaces. Such adjustments must also match school needs and align with the training programs that prepare teachers for working in such spaces. The study, employing a field-based qualitative approach, describes six types of indoor and outdoor physical learning spaces and includes observations in 12 lessons in grades 3–6 in elementary schools in Israel in the south, north and center of Israel. The learning spaces were documented visually and teaching methods and pupils’ activities were recorded in writing. The findings of the study potentially have practical implications for the work of teachers, principals, policymakers and the work of architects and designers involved in the design of learning spaces. The insights arising from this study potentially contribute to the design process of new learning spaces or reorganization of existing learning spaces to ensure that the needs of the school, the teachers and the pupils are accurately addressed in a manner that serves pedagogy and supports a pupil-centric approach in each lesson, and help teachers improve their teaching practice and customize it to pupils’ needs. The study also stresses the need to rethink teachers’ professional training programs, and their training in pedagogy-suited teaching. The findings presented in this article contributed to the development of the pedagogy-suited learning spaces model. While the full model was developed based on a broader mixed-methods study, this article focuses solely on the qualitative findings—observations and interviews—that supported the model’s conceptualization.