Coming out of the closet: From single-cell classrooms to innovative learning environments

Abstract

The New Zealand Ministry of Education encourages schools to update to flexible learning spaces and activate teaching approaches that augment such physical settings. Many schools have embraced the concept of innovative learning environments (ILE) and team teaching, motivating a trend fast gaining popularity in New Zealand primary schools. However, apart from positive self-reporting documentaries from enthusiastic schools, there is a dearth of New Zealand-based information available to assist prospective schools to consider the complexities of adopting this trend. As they venture ‘out of the single-classroom closet’ into a collaborative ‘community of learners’, the staff of one primary school in the Bay of Plenty has been researching their own ILE practices and processes through inquiry, regular appraisal and self-review monitoring. While the school’s experience is contextual and unique to its own specific situation and community, it provides a representation of some affordances and constraints that other schools might contemplate when they similarly venture into ILEs.