Learning Space Design and Classroom Behavior

This report describes a study of the impact of learning space design on student and instructor behavior. We investigated learning space features that enable guided inquiry instruction in two different classrooms, a typical node classroom, and a spoke classroom, the Steelcase Learn Lab. Students report that group cohesiveness, engagement, task orientation, and cooperation are encouraged in both classrooms. Both classrooms are not equally satisfactory for the same types of activity, however. The Spoke classroom best supports and is clearly preferred for group activities such as case studies, discussions, and debates. The seating offers excellent sight lines, enabling everyone in the room to easily interact with everyone else as well as see visual presentations. The seating arrangement in the Node classroom fragments the class into small study/research groups, making it an ideal environment to apply various well-known small-group active learning methods such as “Physics by Inquiry” and “Process-Oriented Guided-Inquiry Learning”.