Framing learning entanglement in innovative learning spaces: Connecting theory, design and practice

Abstract

Innovative learning spaces have emerged in response to the influx of educational technologies and new social practices associated with twenty‐first‐century learning. Whilst dominant narratives of change often suggest that alterations in the designed environment for learning will result in changed practice, on the ground educators are struggling to align their pedagogical models with new spaces for learning, direct instruction is still common, and technologically deterministic narratives mask a failure to engage with the materiality of learning. This article argues for a non‐deterministic theory of things in educational research and calls for a deeper understanding of the flows of matter, information and human–thing dependence, which will render visible the heterogeneous entanglements characteristic of innovative spaces for learning. It highlights that educational designers (e.g. teachers, space planners, architects, instructional designers) are in pressing need of analytical tools capable of supporting their work in ways that promote correspondence between (a) pedagogy, place and people and (b) theory, design and practice. In response, we introduce an analytical approach to framing learning entanglement that accounts for the artefacts, resources and tools available to learners; the choice of tasks and pedagogical models and the social roles and divisions of labour governing any given learning situation. Finally, we practically demonstrate how this approach aids in identifying correspondence or dissonance across dimensions of design and scale levels, in both the analysis and design of complex environments for learning.