Abstract
This paper is based on my own experiences of classroom psychogeography, as experienced through working with a group of around 50 Masters students at Central Saint Martins over a period of more than ten years. Much has been written and published about the design of learning spaces, as well as the dynamics of group work, but relatively littlehas been published about the psychogeography of learning, especially at the higher education level. Space is never neutral. It separates or it includes. It can be used to reinforce or challenge power-based relationships. Students express their feelings about learning by their mode of occupation of learning spaces, but these choices can also influence peer dynamics and students' subsequent levels of engagement.I began my research as a passive observer, by noticing how certain student interactions tended to take place in certain parts of a classroom, irrespective of the individuals involved. I subsequently devised various interventions in classroom psychogeography, designed to facilitate the most effective mixing of students in group work. The outcomes of these interventions were recorded through questionnaires given to my students after participating in various classroom interventions, as well as through granular evidence, assembled through both formal and informal interviews. My conclusions reflect on my attempts to intervene in the spatial dynamics of learning, in order to facilitate a more inclusive psychogeography.
Highlights
Group learning within a multidisciplinary MA course Since 2001, I have been working once a week with a cohort of 50-plus postgraduate students on a multi-disciplinary Masters, which attracts a very diverse and international student cohort
The course makes widespread use of group and peer learning methods, processes which can challenge the preconceptions students may have about what constitutes learning. Facilitating such group learning over a number of years has led me to consider ways in which the occupation of space – either by the entire cohort when working as individuals, or by teams undertaking group work – impacts on the quality of the student experience, and on student learning
Even when the entire cohort moved to a different teaching space, the same overall pattern or classroom psychogeography tended to reappear
Summary
Group learning within a multidisciplinary MA course Since 2001, I have been working once a week with a cohort of 50-plus postgraduate students on a multi-disciplinary Masters, which attracts a very diverse and international student cohort. Less has been published about the processes of peer group formation, and the relationship between the groups themselves and the physical environment of the learning space This area of research asks: are characteristic attitudes and approaches to learning influenced by, as well as expressed by, the seating positions that students elect to occupy? Groups which are permitted to form in this way are likely to have measurable differences, with regard to the front to the back of the room, in aspects of student engagement (‘Not Neighboring’ and ‘Seclusion’) which, in turn may have a significant impact on a learning group’s ability to function Both Wulf (1976) and Holliman and Anderson (1986) had previously demonstrated that there is a measurable correlation between student seating preference and student grades:. The dynamics of classroom seating can be modified in relatively simple ways that are capable of having a significant impact on student learning and – presumably – the overall quality of the student experience
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