Collaborative Learning Spaces in Schools – Merely being ‘Cool’?

Collaborative workspaces are fast becoming the norm across corporates and are slowly being imbibed within sectors like education and government across developed nations. The corner office privilege is gradually becoming obscure as companies realise the importance of designing spaces which allow more room for socializing, exchanging of free ideas in an environment more infused with trust and transparency. It’s about the empowering feeling that all are working together for a common purpose. 

Recently, an Australian school, as a first, unveiled a collaborative working space for Teachers which has led to a happier staff and a more conducive and collaborative environment (Refer - http://www.educatoronline.com.au/news/a-collaborative-working-space---for-teachers-201572.aspx). A lot of research has already been undertaken with striking observations on how such human-centred designed spaces have successfully bridged achievement gaps across systems globally. Hence, even as some of these visionary schools have borne unwarranted criticism on attempting to appear ‘cool’, fact remains that such spaces are the need of the hour given that we are grooming the next generation of entrepreneurs, thinkers, artists who need to work amongst each other to understand and deliver together new-age solutions and models.

  

The idea undoubtedly requires a paradigm shift in thinking – Instead of Teaching or Creating being a ‘Learnt’ skill, it needs to be brought about collaboratively. The essence should shift to Team Work and Creativity. And this needs to be ingrained since kindergarten! We have seen much of these benefits on holistic learning at our preschool, which if extended to other similar schools will benefit students to grow into collaborators. There are NO assigned traditional ‘classrooms’ for each division or grade which is in-line with the Kangaroo Kids Education vision of imparting holistic education, keeping in mind different learning styles - Auditory; Visual, Kinesthetic. 

Education is imparted through four ‘Developmental zones’ (Physical, Social Emotional, Cognitive & Language Development and Cooperative Zones) that cater to developmentally appropriate activities based on Brain development of Children. Physical activity Zone affects learning and movement which stimulates connections in the brain. Social/Emotional development is essential for self-awareness and development of healthy self-esteem which is a prerequisite to be a ‘successful’ person. The Cognitive & Language development zone impacts the way children think, develop understanding and apply these to reason and solve problems. The Cooperative learning zone focuses on how children apply the knowledge that they have acquired.

These four zones synergistically impart holistic learning for young minds in order to provide them with the right start early in life. It also leads to Collaboration among Children, Teachers and Amongst Themselves. Of course, for such spaces to thrive there needs to be an amalgamation of synced methodology and curriculum. Every aspect of schools - from infrastructure to activities needs to be designed within the framework of a globally benchmarked curriculum, to encourage diversity and globalisation. This can be achieved by designing an integrated, interdisciplinary and theme based curriculum, sequentially developed to increase in complexity – in the manner corporate workspaces are being designed to stimulate creativity and delve into complexity of tasks.

The focus must be on experiential learning rather than rote memorization to ensure learning is fun and is retained throughout life as happy memories are life-long. Learning, as a matter of fact, must not be limited to the ‘school space’. Activities like field trips, interaction with resourceful people or participating in performances, create episodic memory and emotions trigger the memory of episode. It thus helps learning and openness to receiving knowledge, training, and experiences in later working life – as a professional. Corporate workshops/seminars are devised increasingly to bring about learning together with activities like Learning centres and Circle time (by sitting in a circle everyone is visible to everyone like collaborative spaces where each one’s participation is important) which helps create an environment conducive to real consultation, shared responsibility and decision making. 

In fact most evolved preschools have already implemented such, understanding the importance of helping the future learners grow and contribute seamlessly as professionals. We then wouldn’t need to pump in so much money to retrain graduates, postgraduates to make them industry-ready! In this Conceptual Age, we need to ensure every learning space across K-12 and universities adapt to the collaborative-space designing model to effectively deploy and ingrain learning as do industries to tap learning at workspace. Else, we will keep reeling in the mismatch of the relevance of knowledge retained and the essential skill-sets required of an expert professional in the 21^st century.