Reconnecting Children with Nature: Biophilic Junior Level Learning Environment Design

<p>More than half of all humanity now live in urban centres. In westerns counties generally at least 80% of people’s time is spent indoors. This means that people are spending less time outside and in places that can be considered ‘nature’. This is problematic because quantitative and qualitative research shows that isolation from the natural world negatively affects human well-being, suggesting that it is essential that nature is a constant part of humans’ lives. This ‘nature deficit’ also impacts the development of personal bonds with nature which relates to learning to value and protect nature, and particularly affects young children. As children grow up in environments increasingly removed from nature, how will children form personal bonds with the living world if they spend their key developmental years removed from it? To address this issue, this design-led research asks: how can we reconnect children with nature using biophilic design in junior level learning environments? This question was explored through design-led research methodologies, primarily using an iterative design process, a ‘triangulation’ approach to research, and two sets of user-based interrogative research. This included a workshop with children aged 5-7 and a New Zealand primary school teachers’ survey. These were conducted to gain insight into user opinions and preferences. Observations, discussions and results were combined and compared with related literature and initial design testing, and then refined into a set of key design elements (see chapter 8.0). These elements were found to be critical in creating well-functioning learning environments that offer biophilic potentials to improve learning, and directly appeal to the users. These elements were tested, developed, and refined through the design of a block of junior level classrooms, in Wellington, New Zealand. Design explorations resulted in a proposed spatial solution that encourages children to interact with and experience nature on a regular basis, with the intention of stimulating the development of a personal bond with and value for the natural world.</p>

Reconnecting Children with Nature: Biophilic Junior Level Learning Environment Design

<p>More than half of all humanity now live in urban centres. In westerns counties generally at least 80% of people’s time is spent indoors. This means that people are spending less time outside and in places that can be considered ‘nature’. This is problematic because quantitative and qualitative research shows that isolation from the natural world negatively affects human well-being, suggesting that it is essential that nature is a constant part of humans’ lives. This ‘nature deficit’ also impacts the development of personal bonds with nature which relates to learning to value and protect nature, and particularly affects young children. As children grow up in environments increasingly removed from nature, how will children form personal bonds with the living world if they spend their key developmental years removed from it? To address this issue, this design-led research asks: how can we reconnect children with nature using biophilic design in junior level learning environments? This question was explored through design-led research methodologies, primarily using an iterative design process, a ‘triangulation’ approach to research, and two sets of user-based interrogative research. This included a workshop with children aged 5-7 and a New Zealand primary school teachers’ survey. These were conducted to gain insight into user opinions and preferences. Observations, discussions and results were combined and compared with related literature and initial design testing, and then refined into a set of key design elements (see chapter 8.0). These elements were found to be critical in creating well-functioning learning environments that offer biophilic potentials to improve learning, and directly appeal to the users. These elements were tested, developed, and refined through the design of a block of junior level classrooms, in Wellington, New Zealand. Design explorations resulted in a proposed spatial solution that encourages children to interact with and experience nature on a regular basis, with the intention of stimulating the development of a personal bond with and value for the natural world.</p>

Design Framework and Principles for Learning Environment Co-Design: Synthesis from Literature and Three Empirical Studies

The need for environments conducive to learning and wellbeing has been broadly recognised. Considering particularly learner perceptions in the learning environment design is known to improve both their learning and wellbeing. There are no, however, shared theoretical frameworks guiding the learning environment co-design from the learner perspective. As a response to this challenge, a learning environment design (LED) framework was developed based on the literature and co-design involving learners aged 7 to 19 (n = 342) in Finland (n = 266) and Spain (n = 76). The LED framework entails 53 characteristics grouped under seven constructs. It draws attention to the importance of balancing communality with individuality, comfort with health, and novelty with conventionality. Flexibility and functionality are recognised as central enablers for a quality learning environment. The study suggests a design framework and principles for learning environment co-design. They can serve as a research-based introduction to the topic after which priorities can be defined based on the concrete design target and goals, and concrete design solutions can be created in the participatory design involving learners and other key stakeholders.

Mutual Benefits: Interdisciplinary Education of Pre-Service Teachers and HCI Students in VR/AR Learning Environment Design

The successful development and classroom integration of Virtual (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) learning environments requires competencies and content knowledge with respect to media didactics and the respective technologies. The paper discusses a pedagogical concept specifically aiming at the interdisciplinary education of pre-service teachers in collaboration with human-computer interaction students. The students’ overarching goal is the interdisciplinary realization and integration of VR/AR learning environments in teaching and learning concepts. To assist this approach, we developed a specific tutorial guiding the developmental process. We evaluate and validate the effectiveness of the overall pedagogical concept by analyzing the change in attitudes regarding 1) the use of VR/AR for educational purposes and in competencies and content knowledge regarding 2) media didactics and 3) technology. Our results indicate a significant improvement in the knowledge of media didactics and technology. We further report on four STEM learning environments that have been developed during the seminar.

A collaborative design model to support hybrid learning environments during COVID19

COVID-19 has catalyzed online learning environment design across all university disciplines, including the traditionally practice-based disciplines. As we move from a rapid response triage mode of online learning towards a more sustained engagement with a mix of online and face-to- face learning environments (particularly for practice-based learning) we face some unique challenges. This concise paper explores an example of collaborative co-creation and co-design of a resource guide as a response to the challenges of COVID-19 for best practices for designing hybrid learning environments to facilitate distributed learning environments (face-to-face and remote students). The co-creative co-design of the resource guide highlights some of the identified key design principles behind facilitating distributed learning communities.

Correction to: Mechanism to capture learner’s interaction in VR-based learning environment: design and application

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Mechanism to capture learner’s interaction in VR-based learning environment: design and application

Virtual Reality (VR) is a multi-sensory technology that stimulates learning and has the potential for pedagogical applications. While researchers in VR have demonstrated several applications to support understanding and learning in STEM education, the research regarding which features of VR leverage learning is in its infancy. The existing studies exploring how learners interact with VR are based on human observations or learners’ perceptions. This paper describes a novel mechanism to capture learner’s interaction behavior, in the context of a mobile-based static VR to learn the human circulatory system. The data capturing mechanism is based on screen recordings of VR interaction, which is further annotated manually to form a time-sequenced action series. In a preliminary test conducted with three learners, the interaction data was analyzed based on the time spent in each action in the VR environment, frequently co-occurring actions, and sequence of actions. The test results are described and the implications of using such a mechanism to capture learners’ interaction behavior is discussed. We conclude that capturing data in this manner gives a rich and detailed profile of learners and enables use of various analytics methods to provide personalized and adaptive support to learners.