Congratulations to Sydney Studio Director Fiona Young who officially graduated from her PhD last month! Fiona’s PhD was conducted through the Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change project (ILETC) as part of the Learning Environments Applied Research Network (LEaRN) at the University of Melbourne.
Fiona investigated how teachers can be supported to utilise the pedagogical affordances of learning spaces to enhance deep learning in their students. She identified strategies related to school organisation, teacher practice and the built environment that may enable teachers to take advantage of the action possibilities of innovative school designs.
As a LEaRN partner, Hayball is delighted to have supported the ILETC project and Fiona on this significant journey. We look forward to applying Fiona’s insights and research to our processes and projects to continually optimise the benefits of new learning spaces for all.
Fiona’s thesis is accessible via this link and below are the papers which were published as part of her studies:
• Young, F. & Cleveland, B. (2022). Affordances, architecture and the action possibilities of learning environments: A critical review of the literature and future directions. Buildings.
• Young, F., Tuckwell, D. & Cleveland, B. (2021). Actualising the affordances of innovative learning environments through co-creating practice change with teachers. The Australian Educational Researcher.
• Young, F., Cleveland, B., & Imms, W. (2019). The affordances of innovative learning environments for deep learning: educators’ and architects’ perceptions. The Australian Educational Researcher, 47(4), 693-720.