Translating Learning
Research into the Design
of Innovative Learning
Environments
David Istance, OECD
January 2012
OECD project “Innovative Learning Environments” (ILE)
Dual focus on learning and innovation central to current agendas
ILE aims to inform practice, leadership and reform through
analysis and exchange on configurations of learning for children
& young people, by:
1. Understanding the Lessons of “Learning Research” 2008-
2010 (helping to bridge the „great disconnect‟)
2. Compiling & Analysing “Innovative Cases” (Main pool
around130 cases, plus 40 of these looked at through case
studies): 2009-2012
3. Growing and sustaining innovative learning - “Implementation
and Change” Strand – starting now
“The Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire
Practice” OECD Publications, Sept. 2010, 338pp.
‘The Nature of Learning’: 2
• Leading experts from Europe and N. America invited to contribute
• Summarised the large bodies of research on their subject in an accessible way, and…
• …identified key conclusions to inform the design of learning environments
• OECD authors (Dumont and Istance) provided scene-setting and final summary/reflections
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‘The Nature of Learning’: 3
7. Technology and Learning
Richard Mayer
8. Cooperative Learning & Group-work
Robert Slavin
9. Inquiry-based Learning
Brigid Barron & Linda Darling-Hammond,
10. The Community and Academic Service Learning
Andrew Furco
11. The Effects of Family on Learning
Barbara Schneider, Keesler & Morlock
12. Implementing Innovation: from visions to everyday practice
Lauren Resnick, James Spillane, Goldman
& Rangel
13. Future Directions
OECD (Istance & Dumont)
1.Analysing & Designing Learning Environments for the 21st Century Hanna Dumont & David Istance 2. Historical Developments in the Understanding of Learning Erik De Corte 3. The Cognitive Perspective on Learning Elsbeth Stern & Michael Schneider 4. The Crucial Role of Emotions & Motivation in Learning Monique Boekaerts 5. Developmental & Biological Bases of Learning Cristina Hinton & Kurt Fischer 6. Formative Assessment Dylan Wiliam
Chapter 13: Conclusions – the „principles‟
The research suggests that learning environments should:
• Make learning central, encourage engagement, and be where
learners come to understand themselves as learners
• Ensure that learning is social and often collaborative
• Be highly attuned to learners‟ motivations and the importance of
emotions
• Be acutely sensitive to individual differences including in prior
knowledge
• Be demanding for each learner but without excessive overload
• Use assessments consistent with its aims, with strong
emphasis on formative feedback
• Promote horizontal connectedness across activities and
subjects, in-and out-of-school
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Re-expressed in more familiar educational terms
Learning environments should be:
• Learner-centred: highly focused on learning but not as an
alternative to the key role for teachers
• Structured and well-designed: needs careful design and
high professionalism alongside inquiry & autonomous
learning
• Profoundly personalised: acutely sensitive to individual
and group differences and offering tailored feedback
• Inclusive: such sensitivity to individual and group
differences means they are fundamentally inclusive
• Social: learning is effective in group settings, when learners
collaborate, and when there is a connection to community.
Some observations, issues and tensions
• Some (e.g. Wiliam, Slavin, Mayer) stress that it is not the activity itself (e.g. group-work or formative assessment) but effective practice of those activities – not ‘treatments’ or behaviours
• Some (e.g. Barron and Darling-Hammond) stress dependence on demanding professionalism. What to do when well-trained and organised teachers are absent?
• Some (e.g. de Corte) stress context-dependency for learning. Does this rule out general guiding principles?
• Mix of approaches in coherent wholes vs impact of particular practices (treatments)
• What are appropriate evaluation methodologies for deciding the potential of innovations to inspire practice elsewhere?
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LEARNING
Dynamics and Organisation of Learning
Environments – the ILE framework
Learning leadership
‘teachers’
resources
learners
content
Learning activities – how close to the ‘principles’?
Evaluation and assessment:
transforming learning information into usable knowledge
Information about learning
activities, learners, and
outcomes
Learning Feedback
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In sum, effective learning environments will:
• Promote the principles through the pedagogical and assessment approaches and learning activities
• Involve active learning leadership – distributed agency creating learning aims and identifying the strategic means to achieve them.
• Display well-developed capacity to gather information on learning and transform it into actionable formats (assessments)…
• … and use effective feedback practices for getting such information back to learners, teachers and the learning leadership.
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Framework informing ILE „Implementation and
Change‟
In addition to addressing how to:
1. Create and sustain effective learning environments (applying the ‘principles’) – holistic micro learning level
Analysis and exchange of innovative practice around:
2. Approaches to improve alignment of the technical core (the learning environment) and the organisational environment(s) in which it is located
3. Approaches for developing the ‘meso level’ - learning-focused networks & communities of practice
4. Exploring macro level strategies & approaches to build capacity, create conditions, and stimulate innovative learning at the micro & meso levels
Thank you!
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