Room for improvement

Some businesses have begun to make space work for their staff, while others are stuck in a different ag

The extended narrotype: adaptation and stasis in spatial evolution.

We present the proposition that features of work spaces, in both learning spaces and offices, might be considered as the memetic or linguistic analogue of extended phenotypes. We demonstrate a synchronicity in theorising about, on the one hand processes of cognition and learning, and on the other about the design of physical space in our two chosen contexts. The actual physical expression lags the theory in both because, we argue, it reflects the narratives of both powerful occupiers of the space and the professional departments responsible for provision of same. The results are compatible with, and an independent argument for, a ‘narrative ecology’ perspective on organisations. Our intention here is the theory however the results have relevance both to accelerating learning and democratizing management. They argue for the spatial dimension to organisational studies as a subset of research and practice in organisational Darwinism

Mobility, physical space and learning

Our biological inheritance is to sense the world through many channels including the non verbal. Learning theory, in both organizational and pedagogic contexts, has come to recognise as much, yet the dominant physical expressions given to learning space in both contexts remain rooted in linear arrangements. The advent of contemporary human processing tools and artefacts have the potential to liberate the learner yet space designs, driven by dictates of notional efficiency and a view of work and learning as separate, stationary processes, constrain through a reduction in the natural reliance on sensorial, embodied human capacities. With an example of case material, we suggest an asynchronous co-evolutionary process, a syncretisation of learning theories and space design. Granting physical expression to modern views of the learning process as mobile and corporeal can, accelerate learning. Key words Workspace, workplace, learning, complexity, organizational ecology, mobilit

Gaining perceptions of intelligence in order to understand how knowledge exists in the post-16 sport curriculum

This study focused on discovering how intelligence was conceptualised by Further Education (FE) sport and access students in order to offer suggestions of what this means for how knowledge is perceived in the post-16 sports curriculum. A small scale qualitative methodology was used where a questionnaire was created to collect data and answer the two research questions devised. Non-probability quota sampling was used to represent characteristics (strata) of the greater population. Results indicated that the professions based on highly academic and theoretical aspects were viewed as more intelligent with the greatest differential of perceived intellect evident in the profession of a doctor and football player. The study offers a concerned outlook as where that leaves the post-16 sports curriculum when intelligence is not perceived in the same way in that environment. Consequentially questions arise for the role of post-16 sport as a subject in its own right especially following recent policy changes that only heighten the importance of subjects such as English and maths in the sector. Future research should look at what intelligence is in these practical environments and focus on assessing the current curriculum to make sure that sport is viewed as more than ‘good for teamwork, good for health’, as although this is true it just highlights that the learning of knowledge is secondary in this subject and highlights the misconceptions of perceived practical performance subjects

Learning Experience Designs (LEDs) in an age of complexity: time to replace the lightbulb?

This paper describes reflective practice research of the action taken to address commonplace teaching issues faced in the higher education classroom. Covering a substantial number of years three very different student learning experiences were ultimately created, each requiring the students to interact with self, knowledge, and others in fundamentally different ways. The first learning experience, termed informational learning, focuses on knowledge acquisition, confidence building, social interaction and the development of the student sense of belonging. The second learning experience, termed relational learning, applies spatial and embodied cognition to develop metacognitive skills. The final learning experience, termed transformational learning, emphasises personal transformation brought about by dissonance work at the emotion laden ‘edge’. Together the three phases highlight how practitioner Action Research can generate Living Theory through the understanding of the complex, multi-disciplinary ecology of the practice-theory dynamic. The paper challenges simplistic notions of teaching, highlighting how the natural, human, and social sciences all contribute to the holistic understanding of the design of learning experiences. The findings have potential for wider application for module and curricula designs

Experiential learning : towards a multi-disciplinary perspective

Whilst experiential learning (EL) has spread across the globe, influencing and being influenced by incursions into and across numerous fields and disciplines, including outdoor learning, problematic issues remain concerning definitional and boundary parameters. For some this is not seen as a weakness: the elusive and insurgent nature of EL resists the homogenising grasp. While addressing these issues this paper sketches a brief lineage, establishes evidence identifying major tides and smaller undercurrents of change. Substantive shifts towards a new revisionary postmodernism, a new ecological fluidity, are identified. This evolving holistic thinking embraces rather than replaces earlier thinking. The paper concludes by introducing new modelling that attempts to mirror and embrace this ecological multi-disciplinary complexity and fluidity

Experiential learning: The development of a pedagogic framework for effective practice.

Despite a long lineage, the considerable body of literature on experiential learning is extensively a post 80’s phenomenon (Mulligan and Griffin, 1992). fey critiquing this body of literature it is possible to simultaneously destabilise the orthodox, 'hegemonic constructivist paradigm that posits a centrality of the learner, and identify several neglected areas which can be traced back to a philosophical heredity. In addressing these neglected areas this paper outlines the development of a richer conception of experiential learning that extends ‘beyond the usual definitions and arguments’ (Rickards, 2007: 430), bringing theory and practice together in a way that has been hitherto unseen in the existing body of literature (Nichol, 2002; Norris, 2006; Rickards, 2007). The research fieldwork, conducted to date over a period of over fifteen years, adopts a mode two research approach (Tranfield and Starkey, 1998), appropriate to the broad, multidisciplinary nature of experiential learning (Dillon, 2007). Through a complex synthesis of research material, published to date in a range of scholarly and practitioner journals, a significant milieu of emerging ,‘themes’ are identified and classified using a relational, multiple layered integration of theory and practice that culminates in a framework presented as an abstract, visual metaphor. This research acknowledges the intentionality of design, and considers the learner as a fully embodied self, sensuously and intersubjectively interacting with their outer world (Abram, 1997). The final framework is develops an interconnectedness of the outer and inner world experiences of the learner that suggestively links a number of concepts. The framework is recognised across a range of disciplines as grounded in solid and varied theory designed to be pedagogically useful to both novice and experienced practitioners

Event evaluation and design : human experience mapping

This article reports a phenomenological evaluation of a small-scale cause-related event. Three complimentary methods were applied to the interpretation of data obtained from interviewing participants who took part in an event involving the experience of sleeping on the streets with homeless people in a city in the UK. The participant experience data were first explored by applying a simple multiphasic interpretation. A second layer of exploration involved separating the data into six human experience dimensions. A third and final interpretation method involved the collaborative construction of a schematic map as a composite-summative expression of the data. In order to further explore this collaborative schematic data interpretation approach, and its potential for application in event design, experience mapping has subsequently undergone further field trials with event experience designers from a range of private and public organizations across the globe, notably Singapore, Prague, Hong Kong, India, and the UK

A sensory experiment into languages as (re)volution

How are we informed and transformed by tuning into our relationships to land, emotions, relations, and bodies within our academic pathways into languages? In this paper, we tell a story of our journey, as scholars, into how languages relate to land, historicity, bodies, and the ecosophical concept of ubuntu. Our discussion brings in the temporal and spatial multi-disciplinary lineage of languages, as an open space to re-envision, re-experience, and re-engage with our academic writing in new and ancient ways. We use multimodal layers of language ontology—from ecological, physical, historical, and intercultural perspectives—as a decolonizing, pedagogical process of (re)covering humanness. We use the particular example of academic writing and reading as a sensory experience to dive into languages as ontological ways of becoming human. And because we are academics (or failed magicians) we try to provide insights into theoretical and practical ways to transform this conversation into pedagogy

Paradise regained: older adult rock climbers turning space into place in the natural environment

At the time of writing there are over 10 million people aged over 65 living in the UK, and by 2050 the number is predicted to rise to 19 million. This expansion of the ageing population is mirrored worldwide, and over the past ten years has stimulated a growth in age-related studies. However, the idea of a social gerontology of the outdoors is yet to take root. Yet, with the maturing of those born between the years 1946 and 1964, and increased participation in adventurous activities, we suggest that the time is right for scholarship in this specific direction. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to discover how older adult rock climbers perceived their relationship with the natural environment to have changed over the period of their involvement with rock climbing. The investigation used a purposive sample of rock climbers in the north-west of England (n=10) aged between 65 and 74 years (av=69.6) identifying them as ‘young-old’ adults. Oral testimony was collected over two phases, the first with interview-questionnaires, and the second with targeted semi-structured interviews. In order to give a clear voice to participants, manual data handling using was used to establish raw data that were then sorted into themes and verified against internal and external checkers. These were then organized around Peace, Wahl, Mollenkopf and Oswald’s (2014) concept of an ‘environment’ considered within three dimensions: the physical/material, including the natural landscape; the psychological, and the meaning attributed to the place, its evolution across the life course, and how it makes people feel about themselves; and the social/cultural, involving the engagement of people to places, including how the space is used and remembered