·       The first theme park was created in 1853 and following the lead of this institution called Crystal Palace, many opened as a result in the following years 

·       They were opened, the ideal use was for research by those who were considered privileged. The use of theme parks as learning spaces has grown in the past two decades. 

·       Many educational professionals now use these sites as a means to help children with various subjects and topics within the curriculum. They offer hands-on experience that can be used for school and general public use  

·       Many educational professionals are employed within these sites as well, and they are called Learning Professionals 

·       Learning spaces can be anything non-school related. Some examples include gardens, environmental centres, nature reserves, museums, science centres, exploratoria, etc 

·       The term “space” was used instead of environment to highlight that learning can occur and might be useful outside a classroom. The word environment is linked to outdoors usually so that is way the word space is used. Nevertheless, there are been some negative assumptions with learning spaces

·       Typically, children visit these places in small groups, i.e school trips with volunteer leaders. Children visit structed set-ups in timed intervals

·       Some reasons it may be difficult for young people (Directly from Text)

1.     The structure and design of layouts and buildings which can often distract learners from focusing on explicit learning objectives

-       The way the building is set up, the name of it, the function of the building, distance between set-ups (i.e bathroom location vs set up location = time lost) can take away from the experience. 

2.     Learners’ culturally-influenced perceptions of environment, history, etc. and the perceived significance of artefacts within these contexts (e.g. the idea that ‘plants are boring’)

-       Everyone responds differently to a location based on sociocultural backgrounds

3.     The affordances and constraints of physical arrangements, social groupings, accessibility and localised distractions—what we have termed ‘micro-contexts’

-       Hybrid communities (Combination of two or more communities), move away from learning strategies and toward community understanding so kids can understand and identity the goals of schooling, LP’s create a different type of community within their learning spaces (disciplined community), 

4.     Tensions between conflicting goals of LPs and between different approaches to learning in such contexts.

-       Cost, visitor maximums, research capacities vs entertainment, markets vs commercial, interacting vs learning, employee numbers vs children numbers, parent in general admission vs students in learning space = a different experience and different ways of thinking, LP resources, some approaches can disinterest children   

·      Size, content and layout of the space can interact with the space that the classroom does not allow on the other hand they may be used to the classroom setting 

·      Cultural border crossing – between school, home, community and learning spaces

·      More research needs to be done on mobile technology and its use in leaning spaces

1. Student from working-class background expect to attend university.

2. Working-class immigrant students manage to overcome the social and educational barriers.

3. Develop the incentive, knowledge, determination, and commitment that make possible high education and occupational goals.

4. Individuals draw on ideas and knowledge gained through the community.

5. Assimilated or blend into “main stream” structures 

6. Abandon their “old” cultural practices and adapt those of the large or host society.

7. Minority-group members tend to develop a feeling. They are likely to obtain moral support from community.

8. Help young people cultivate high educational and occupational aspirations.

9. The children of immigrant parents tent to gain access to community resources such as educational and recreational programs.

10. Community serves not only establish cultural affiliation, but also a support for family loyalty.

11. Student motivations for obtaining a university education were to change the negative stereotypes of their community.

12. Community as “dynamic” able to provide young people with chances and opportunities.

13. high-achieving students who got good grades participated in community activities, were encouraged by their teachers.

14. They truly believe I would be someone to come back and help the community.

15. Aspirations not only by the expectation their teachers and parents but also the encouragements of friends.

16. They seemed to be less concerned with making money or having prestigious jobs than with being able to contribute to their community.

17. Vivian aspired to become a teacher because she could authoritatively model.

18. They’re just used to teachers that don’t care, or are used to seeing teachers aren’t them in the community.

19. Racism need not be a barrier to high achievement.

20. Racial conceptualization of the community

21. Physical education and their cultural connections as playing a significant role in their decision to become teachers.

22. Race was very much a factor in informing her educational aspirations.

23. Stratified by race, ethnicity, class and immigrant/citizenship status, marginalized students face barriers to social mobility because of economic, political and social hardship.

24. Knowing hoe marginalized students understand , navigate, and negotiate the educational, cultural, social, economic and political structures of their school and society to become successful university students.

25. They were able to develop their social capital in the form of bi-cultural skills and abilities and with the support of their communities.

James Moreira

November 3rd, 2021

Defining “Learning Spaces”

-educational function of museums has changed over time

-learning spaces have been given a high profile in raising public awareness of environmental, social and cultural issues

-exciting buildings and structures can often distract from a focus on the explicit learning objectives

-reasons why it could be difficult for young students to learn the specific outcomes identified as objectives in such contexts:

--learner’s culturally-influenced perceptions of environment, history, etc and the perceived significance of artefacts within these contexts (e.g. the idea that ‘plants are boring’)

--the affordances and constraints of physical arrangements, social groupings, accessibility and localised distraction--what we have termed ‘micro-contexts’

--tensions between conflicting goals of LPs and between different approaches to learning in such contexts

Structure, design and layout

-design of space can distract/take away from what students learn and remember about learning space

-time can be lost if entrances, washrooms, and eating spaces are widespread

Cultural interpretations of ideas associated with environment

-young people can respond to their environment in very different ways, ranging from strong identification, to ambivalence and to rejection

-it is possible and not exceptional for conflicting explanations of phenomena to co-exist and be used as appropriate by individuals

Tensions between conflicting goals

-conflict between education and entertainment

-educational experiences being transformed into “trips”

Implications of research findings

-LPs involved must tread a narrow path between the two different communities of school and learning space

-they become the ‘culture brokers’ who can negotiate crossings between the school community and that of the learning space

Implications for LPs: The role of ‘culture broker’

-boundary crossing: describes the idea that the worlds are culturally different in terms of their values, goals, language, personnel, resources encountered and location

-the role of LPs involves acting as ‘broker’ between different stakeholders and becomes much more central, because they should have a grasp of the full range of implications of differing communities and the expectations and priorities of visitors and of evaluation evidence relating to children’s learning

-LPs are most effective when they actively assist learners to move back and forth as appropriate between the communities of school culture, home culture and the sub-culture of the learning space itself

Implications for further evaluation and research

-research needs to focus on the kinds of interactions and learning strategies that are found to be most effective in different contexts, as well as the roles of LPs within different kinds of learner groupings, in order to compare their effectiveness at prompting learning in different contexts

--must make sense of the term ‘effective’

--investigate the perceived roles and priorities of LPs in order to establish what affordances and constraints they experience in their work and to be able to support them better in treading the narrow lines between communities

-also important to find out what children actually see and don’t see in different contexts and micro-contexts and how their knowledge is constructed from this

-there is a need to investigate how changes in forms and expectations of participation affect these ways of seeing

-explore strategies involving use of mobile technology