Emerging methods for the evaluation of physical learning environments

Abstract

The field of post-occupancy evaluation (POE) has provided direction on how evidence can be gathered about the performance of educational facilities for over 40 years (Cooper, 2001). However, such work has generally overlooked the evaluation of learning spaces for pedagogical effectiveness, i.e. the suitability of the physical environment in supporting desired teaching and learning practices, activities and behaviours. This chapter calls for, and introduces, new methods of learning environment evaluation that attempt to make explicit the connections between pedagogy and space. It also outlines a suggested framework for the further development of such methods. The research is currently being c..