Newness was a key theme identified in a comprehensive national study of education outside the classroom (EOTC) in Aotearoa New Zealand. This paper examines what newness means from the perspectives of students, educators and school leaders. Findings reveal that newness in EOTC was valued because of the difference to everyday routines, as well as to…

Innovations in schooling and the architectural design of schools offer the opportunity to re-examine existing pedagogical practices. Graduating teachers need to be ready to teach and conversant with changing school environments and approaches to school organisation. However, there is a dearth of research that explores the student teachers'…

In New Zealand, the architectural design of schools and the spaces where children learn are being innovated to allow for more opportunities for teachers and students to work collaboratively. However, there is a dearth of research that has investigated both teachers' and students' perceptions of the learning spaces. Little attention has been paid…

Integrated STEAM education (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) has been shown to effectively foster global competencies as well as school and societal engagement for 21st century learners of diverse backgrounds. However, facilitating quality STEAM teaching and learning can be challenging for teachers, particularly in the area…

Inter-school networks have been promoted in many school systems globally to facilitate: knowledge generation and dissemination; responsiveness to increasingly diverse student and societal needs; and emotional and practical peer support for educational professionals. In understanding contemporary education as a 'wicked' problem, this paper explores…

Significant funding is devoted across the world to transforming traditional classrooms into flexible learning environments. These efforts are often motivated by a desire to create learning spaces attuned to twenty-first century competencies, which involve learning how to communicate, collaborate, think creatively, and how to become critical users…

In many schools across Australasia, single-cell classrooms have been replaced by 'innovative learning environments' (ILEs). This redesign of education spaces has had pedagogical and physical ramifications for students and teachers. This qualitative study, conducted in New Zealand and Australia, investigated how students with disability responded…

This article illustrates how schooling Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) deploy a future-focused imaginary for a perfectly self-managing society. New building design, coupled with this imaginary, creates possibilities for new ecologies of practices in which there are reframed relationships and pedagogical opportunities. We use the theory of…

This article reports from a Teacher-led Innovation Fund project that investigated connecting practices and resources for mathematical learning between a kindergarten and the first year of school. Teachers at both sites were teacher-researchers in the 2-year project. Our results highlighted expected and unexpected aspects of connections and…

This article is based on a case study conducted within a newly established Year 7 and Year 8 innovative learning environment (ILE). Drawing on the voices of students and teachers, this article explores ways teachers and students learnt together, collectively moulding a suitable fit for mathematics learning within their ILE. Of interest was how the…

The rise of innovative learning environments, with multiple teachers and larger cohorts of students, can de-privatise practice as teachers have the opportunity to observe each other teaching. However, they also provide the opportunity for collaboratively planning and teaching, and engaging in reflective dialogue about specific pedagogical…

Beanbags, adjustable tables, retractable walls, high-speed internet and numerous digital devices dominate the current concept of the modern classroom. Urged by the Ministry of Education in New Zealand to build all new classrooms as Innovative Learning Environments (ILEs) (Ministry of Education, 2015), more and more students are finding themselves…

The following outlines the rationale and structure of a professional learning initiative that seeks to explore teachers' ways of engaging students more actively in building mathematical connections for themselves. An example of one of the suggested experiences is presented.

In New Zealand, school buildings are being remodelled to accommodate several teachers and a large number of learners in one flexible learning space. School leaders' perspectives were sought on what is happening in the teaching of reading, writing and mathematics. Interviews of the principal and deputy principal at a case study were conducted, and…

In new generation schooling contexts, the interaction of human activity, space, and objects, co- produce spatialised practices. There is the fluid use and continuous re-design of learning spaces, where dynamic socio-material practices support the ongoing and negotiated development of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Links are forged in this…