Innovative learning environments and student orientation to learning: a kaleidoscopic framework

Innovative learning environments (ILE) with open flexible classroom spaces are designed to support collaboration and emphasise responsibility for self-regulated student learning as a partnership between students and teachers. Recent studies of ILE focus more on teachers than students’ experiences, and there is a gap in the theorising of student learning in ILE. Using the metaphor of a kaleidoscope to reflect the complexity and dynamism of learning patterns and processes, this article presents and discusses a framework that illustrates ways in which students might orient to learning in ILE. The framework was developed by a team of researchers during collaborative analysis of data from three separate studies involving New Zealand ILE schools. The framework is illustrated using data snapshots from student interviews. Student orientation to learning provides a useful construct for thinking about whether and how ILE work for different learners and learning needs. The triarchic framework encapsulates the complex nature of the user-resourced space interface, including learning relationships, subject material, and ILE environments. It can be used as a heuristic for leaders and teachers to structure learning in ILE to enhance students’ learning experiences and support learner agency and achievement.