IN PRINT
At LOOP.bz it has always been a priority to share our knowledge. One of the ways we do this is by giving interviews or writing papers and articles. Here is a selection with links to the full texts and publications where possible.
HOW CO-DESIGN CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THE ONGOING DEVELOPMENT OF HYBRID LEARNING SPACES BY EMPOWERING THE USERS
Bodil Hovaldt Bøjer, PhD & Mie Guldbæk Brøns, MA (Ed)
This chapter discusses how co-design, in a real-life context, can contribute to interprofessional collaboration by engaging designers, teachers and students. The creation and use of a hybrid learning space involves the development and entanglement of new pedagogical practices and physical spaces that differ from traditional educational settings in order to embrace the coexistence and entanglement of multiple dimensions. The teacher’s role is of vital importance for a hybrid learning space to be successful in primary school, however, the teacher profession is historically not equipped to integrate physical spaces as part of professional reflections and judgement. In this chapter, we discuss teacher professionalism, the relation to physical spaces and how to engage teachers in hybrid learning spaces.
THE MOBILITY OF PEOPLE, NOT FURNITURE, LEADS TO COLLABORATION
Mie Guldbæk Brøns, MA (Ed)
In this chapter, I argue that physical diversity within a larger space is more beneficial for teacher collaboration than the flexibility of the furniture or the architecture. This chapter represents a small part of the research I did in connection to my master thesis in which I explored how Australian teachers who wish to collaborate used an open flexible learning space. My ethnographic study examined how teachers are influenced unknowingly by the roots of their profession and thus arrange furniture in ways that do not support their pedagogical intentions.
In Teacher Transition into Innovative Learning Environments - A Global Perspective
PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION IN A TEAM - SHARING STUDENTS, SPACE AND TIME
Mie Guldbæk Brøns, MA (Ed)
In this paper I argue that successful teacher collaboration is dependent on utilising the transparency and the openness of modern learning environments, as well as teachers’ working hours, in a team organisation. My ethnographic study explores how, by observing each other and executing activities together, teachers incorporate peer learning as a natural professional development, which supports their practices both as individuals and as a team.
Link to publication (chapter 16, page 115)
TEACHER COLLABORATION AND PHYSICAL SPACE: HOW TEACHERS DIVIDE AND SHARE AN OPEN LEARNING SPACE THROUGH THEIR PRACTICES
Mie Guldbæk Brøns - Master thesis
For my master thesis (in Educational Anthropology) I examined how the intentions in the design of a space reproduce, shift and/or change through teachers' daily practices. The thesis is based on an ethnographic study I did at a school in Australia. For three month I observed a collaborative team of six teachers (full time, 300 hours) that shared one space and three classes. I was interested in exploring the dynamics in the team, and whether/how the space had an influence on their collaboration.
THE DUTCH SCHOOL WHERE EVERYONE WORKS
Mie Guldbaek Broens
Schools that change their physical spaces in order to be more supportive of an existing pedagogical practice and social relations which already focus on learning (and the skills now considered 21st Century skills) are often overlooked in the discussions about the role of changing the physical spaces in education. The discussion mostly focuses on the transition most schools have to go through when changing from teaching to learning and what role the physical spaces’ play in the organisational change.
De Werkplaats, a school in the Netherlands, is a school that changed its physical space to live up to the already learner focused pedagogy on which the school was founded back in 1926. The past couple of years I have had a collaboration with DeWerkplats where I have been observing on a regular basis and helping them reflect on their pedagogical practices and utilisation of space.
A SOUND ENVIRONMENT FOR LEARNING
Mie Guldbaek Broens
Focusing on learning rather than teaching changes almost everything we know about school set up and organization - and it is not an easy change. One of the elements that we have identified as crucial in making a learning environment work and thus an important element for the shift to work, is the acoustics. In this article in Acoustic Bulletin I describe why it is essential that we study the learning spaces and not just take experiences and learnings from for instance open offices and implement them in our schools.
SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT - BEFORE, AFTER AND BEYOND
Mie Guldbaek Broens
In this article we consider how education has changed the way we design schools, drawing on work in Gentofte to show how a collaboration between educators and designers created spaces which meet the changing expectations of staff and students.
In Denmark, Maglegaardsskolen and Hellerup school have, with their innovative physical spaces, cluster and open landscape respectively, provided unique knowledge about pedagogy and organisation over the last 20 years. This article takes a look at the development of Maglegaardsskolen which was completely refurbished inside in 2000, as a part of Gentofte municipality’s large school development project SKUB. The following two decades LOOP.bz had a close relationship with the school and visited often to learn from the development.
TRANSFORMING PEDAGOGICAL ETHOS INTO AN EFFECTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
Jens Guldbaek, Hanna Bohn Vinkel and Mie Guldbaek Broens
This article proposes a novel way of generating new ideas, based on empirical knowledge. We discuss that it is essential to move away from the usual decision making process where most decisions are made at the beginning of a development project. At that stage the decisions are based on old knowledge. A development process based mainly on old ideas is a contradiction in terms, but sadly this is often the way it happens. We need to keep in mind that a development project is a process, not a race. There is no finishing line because our educational system will never be a finished product.