Examining Inclusivity in Flexible Learning Spaces: Expectations, Comfort, and Distractions

IF 2.2 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Innovative Higher Education Pub Date : 2024-08-26 DOI:10.1007/s10755-024-09730-8
Sarah T. Zipf, Leqi Li, Gala Campos Oaxaca, Crystal M. Ramsay
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Abstract

Historically, classrooms have utilized stationary furniture, facing front toward a centralized instructor position, and limiting student-to-student interactions. Such classrooms often stem from design processes that tend to focus on building codes and feedback from investors, architects, and planners, which leaves little input from instructors and students until the end (Britnell, et al., 2009). With little to no input from primary users, classrooms can become less inclusive or inaccessible in a variety of ways, especially for students with disabilities. One way to address this problem is to design flexible learning classrooms so that instructors and students can customize the room. Seemingly more inclusive, we wanted to understand how the physical elements of a flexible classroom create opportunities and barriers for students with disabilities. This mixed-methods study includes data from an online survey, interviews, and digital drawings. We utilized a purposeful sample of students with documented disabilities (n = 16) and used the eight universal design goals as our main coding schema. Results show students carry expectations and predictions about their classrooms based on the layout or arrangement; students’ social comfort can override physical comfort, even while expressing medical needs; students might misunderstand certain elements of flexible classrooms; and students can identify ways they were distracted by the room. Institutions and instructors interested in creating more inclusive spaces need to be intentional with flexible learning classrooms so that students can understand and utilize the affordances of these spaces.

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研究灵活学习空间的包容性:期望、舒适和分心
一直以来,教室都使用固定的家具,正面朝向教师集中的位置,限制了学生与学生之间的互动。这样的教室往往源于设计过程,而设计过程往往只关注建筑规范以及投资者、建筑师和规划师的反馈意见,很少有教师和学生的参与(Britnell 等人,2009 年)。由于几乎没有来自主要用户的意见,教室的包容性可能会降低,或以各种方式变得无障碍,尤其是对残疾学生而言。解决这一问题的方法之一是设计灵活的学习教室,让教师和学生可以定制教室。看似更具包容性,但我们希望了解灵活教室的物理元素如何为残疾学生创造机会和制造障碍。这项混合方法研究包括来自在线调查、访谈和数字绘图的数据。我们对有记录的残疾学生(n = 16)进行了有目的的抽样调查,并将八个通用设计目标作为我们的主要编码模式。结果显示,学生会根据教室的布局或安排对教室抱有期望和预测;即使在表达医疗需求时,学生的社交舒适度也会超过生理舒适度;学生可能会误解灵活教室的某些元素;学生还能识别出教室分散他们注意力的方式。有志于创造更具包容性空间的机构和教师需要有意识地使用灵活学习教室,以便学生能够理解和利用这些空间的能力。
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来源期刊
Innovative Higher Education
Innovative Higher Education EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-
CiteScore
4.30
自引率
9.10%
发文量
46
期刊介绍: Innovative Higher Education is a refereed scholarly journal that strives to package fresh ideas in higher education in a straightforward and readable fashion. The four main purposes of Innovative Higher Education are: (1) to present descriptions and evaluations of current innovations and provocative new ideas with relevance for action beyond the immediate context in higher education; (2) to focus on the effect of such innovations on teaching and students; (3) to be open to diverse forms of scholarship and research methods by maintaining flexibility in the selection of topics deemed appropriate for the journal; and (4) to strike a balance between practice and theory by presenting manuscripts in a readable and scholarly manner to both faculty and administrators in the academic community.
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