The space around us teaches and educates, and can also provide a diverse recreational experience. We already know that the organisation of space, the learning environment, has a powerful impact on us and our learning. But what makes schools a place for effective, experiential learning and knowledge management? Bertalan Péter Farkas, managing director or Learnitect Design Ltd. sat down with Mónika Réti, an education research and development expert, about the power of learning spaces and the emotions and attachment they evoke. Mónika sheds light on this interconnectedness with details, her own stories and trends, and also talks frankly about the psychological challenge of opening up to the involvement of teaching spaces. Her words radiate that it is worth it: although she has had other opportunities, from this academic year she has taken on a role in a school again after a long absence.

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Road to teaching spaces

As a biology and chemistry teacher, Mónika Réti showed a keen interest in sustainability and realised early on that it was worth considering social and economic aspects in addition to environmental ones. Although critical of ethology, she also drew a lot from this science and was keen to research pedagogical issues as an undergraduate.

She has 15 years of experience as a researcher at the Institute for Research and Development in Education (OFI). It was during this period that she had the defining experience of training the Environment and School Initiatives network, brainstorming with a diverse group of experts from 17 countries, linked to the topic of learning environments in fields ranging from education to architecture. One of the main results of the latter is a multi-purpose handbook, the 2011 book Good School inside out, to which he contributed as editor.

The concept and actuality of teaching spaces

The guiding theme of the handbook is the concept of teaching space. The basic premise of this concept is that spaces teach by the way they look, that is, that the people who maintain them – whether consciously or not – send a message by the environment they provide for us. These messages can affect the attitudes not only of students and staff, but also of technical staff such as porters, cleaners or kitchen staff, whose connection to the institution and the students is also important in the life of a school.

Mónika stresses that before spreading the teaching space approach, it is important to consider why it is valuable for an institution or a provider to look at its spaces in this way. She invites us to think about this with some trends and examples:

• The Prussian teaching methods still in use in this country are inevitably changing, will change and will be increasingly stretched by new innovations.
• A modern movement, socio-constructivism, argues that we are human because we have a constant need to develop, which requires us to connect with others.
• A UN summit in New York in 2022 focused on transforming education. The meeting sought to define the characteristics of a useful citizen in the 21st century, and reflected on the role of education in training and education. Mónika believes it is important to include happiness and mental health in this vision, drawing attention to the example of South Korea, a country that leads in PISA tests but also in burnout and suicide statistics.
• In the wake of a Canadian longitudinal study, Mónika believes that it is a mistake to choose a path other than inquiry-based learning. Research shows a positive link between the former approach and students’ life harmony and coping strategies in crisis situations.

Stronger bonds instead of confrontation

The learning environment model described in Good School inside out identifies nine quality criteria. Mónika does not see the need to compare schools even within a country, instead she would assess institutions according to the nine quality criteria, which are presented in italics below, interpreted in the local context, especially in the social and community context. The function of measurement is therefore to provide a basis for institutional reflection rather than comparison.

The concept can be implemented both in the small physical details and in the overall operational principles and rules. In the design of spaces for physical well-being, attention should be paid to the movability, adjustability and even drawability of benches. In addition to customisable parameters, cosmetic factors such as the use of colour, light levels and the optimum height of the room, which varies according to age, are also important – the latter includes how a net can be used to expand and contract the space without the need for rebuilding. When designing the height , it is important to ensure that the teacher can move around safely and unhindered, while the students can learn comfortably in a space that is large but not overwhelming.

Monica goes into particular detail on readability. Just as in animals with more complex nervous systems, we humans also develop a kind of mental map of where we live, and are thus able to orient ourselves. Everyone’s main landmarks in a locality are the places that are most important to them, and they are defined in different ways – some people name streets, some people name landmarks, others give directions by describing routes from particular points. In the same way, it is often useful, for example, to use letters and colours to indicate the wings of buildings and to mark the paths leading to them with coloured lines on the floor. However you increase legibility, you already reduce the stress of orientation and increase attachment to the space.

The quality criterion specifically mentioned in the volume is adaptability. In addition to the physical parameters and learning styles of learners and teachers, and the needs of the local society, there are many other determinants that should be taken into account when designing learning spaces.

Where is Hungary now?

Hungarian teachers, with few exceptions, have no prior training in the subject, but they have gained a lot of practical experience of teaching spaces in their work – the question is how much awareness they have of them. The National Curriculum has already adopted the concept of learning environments in its vocabulary, but not yet in its approach.

Finland, often cited as a model, is also mentioned by Mónika: in the Nordic country, teachers are also specifically trained to create learning environments. The training is based on the knowledge to be imparted and the nature of the knowledge, and the teachers who complete the training develop their methodology and adapt the infrastructure accordingly.

In addition to clarifying the knowledge transfer needs, teachers need to place themselves and their students in the learning environment. Mónika is adamant that many people do not dare to think about this because it can lead to uncomfortable realisations. Because it is difficult to switch to new methods that prove to be better, because it requires admitting that you have not been doing something very well. This mental process is particularly difficult when our previous practice was considered successful in our professional circles.

Advice for teachers and institutions

In Hungarian education, the identification defined in the volume as a qualitative argument is often violated. Mónika also mentions that it would be worthwhile to lead by example in terms of learning, so that we can expect learning not only from our students, but also from ourselves. One of the key points of her value proposition to the teaching profession is that by stepping outside the textbook framework, you will never deliver the same material in the same way, and this variety will give you a flow experience in every lesson. If this is a way of getting pupils to identify with their school and other spaces in their learning environment, they are more likely to follow the rules and apply what they have learned in the absence of the teacher.

Mónika also made some initial steps and recommendations for heads of institutions and teachers:

• Thematise sustainability, talk to your colleagues about aspects of the environment
• Give more positive feedback to teachers! Beyond the end-of-year flower bouquets, we need feedback that colleagues can learn from.
• Let’s see other situations in other institutions and professional circles! Get to know external – even foreign – practices, get some benchmarks!
• Let’s experience community planning! Instead of a spontaneous two-hour afternoon meeting, the experience of a methodologically sound, expert-led session will inspire you to adopt a new approach. Even the leaders of Learnitect Design Ltd. can provide solutions!
• Finally, a strategic guideline to keep in mind from the very beginning of the process: align your communication, the system’s hidden messages and the physical environment!

Members of the episode:

Mónika Réti, teacher of biology and chemistry, pedagogical expert, teacher at the Boronkay György Technical Technical College and High School of the Váci Vocational Training Centre, author of several pedagogical studies and several books

Mónika Réti is a biology and chemistry teacher with a special interest in sustainability education and career guidance in the technical-scientific fields, especially for girls and women. She has worked in practically all aspects of education and training. In formal education, as a secondary school teacher and in teacher education and teacher training, as an educational researcher, pedagogical developer and expert, as a member of education policy advisory and expert panels, in international education governance, and in non-formal education as a developer, organiser, trainer and environmental educator of numerous NGO programmes. She enjoys teaching. Mom. She enjoys art and nature as a hobby, and is an active recreationist.

Bertalan Péter Farkas, editor-in-chief of Knowledge Hub podcast, managing director of Learnitect Design Ltd.

Knowledge manager, knowledge management consultant, trainer, project manager, but originally a teacher of geography and history. In his day job, he works as a professional director for one of the largest educational technology companies in the region, as a knowledge manager for education and digital transformation, and as an entrepreneur he is a lover of learning environments and knowledge transfer. After a few years of teaching, he worked for public agencies (Educatio, EMET, Tempus) and headed the Knowledge Management team of the Tempus Public Foundation for almost 6 years. As Managing Director of Learnitect Design Ltd. he is involved in knowledge management and design of learning environments for knowledge transfer, online and offline learning management, design of community spaces and international project management. She conceived the idea for the Node podcast in 2022, which finally became a reality in autumn 2023.