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A+ Education
A+ Education
Refining my question to be more focused on the links between physical space, learning design and student learning led to clarity and more relevant results through Google Scholar. Even though inquiry learning doesn't appear in some of my search strings, there is a trend within studies on learning space to focus on student-centred, constructivist approaches to teaching and learning.
I decide to take a moment to reflect on my topic by updating my mind map analysis. This helps me to feel more focused and clear with my inquiry.
Mindmap by me using Lucidchart.
Thesaurus
Thesaurus
I head straight to the thesaurus to ensure the terms I'm using are precise. This feature solves the big problem I faced with Google - we all use different terms to describe the same thing, or the same term to describe different things.
Inquiry learning
Inquiry learning
Use - inquiry
Related terms to explore - active learning
Learning environment
Learning environment
Use - learning activities
Related terms - learning strategies, class activities
Physical space
Physical space
Use - classroom design
Related terms - class organisation, classroom furniture, flexible facilities, multipurpose classrooms, educational facilities design
Searching
Searching
9 results.
The theme here is around how pedagogy should drive the design and use of space, some highly relevant articles including:
7 results.
Similar results as the first search with one new and relevant article:
- Spaces for learning: a teacher's perspective - from a school designed to support inquiry learning.
15 results.
This is where I decided to focus in on the activities and interactions of students, and apply my knowledge of inquiry learning to focus in on the relevant ones.
It has provided a lot of relevant articles which use terms like "student-centred" "collaborative" and "flexible spaces".
Two particularly interesting articles:
- How to design integrated and flexible spaces
- From tiers to tables - enhancing student experience through collaborative learning spaces
4 results.
Relevant, same as the previous search.
Reflection
Reflection
A+ Education has provided fewer results than Google and Scholar, but all of very high relevance. The thesaurus feature was a huge time saver as it helped me search using precise language. I also used the related terms to help expand the search.
I really appreciated that all articles were Australian. This meant they referred to curriculum and pedagogy trends relevant to my context.
Proquest
Proquest
I found Proquest less useful than A+ Education. The thesaurus provided terms that didn't accurately reflect my inquiry. It yielded far more results than A+ but most from tertiary education and those relating to "environment" rather than spatial design.
Differentiation
Differentiation
Between the third and eighth week of embryonic development, cells begin to differentiate, leading to the development of organs. We use the term organ to describe an organisational level between tissues and organ systems.
I feel that my inquiry so far has swung from being too vague to being too specific. In this part of my search I'm starting to see the development of an organisational level in between these zones - the sweet spot of inquiry.
The thesaurus function used in A+ Education and Proquest helped me to differentiate the terms I was searching for. By using precise terms I found highly relevant articles. As a result I've been far more critical about the articles I may choose to curate.
CC BY-SA 2.0 | lunar caustic
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