Transitional Space in Active Learning: Perspectives from an Undergraduate STEM Education Context

Abstract

There is increasing evidence, particularly in STEMM higher education, that traditional didactic transmission lecturing is less effective than more active, student-centred learning. This has resulted in ongoing curriculum review and pedagogic transformation at the research-intensive institution studied and elsewhere across a changing sector. However, the examination of active learning was generally confined to instructional contexts and has assumed that undergraduate students successfully transition between timetabled and non-timetabled learning. The expectation for greater self-directed learning associated with the sector-wide shift to blended learning presents an argument for better understanding student engagement with and perception of transition. This study took a phenomenological approach to using naturalistic ethnographic observation (60 observations) and field interviews (50 interviews), in combination with automated occupancy monitoring data, to capture student transitions in two different departmental settings: Chemical Engineering and Physics. Studying physical, temporal, cognitive and social transitions in to and out of timetabled face-to-face lectures led to the definition of on-ramp, medial and off-ramp transitional spaces. These findings informed an institutional redesign of a raked lecture theatre and adjacent foyer space, which provided an opportunity to implement and test the operational impact of these research ideas with educators, architects and other practitioners. A subsequent phase of data collection included in-depth interviews with 4 students and 3 lecturers which reported transitions in behaviour, perception and expectation to actively learn in the refurbished and other learning spaces. Bioecological theory formed a framework for better understanding student transition in relation to strategy and physical/conceptual infrastructure as nested systems of influence. Transitional learning spaces within and at the fringe of classrooms are of increasing importance and might be imagined as ecotones to better understand and support blended learning in an increasingly complex post-COVID HE ecosystem.