| Abstract [eng] |
The transition to the new teaching/learning paradigm directly affects the learning and teaching environments: their creation, meaning, material layout, spatial planning and many other aspects. According to Lithuanian educational documents educators are encouraged to organize the teaching process not only in the classroom, but also in various other environments - museums, parks, school yards, etc. nevertheless, there is not a lot of proof of that in real practice. The focus of this research: in many primary schools, the traditional choice of teaching/learning environment prevails - primary education is organized in the classroom. Excursions and field trips are not organized very often, or they don’t have an educational component, so teaching and learning in other settings are more the exceptions than children's day-to-day experience. In this research, answers are sought by looking into the very moment of choice, when educators and, preferably, students choose the environment in which they will organize the teaching/learning process. The objective of the research is the choice of the physical learning environment in the primary education institution. This approach is new it is difficult to find research that can be relied upon. The aim of the research is to investigate what are the features are that help or hinder the diversity of the choice of the physical learning environment in the organization of primary education. Sub-objectives of the study: 1. to reveal the current situation of creation and use of physical learning/teaching environment in the context of primary education; 2. to find out the “strict” and “free” elements of the formation and use of the physical learning/teaching environment; 3. to describe and substantiate the model of 6 socio-geographical teaching/learning bands; 4. to investigate which factors help and which hinder the diversity of choice of learning environments, based on the model of 6 bands. The research uses the methodology of descriptive phenomenology. A qualitative research strategy is used, analyzing the relevant documents and the data of the written survey. Research methods: a relatively unstructured document analysis, a case study, a written survey to explore teachers' opinions, and qualitative content analysis. The results of the research showed that a large part of the education community's efforts is spent on finding out which learning spaces to choose, how and who should choose them, but does not delve into the question of why one or another environment should be chosen in a real learning situation. Another factor is that the moment of choice is not experienced in its fullness, because of the lack of conscious understanding of what it consists of. Based on empirical research, it is concluded that the stagnation of the choice of different learning environments is caused by factors such as the absence of certain conditions (eg. lack of finance, human resources), as well as the lack of a sense of security and ownership, when it comes to more physically remote spaces. |
