PLACE-MAKING FOR COLLABORATIVE, INFORMAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

The 21st century learning environments are rapidly evolving from instructor-focused formal teaching environments of the past to students-focused, peer based, team oriented, and collaborative, informal learning environments. Although the podium based formal classroom environments have not gone away completely, informal spaces for collaborative teaching and learning are becoming as important as the formal learning environments today. These authors adapted qualitative research methods including literature reviews, precedent studies, and observations of students of various colleges of a university to understand how tools, technology, furniture, and relationships between students influence place making decisions for collaborative learning environments. The authors also observed the progression of group work to understand the associated social, psychological, and physical reasoning behind body movement and tool, furniture, and resource relocation, to best understand the root of actions, and identify patterns in each observation. In this paper these researchers discuss their findings that reveal trends in place making for the collaborative informal learning environments.