Abstract
As the evolution of information ecosystems has accelerated across higher education, learning commons have become iconic places celebrating the changing nature of student learning. These places have become important symbolic centres in higher education today, combining the goals of equitable education together with access to unprecedented layers of curated information. Yet, educators and administrators have found it difficult to describe and analyse how learning processes are changing and how the layered and deeply interrelated learning behaviours of students are changing over time. But in a larger sense, the space of a shared commons dedicated to learning has the potential to function not just as a place of associated symbolic meaning, but also as an adaptive system in itself; not just the setting for observing changing ways of learning, but an active participant in shaping a landscape of change . We introduce a theoretical model, research method and case study in order to better understand the collective nature of learning in the commons, how space and learning are interrelated in these spaces, and how learning commons can be managed to actively adapt to the specific needs of institutions.
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The term complementarity is used by Bohr (1950) to describe the associative nature of complex interdependent systems.
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Academic learning (the transmission of structured canons of knowledge) is a subset of a much larger set of natural learning that occurs in and outside of places of higher learning. Within Anglo-European universities, an understanding of a larger set of possible learning has long been acknowledged through tri-partite missions statements including (1) transmitting vetted academic content, (2) inculcating norms and (3) managing systems for evaluating new information (Bruner, 1960; Dewey, 1938/1997; Flexner, 1930, 2017).
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The idea that the process of learning must be separate from the design of facilities is commonly held and learning assessment has consistently evaluated students in disregard to their physical and social surroundings. This is noted by omission by Kuh et al. (2015) in their comprehensive review of student assessment in higher education. Bennett (2011) also noted a similar conclusion: ‘The landmark report How People Learn (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999) is silent on space design and exemplifies the neglect of the physical environment in understanding learning behaviors’.
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The neuroscientist Donald Hebb’s 1949 theory of neural development closely aligns with Dewey’s understanding of instruction based on learned associations of past experience. See Carrillo-Reid 2016 and Pfeiffer and Foster 2015 for recent documentation of Hebbian learning at the synaptic level in vivo.
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In Cognitive Psychology (Bruner, 1986; Levine, Resnick, & Higgins, 1993; Neisser et al., 1996), Developmental Psychology (Bonawitz et al., 2011; Kaufman et al., 2016; Shonkof & Phillips, 2001), Educational Psychology (Bransford et al., 2006), Developmental Neuroscience (Blair, 2006) and Education (Ambrose et al., 2010).
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The quantitative design for recording video concluded with a Letter of Determination that this portion of the study was not human subject research. A second survey design for the qualitative data gathering was reviewed and accepted as well.
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The conclusion raises an open question regarding the content of information learned during acts of learning and how inclusive a definition one uses for social learning. In practice, informal conversation involving non-academic activities (pop concerts, pub crawls and the like) among university students has been shown to reflect established trusted channels of communication used for both academic and ‘social’ information (Dunbar, 1992; Dunbar, Marriott, & Duncan, 1997).
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Johnson, W.M., Khoo, M.J. (2018). Analysing the Learning Commons in the Digital Age. In: Ellis, R., Goodyear, P. (eds) Spaces of Teaching and Learning. Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7155-3_7
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