Open and flexible spaces also create more collaborative communities of practice for teachers.
Having access to the teaching practice of your colleagues to model and to be modeled to, supports
the development of effective teaching practice far more than teaching in an isolated, private space.
This ‘de-privatisation of practice’ means that honest exploration of teacher strengths and
weaknesses can take place in an open and supportive environment.
Beginning and provisionally-registered teachers have far more support around them in open
learning spaces. Their progress can be monitored, supported and celebrated by their more
experienced colleagues and ongoing low-level mentoring is easy to put in place because they have
seasoned professionals to the left and the right of them.
Modern learning spaces can support teaching as inquiry better than single-cell classrooms.
Working in an open, flexible learning environment where inquiries are shared, interventions
devised collaboratively and reflections based on both self and peer observations, leads to a more
robust, continuously improving community of practice.
Reflective
Questions