Writing in innovative learning environments and traditional single teacher classrooms: A New Zealand perspective

Learning to write is a critical skill for students to be successful in secondary and tertiary study. The use of digital technologies to support and enhance writing is now pervasive throughout society. Access to digital resources has been argued as a feature of modern, flexible, innovative learning environments (ILEs). Such ILEs have been a noticeable aspect of new builds (and modifications of built schools) in New Zealand over the last 10–15 years; as well as other countries such as Australia, Italy, and Germany. The architectural design of ILE schools in New Zealand often incorporates large learning spaces that can accommodate anything between 50 and 180 students, with 2 to 6 teachers. Although such spaces are supposed to provide for more modern ways of teaching, concerns have been stated about the quality of teaching and learning in areas such as literacy, particularly due to the negative effect of distractions and noise levels in these ILEs. This article explores the perceptions of New Zealand school principals, middle management and teachers on implementing effective teaching of writing in traditional one-teacher classrooms versus ILEs with multiple teachers. An online questionnaire was distributed via national websites and society/group email addresses that are used by educators. Over 300 responses were made, with 295 of these answering questions related specifically to writing. The research found that there were different views between those who had been working in innovative learning environments for longer lengths of time compared to those in traditional classrooms. Strategies to facilitate improved outcomes in writing were varied across the schooling types. Implication for further research is to fill the ‘black hole’ of research that explores the teaching of writing across the two types of school building types.