While Active Learning Classrooms, or ALCs, offer rich new environments for learning, they present many new challenges to faculty because, among other things, they eliminate the room’s central focal point and disrupt the conventional seating plan to which faculty and students have become accustomed.

The importance of learning how to use these classrooms well and to capitalize on their special features is paramount. The potential they represent can be realized only when they facilitate improved learning outcomes and engage students in the learning process in a manner different from traditional classrooms and lecture halls.

This book provides an introduction to ALCs, briefly covering their history and then synthesizing the research on these spaces to provide faculty with empirically-based, practical guidance on how to use these unfamiliar spaces effectively. 

SPACE: Thoughts, Ideas, Hacks on Learning Space Design by Rebecca Louise Hare and Robert Dillon supports the conversation around this necessary revolution happening in education concerning reshaping school spaces to better support learning. This book goes well beyond the noise on learning space design that focuses on pretty Pinterest classrooms and moves towards a more sophisticated conversation about how learning spaces support and drive brain-friendly learning.

SPACE is a beautifully designed book that respects that reading and learning can happen in a visually appealing way. Hare and Dillon walk educators through a series of questions and ideas on how learning spaces can support collaboration, creation, showcasing learning, and a learner’s need for quiet. In addition to nudging thinking forward, SPACE provides practical design tips and uses images and testimonials for hacking learning spaces on a realistic budget. This book is designed to motivate, grow capacity, and energize educators to begin shifting their learning spaces to support modern learning for all students.