An Ecological Framework for Learning Environments: A Guide to Holistic Curriculum Evaluation and Research

This chapter revisits foundational understandings for learning environments research while demonstrating how studies can be enhanced through the complementary use of multiple methodologies. In a broad sense, learning environments include psychosocial dimensions, but also encompass the physical location and configuration of educational settings. Learning environments further include factors, such as lesson materials and pedagogies, that reflect a curriculum of “technique” where pedagogical practice (including expertise, knowledge, and culture) is important. In this chapter, an “ecological” framework is revisited to illustrate this broader concept of learning environments. Described through a series of research vignettes related to an exemplar study, the model references an “ecology” of factors (people, places, and pedagogies) that together influence how learning environments are conceptualized and experienced. The example presented examines a unique, environmentally focused teacher education program offered in partnership with First Nations and a UNESCO Biosphere region. Student perceptions of this field-based program are measured using learning environment instruments measuring perceptions of “place-based and constructivist environments” and “school physical or campus environments.” In addition, a newly developed instrument focusing on student perceptions of important pedagogical factors, Freedom, Affiliation, Culture, and Equity, is described and piloted. These surveys are augmented by complementary qualitative methods, including interviews, student journal entries, and arts-based forms of inquiry. Taken together, these methods model a holistic form of learning environments research that is congruent with the true complexity of learning as it occurs “in the field.” The framework and exemplar study illustrates how multiple lenses (physical, psychosocial, and pedagogical) can jointly describe the unique learning environments encountered in field-based education settings.