Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) at ECER 2026

The symposium entailed various projects that the ILE research group has been involved in:

• International Innovative Learning Environments and Student Experience (ILESE) by Amelia R. Granda-Pinan  (U. of Valencia, Spain), Tiina Mäkelä  (U. of Jyväskylä), Wesley Imms  (U. of Melbourne, Australia), Julia Morris  (Edith Cowan University, Australia)
• Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Learning Environment Design (“MultiLED”): by Pirjo Sanaksenaho  (Aalto University, Finland), Tiina Mäkelä, Paula Cardellino  (U. ORT, Uruguay), Claudia Auer  (Aalto University)
• A Nordic perspective on the impact of LE design on teaching, learning, and wellbeing (“LED Nordic”)  by Tiina Mäkelä, Bodil Hovaldt Bøjer  (Royal Danish Academy), Palmyre Pierroux  (U. of Oslo, Norway), Torfi Hjartarson  (U. of Iceland)
• Evolving General Learning Space Layout Typologies in Finnish School Buildings by Sari Lehtonen  (Aalto University), Markku Lang  (University of Lapland), Tiina Mäkelä and Raija Kattilakoski  (Positiimi, Finland)
• “Collaborative Learning Communities for Redesigning Primary Education Towards Innovative and Sustainable Learning Environments” (ISLE) project  by  Anneli Frelin (University of Gävle), Silvia Panzavolta (INDIRE, Italy), Leonidas Kyriakides (University of Cyprus)

International group of Learning Environment Design researchers participating in the symposium

STE(PA)M at ECER 2026: Bringing Learning into Motion

Dr. Kristóf Fenyvesi, Senior Researcher at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research and Dr. Josephine Lau, University of Jyväskylä, jointly presented: “Active and Embodied STEAM Learning: An Innovative Methodological Framework for Integrating Physical Activity in Teacher Education.”

Kristóf Fenyvesi introducing the conceptual framework of the STE(PA)M

The presentation introduced the conceptual framework of the PA-STE(A)M project by Kristóf Fenyvesi, Josephine Lau (University of Jyväskylä), Abril Armenta Franco, Guillermo Bautista, Zsolt Lavicza (Johannes Kepler University Linz), and Aleksandar Ignjatović (University of Kragujevac). STE(PA)M brings together embodied cognition, interdisciplinary learning, and the neurobiological connections between physical activity and learning. The project also demonstrated two complementary approaches to lesson design: beginning with an engaging movement activity and building curricular learning around it, or beginning with an abstract concept and helping learners experience it through their bodies.

The results of the project STE(PA)M can be found at:

• "Official STE(PA)M project website" (https://stepam.pefja.kg.ac.rs/)
• "STE(PA)M at the University of Jyväskylä" (https://www.jyu.fi/en/projects/stepam)
• "STEPAM project outputs" (https://stepam.pefja.kg.ac.rs/outputs/)
• "Register for the free STE(PA)M MOOC" (https://forms.gle/JJ9tsGEkgr2SF4BWA)
• "Download the STEPAM Handbook" (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22046143)
• "View the ECER 2026 presentation" (sandbox:/workspace/scratch/9339698280ae/upload/PA-STEAM_ECER2026.pdf)

Chairing a Wider ECER Dialogue on Teacher Wellbeing

In addition to presenting the STE(PA)M study, Kristóf Fenyvesi chaired an ECER paper session on professional learning and teacher wellbeing whose four contributions formed an unusually coherent progression from everyday encounters to system-level conditions: an Nordic-US research team reframed joy as an observable professional resource rather than an incidental emotion; a HAMK-led consortium extended research on professional agency and wellbeing to Kenya, South Sudan, and Tanzania; the University of Belgrade’s TEACHEMPOWER study identified belonging as the strongest pathway to support teacher identity; and the University of Minho’s research interpreted dissatisfaction not simply as individual burnout, but as a collective response to declining autonomy, recognition, and professional meaning. Viewed through the Innovative Learning Environments research group’s wellbeing-sensitive perspective, the session’s central novelty was its refusal to reduce teacher wellbeing to personal resilience: relationships, agency, belonging, autonomy, time, and recognition emerged instead as design conditions of the psychosocial learning environment. The discussion suggested that this psychosocial layer is not a “soft” addition to physical and digital learning environments, but a decisive condition for whether either can genuinely support wellbeing. Studying "professional joy in education" is a promising horizon for future comparative research and institutional exchange with ILE.

Doctoral Researcher in the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Jyväskylä, Erika Avikainen joined the research practice partnership sessions by presenting “Teacher Content Creation and Teacher-Researcher Partnerships: Finnish K-12 Teachers’ Expectations of Research Partnerships” to discuss how to make collaboration between researchers and schools and/or teachers mutually beneficial, and addressed real life problems educators and systems face.

Erika Avikainen presenting at the research practice partnership sessions

Contact Information:

Dr. Tiina-Maria Mäkelä tiina.m.makela@jyu.fi 

Dr. Kristóf Fenyvesi kristof.fenyvesi@jyu.fi 

Erika Avikainen erika.ann.avikainen@jyu.fi 

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.