Nordplus Horizontal continues funding transdisciplinary Nordic collaboration on learning environment design and research
How do school environments support teaching, learning, and wellbeing? What are the affordances or action possibilities of open, enclosed, and flexible spaces for teachiing, learning, and wellbeing in Nordic schools?
These questions were at the heart of Impact of Learning Environment Design on Teaching, Learning, and Wellbeing: A Nordic Perspective (“LED Nordic 1.0”), a project led by Senior Researcher Tiina Mäkelä representing the Innovative Learning Environments research group at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research (FIER), University of Jyväskylä.
One of the main objectives of LED Nordic 1.0 was to build a multidisciplinary knowledge base of Nordic research on learning environments, including the methods used to study them. A second objective was to pilot innovative research instruments and explore their applicability across the Nordic countries.
The project report presents findings from an initial review of 116 Nordic publications, together with results from the pilot studies. The pilot studies included extensive photo documentation exploring how affordances and action possibilities of open, enclosed, and flexible spaces can support teaching, learning, wellbeing, and inclusion in Nordic schools.
The literature review shows that relationships between pedagogy and space are widely studied across the Nordic countries using a diverse range of research methods. At the same time, the review identified a notable gap: teachers’ spatial competences have received comparatively little attention in Nordic research.
The pilot studies illustrated how Nordic schools combine flexible spatial solutions with diverse opportunities for learning, wellbeing and inclusion. It is evident, however, that providing high-quality spaces alone does not guarantee that their full potential will be realised. Teachers also need to be able to recognise and shape the physical learning environment as an active and responsive part of their educational practice. Without support for teachers’ spatial competences, the potential of learning spaces may remain underutilised.
Read the publication:
Mäkelä, T., Pierroux, P., Bøjer, B. H., Hjartarson, T., Campbell, C., Lang, M., Kattilakoski, R., Lehtonen, S., Stavem, S. M., Haase, K., Friðþjófsdóttir, Þ. E., Cederlund, I., Pallaskorpi, P., Kankaanranta, M., & Fisk, M. (2026). Impact of learning environment design on teaching, learning, and wellbeing: a Nordic perspective. University of Jyväskylä, Finnish institute for educational research (FIER). Reports and Working Papers, 21. https://doi.org/10.17011/ktl-rt/21
From research gap to next steps
Building on gaps identified in the published report Impact of Learning Environment Design on Teaching, Learning, and Wellbeing: A Nordic Perspective (“LED Nordic 1.0”), the new LED Nordic 2.0 project will focus on teachers’ spatial competences and their role in supporting student learning, inclusion, and wellbeing.
LED Nordic 2.0 takes the identified research gap as the point of departure for a series of five thematic workshops, each hosted by one of the respective partner countries. The project is led by Professor Palmyre Pierroux at the Department of Education, University of Oslo, and builds directly on findings from LED Nordic 1.0. The overall aim is to strengthen cross-sector knowledge sharing on learning environment research and design in the Nordic countries.
LED Nordic 2.0 partners and collaborators:
Norway: U. of Oslo (coordinator), Norconsult Norge AS, OsloMet
Finland: U. of Jyväskylä , Oppimaisema, Tmi Raija Kattilakoski, City of Helsinki
Denmark: Royal Danish Academy, City of Gladsaxe
Iceland: U. of Iceland, City of Reykjavik
Sweden: Umeå University, Ecophon
