When we think of school, we often picture rows of desks, whiteboards, and standardised schedules. Yet learning does not have to stay within four walls. A well-chosen environment can shift how students engage, what they notice and remember, and how they connect learning with the real world. Teaching outside the classroom opens doors to richer experiences, authentic inquiry, and new forms of collaboration.
With growing interest in alternative learning environments, this article explores why educators should consider place as a design element — not just a location. The ideas below draw on research from Project Zero researcher Daniel Wilson at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, whose study of learning environments emphasises the relationship between purpose, practice, and place.
Key Takeaways:
- Designing for Coherency: A meaningful learning experience depends on how well your learning goals, teaching methods and chosen environment reinforce one another. When taking a lesson outside the classroom, focus on intentionality: consider how the characteristics of the space will support the task, the behaviours you want to see, and the type of thinking students will need to do. A simple starting question is: What about this place that helps students achieve the purpose of this lesson?
- Treating Place as a Learning Tool, Use the Environment to Shape Thinking and Behaviour: Places carry their own affordances — and can function as a setting, a partner, an object of study, or a bridge to bigger questions — from natural surroundings and quiet corners to community spaces rich in culture or history. As an educator, start by identifying one behaviour or way of thinking you want to encourage, such as observation, group collaboration, or reflective discussion, and then decide whether the place will be used at, with, of, or through that environment, choosing a setting whose characteristics naturally support that aim.
- Plan With Learning Paths, Design Sequences of Local Learning Stops: Rich learning environments often exist close to home — in neighbourhoods, parks, local businesses, or libraries — and can be linked together into intentional “learning paths” made up of multiple stops. Beginning with familiar community places helps ground learning in students’ real lives and communities, as seen in models where schools map neighbourhood routes and teach different parts of the curriculum at each stop. To start: consider mapping a sequence of nearby locations that together support upcoming units in your curriculum, each chosen for a specific concept or skill. Even a short visit or simple path with a few stops can deepen understanding, build connections, and spark student curiosity.
Opening up teaching beyond traditional classrooms by intentionally using place invites educators to reimagine learning in a richer, more connected way. When purpose, practice, and place come together, you create opportunities for deeper engagement, real-world connections, and more meaningful learning experiences.
If you are ready to explore this further, we encourage you to examine the work of Project Zero and their Designing Learning Paths resource — it offers a compelling framework for rethinking how you view and design educational spaces.
