Open-Space Learning offers a unique resource to educators wishing to develop a workshop model of teaching and learning. Despite the vast attention paid to the growth of virtual learning environments in higher education, the authors argue that there is still real value to interaction in the classroom. Drawing on the expertise of the CAPITAL Centre at the University of Warwick they show how the techniques of the theatrical rehearsal room are applicable and highly effective across a wide range of disciplines. The book offers rich case-study materials, supplemented by video and documentary resources available to readers electronically. These practical elements are combined with a discursive strand, which draws on the methods of teaching developed by practitioners such as Paulo Freire and by thinkers such as Vygotsky and David A. Kolb, to develop a formal theory around the notion of Open-space Learning.
Nicholas Monk is Research Fellow at the CAPITAL Centre, University of Warwick. He was the winner of Warwick's 2008/9 Butterworth Award for Teaching Excellence. His research interests include the relationship between pedagogy and performance; performance and performativity in native literatures; the literatures of the American Southwest, theories of modernity; and the 'postsecular' in society.