CREST project – repurposing of educational buildings and spaces

CREST project – repurposing of educational buildings and spaces by Anna Dargiewicz | anna.dargiewicz@ubc.net

The European project entitled Creative Repurposing of Educational Spaces for Innovative Student-centred Environments (CREST) has been launched in the end of 2020. It addresses the ways of how and where the learning and teaching processes take place. The aim of the project is to build a model for repurposing of educational buildings and spaces to accommodate student-centred learning through the perspective of learning environment. The UBC is a partner in this project.

An important part of the first phase is the identification of needs of different stakeholders involved in management and re-purposing of educational and public spaces. The UBC conducted a survey on repurposing of educational buildings and spaces to foster and promote student centred learning in UBC member cities. The results prove the municipal cooperation with the HE institutions is quite extensive and different stakeholders are involved in the planning and designing processes. The survey shows however, that collecting the needs of students and teachers concerning the educational spaces is not a common practice. The UBC member cities’ input will be crucial for development of a model for repurposing of educational buildings and spaces based on collaboration and involvement of all relevant actors.

What is Student-centred learning (SCL)?

Up until the 20th century the teaching environment resembled the industrial economy, since the main purpose was to deliver a message to a large group, which sat in silence, listening and taking notes.

A definition of SCL, put forward by McCombs and Whisler, has been widely used and encompasses the major parts of the concept: ”the perspective that couples a focus on individual learners (their heredity, experiences, perspectives, backgrounds, talents, interests, capacities and needs) with a focus on learning (the best available knowledge about learning and how it occurs and about teaching practices that are most effective in promoting the highest levels of motivation, learning and achievement for all learners).”

CREST project is financed by Erasmus+ programme. It will be implemented in 2020–2022 by 6 partners from 5 countries: Slovenia (University of Ljubljana), Lithuania (MB HOMO EMINENS, VDU), Croatia (Culture Hub), Belgium (Out of the Box International) and UBC.