The issue of learning and teaching space in education is viewed and addressed differently depending on the level of education that is being the focus of attention. While there are numerous scholarly articles, state standards and policies developed and published regarding design of learning spaces in pre-university education (see the survey by Clark 2002), the same cannot be said for higher education. A similar situation is clear also in the education system of Western Balkan countries. Whereas there are standards and norms set that regulate learning and teaching areas in pre-university education, there is little to no such policies and regulations providing for the higher education sector (Xhavit Rexhaj, 2020).  In a paper discussing learning and teaching space in higher education Paul Temple states that: “consideration of space in higher education has commonly taken place either in the context of space planning, or as part of campus master-planning and architecture, rather than being seen as a resource to be managed as an integral part of teaching and learning, and research, activities (Temple, 2008). Only more recently, Elkington and Bligh (2019) have led a group that explored different ways in which spaces are used by institutions to improve learning and teaching environments in a selected group of higher education institutions (taken from (James Williams, 2021)).

Regardless of the differences between levels of education, or the presence or absence of norms and standards about learning and teaching space, it can be noted that all education is about human formation, which in turn can be regarded as an emotional, collective, sustained, and, ultimately spatial event (Pablo Campos Calvo Sotelo, 2021). In a book section on the changes in design of learning space, Katja Ninnemann goes further seeing educational space as “the third pedagogue” (Ninnemann & Jahnke, 2018).

The above is only confirmed by the recent Covid-19 pandemics that has pushed learning and teaching space in education to the foreground of educational provision globally. Hundreds of millions of students in all levels of education were made to connect online to attend classes in all levels of education. Learning and teaching space, namely the concept of learning environment, expanded into the virtual realm to gain new understandings and new arrangements for best utilization in the new circumstances. So did change the role of all other factors in the education process: teachers, parents, students, schools, homes, textbooks, teaching and learning resources, education authorities, and so on. The focus of educational practices shifted slightly away from schools, teachers, and school textbooks to include more actively homes, virtual space and resources, and parents.

It is worth pointing out that online and distance learning and the virtual learning environment cannot be considered novelties – they have been around for decades, even before the advent of electronic media and of internet more recently. However, the paradigm shift in learning and teaching space in education that came as a result of Covid-19, more forcefully pushed to the foreground technological advances in the field of computer technologies and internet. As a result, ever more frequently one is hearing about the new post-Covid normal, aware that there can be no return to the pre-Covid paradigms, understanding and practices, not only in education.

The mind-boggling changes brought about by technological advances in the form of social media, online networks, platforms, and applications, virtual reality and so on, have also been reflected in the psychological, social, and cultural realms. While they have brought people together across the globe, simultaneously they appear to have isolated us from the people around us.

Education does not make an exception in this regard: there has been a substantial shift in the quality of interaction in the education sector in all levels. Numerous universities are considering to transitioning permanently online; one of the key qualifications for a teacher nowadays is the ability to carry out instruction online; online platforms in education are taking on important functions of education systems in the fields of monitoring, student assessment, provision of resources and so on. Key developments and changes have taken place also in the school and higher education curricula reflected in the teaching and learning methodologies, textbooks, and teaching and learning resources to name only a few.

In this broader context, it has become vital to review principles, policies, and approaches in the field of learning and teaching space in education, to build a new understanding of the learning environment, and to find ways for a more organic alignment of the T&L space with the curricula.

This Regional Conference on Learning and Teaching Space in Education is organized with technical support from implementing partner institutions of the project “Learning and Teaching Space in Higher Education”. A regional round table discussion[1] on the Principles of Design of Learning and Teaching Space in Higher Education is organized back-to-back with the Regional Conference, as part of implementation of activities of the “Learning and Teaching Space in Higher Education.”[2]

[1] financed by AAB College and from funds of the Erasmus Plus funded LTSHE Project.

[2] https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/eplus-project-details/#project/2019-1-UK01-KA203-061968