A huge congratulations to C4IE PhD scholar, Elise Bray, who has advanced to the QUT Three Minite Thesis (3MT Finals)! Elise’s research explores how students on the autism spectrum experience learning in contemporary flexible learning spaces. She is supervised by Professor Beth Saggers and Dr Natalie Wright.
Learn more about Elise’s research
School learning environments are changing, with innovative and flexible spaces being designed in an effort to improve student outcomes and 21st century learning skills such as collaboration and problem solving. Within these new spaces, students encounter adjustments to the learning environment that often include increased incorporation of technology, changes to teaching practices and social and sensory elements of the environment. For students on the autism spectrum (ASD) who may experience difficulty with processing changing environments and stimuli, the increased collaborative pedagogy, noise levels and movement is under researched and may intensify anxiety levels, impacting their learning, academic performance and wellbeing.
With the intention of ensuring school learning environments promote inclusion and wellbeing for all students, this study will focus on capturing the experiences of students with ASD in contemporary flexible learning spaces. Using a qualitative approach, the interaction of the students with their peers, teachers and their learning environment will be explored as they navigate their learning within these spaces. Student perspectives and experiences of potential barriers or enablers will provide insights that can inform future changes in policy and practice, importantly addressing the need to prioritise student voice in teaching, learning and educational design considerations.
Learn more about QUT’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT)
3MT is an international competition which cultivates graduate students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. Graduate researchers have just 3 minutes to explain their research and its significance in a compelling speech. 3MT challenges graduate researchers to consolidate their ideas and research discoveries so they can be presented concisely to a non-specialist audience.