Constructivist views on learning assume that student active participation in shaping their learning environment is a fundamental condition for learning (Land, Hannafin & Oliver, 2012). The aims of this paper are firstly to throw a light on students’ ideas about good learning environment (space for learning) and secondly to explore how the actual arrangement of physical learning environment fit with students’ ideas. Data were collected in nine upper secondary schools in Iceland (16 – 20 years old students) by classroom observation in 134 lessons where the environment was carefully described. The descriptions include among other the layout, furniture and technology. Seventeen group interviews with students were conducted in the same schools by using Diamond ranking methods (Woolner, 2010). Pictures were used to learn about students’ attitudes about good and bad spaces for learning. They were given eleven photos of different arrangement and asked to rank nine of them in diamond shape, with the best place at the top and the worst at the bottom. Preliminary results indicate that the physical environment in upper secondary schools’ classrooms is rather traditional with students sitting at individual tables in rows and the teacher located in the front of the room. The students seem to acknowledge this arrangement as they know it best and it was most often ranked somewhere in the middle of the diamond. They liked sitting in a group with-out though being requested to work together but rather being able to freely consult each other.

Land, S., Hannafin, M. J. & Oliver, K. (2012). Student-centered learning environments: Foundations, as-sumptions and design. In Jonasson & Land, S. (Eds.), Theoretical foundations of learning environ-ments, (second edition, pp. 3–25). New York and London: Routledge Woolner, P. (2010), Pictures are necessary but not sufficient: using a range of visual methods to engage users about school design. Learning Evironments Research, 13(1), 1-22.