Since 2018, my teaching design and implementation have been informed by Diana Laurillard’s Conversational Framework (Laurillard, 2012). This framework has helped me think more systematically about how meaningful learning is created through the interaction between teaching intentions, student activity, feedback, reflection, and adaptation. In my own context, it has supported the design of authentic, technology-enabled learning experiences that help students in the built environment move beyond receiving information towards developing professional judgement.
Theoretical Foundation
Laurillard’s Conversational Framework has provided an important foundation for how I think about teaching and learning. It emphasises that learning is strengthened when students are not only introduced to concepts, but are also given opportunities to discuss, practise, receive feedback, reflect, and adapt their understanding. This has been especially valuable in my teaching because it aligns closely with my belief that students learn more meaningfully when they actively engage with ideas, apply them in context, and refine their thinking through structured learning experiences.
Why This Matters in Built Environment Teaching & Learning
In the built environment, professional learning requires more than acquiring information. Students must learn to interpret conditions, diagnose problems, justify decisions, and respond responsibly to real and often complex situations. Laurillard’s framework is particularly useful in this context because it supports learning design that moves between explanation, dialogue, application, feedback, and reflection. This makes it possible to create learning experiences that are both academically grounded and professionally meaningful.
How I Apply the Framework
In practice, I apply this framework by designing learning experiences that combine several forms of learning activity. These include discursive elements, where students engage with concepts and ideas; interactive and practice-based elements, where they work with tasks, cases, or realistic scenarios; adaptive elements, where they respond to feedback and refine their understanding; and reflective elements, where they consider what their learning means and how it connects to professional action. This helps ensure that teaching is not reduced to content delivery alone, but becomes a more complete learning process.
Core Design Principles
The following principles guide how I translate this framework into practice
Authentic Contexts
Learning activities should connect with realistic professional situations so that students can see the relevance of what they are learning.
Learning activities should connect with realistic professional situations so that students can see the relevance of what they are learning.
Dialogue and Engagement
Learning should create opportunities for students to discuss, question, explain, and test their understanding rather than remain passive recipients.
Learning should create opportunities for students to discuss, question, explain, and test their understanding rather than remain passive recipients.
Practice and Application
Students should work with tasks that require them to apply ideas, interpret evidence, and make reasoned decisions.
Students should work with tasks that require them to apply ideas, interpret evidence, and make reasoned decisions.
Feedback and Adaptation
Learning design should create opportunities for students to respond to guidance, improve their work, and refine their understanding.
Learning design should create opportunities for students to respond to guidance, improve their work, and refine their understanding.
Reflection
Students should be encouraged to think about what they have learned, how they learned it, and how it applies to future situations.
Students should be encouraged to think about what they have learned, how they learned it, and how it applies to future situations.
Purposeful Use of Technology
Technology should be used deliberately to support interaction, participation, structure, feedback, and reflection.
Technology should be used deliberately to support interaction, participation, structure, feedback, and reflection.
My Teaching in Practice
Guided by Laurillard’s Conversational Framework, my teaching aims to create learning environments in which students actively build understanding through engagement, application, feedback, and reflection. Over time, this has shaped how I design courses, learning activities, assessment, and technology-supported teaching. It has also strengthened my commitment to creating learning that is authentic, professionally relevant, and capable of developing sound judgement in the built environment.