Description:
Makerspaces are recent additions to schools and have been promoted as a means of developing STEM knowledge and skills. According to literature, the practical nature of making supports deeper engagement with STEM concepts and enhances development of STEM capabilities such as creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration. However, to date, limited empirical work has been completed investigating STEM learning in school makerspaces. This article reports outcomes from a study of 24 classroom makerspaces, where 5-8-year olds used 3D printing technology to design and develop artefacts responding to different problems, needs and opportunities. Findings were mixed, with evidence supporting makerspaces as effective for STEM skill and disposition development but more limited in their capacity to build STEM knowledge, unless this was explicitly identified and targeted by teachers. This paper questions assumptions about makerspaces as implicitly effective for STEM knowledge-building, arguing that teachers must specifically target conceptual outcomes in planning and teaching if makerspaces are to be effective for this purpose. Also, findings suggest the need to rethink how makerspaces contribute to holistic STEM literacy development, moving beyond current perspectives focused on learning about STEM, to one where makerspaces are viewed as epistemic environments beneficial to knowledge-building, of STEM. Findings will be of value to educators considering makerspaces as a component of STEM curriculum and infrastructure development. [Author abstract]
Description:
Ancient social systems have exhibited constructs of scholarships based on social configurations and requirements that have involved tribal, temple, village or palace elders teaching and developing their apprentices using oral communication such as storytelling, recitation of recipes, formulas and chants, plus work in the field itself as young people developed as midwives, shamans, carpenters, and so on. While writing is a mighty technological achievement of some 5,000 years ago, perhaps even mightier is that of the printing press about 500 years ago. It is generally held to be the development that marked the end of Medieaval times, and has had an even more profound an effect than the first moon landing, so much did it shake the foundations of society. For one thing, the same elders entrusted with the education of the young were able to use print as part of their education protocols. This in itself enabled a shift in constructs of scholarship, as it was possible to record in print what had formerly been kept in memory. The possibilities that emerged were those of teaching learners how to develop knowledge from information, and not rely on information alone. Such possibilities have not really been taken up until fairly recent times. Emerging new paradigms present scholarship in the light of information work whose dependence on information storage systems has already transformed the relationship between scholarship and libraries to a stage where the dominant partner is the library, scholarship becoming marginalised in the so-called information age. Such a sea change requires a major adjustment on the part of both partners in what has for so long been a most productive relationship. To be able to understand the magnitude and order of the change, it is necessary to take a close look at what has underpinned it for so long. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Description:
Ancient social systems have exhibited constructs of scholarships based on social configurations and requirements that have involved tribal, temple, village or palace elders teaching and developing their apprentices using oral communication such as storytelling, recitation of recipes, formulas and chants, plus work in the field itself as young people developed as midwives, shamans, carpenters, and so on. While writing is a mighty technological achievement of some 5,000 years ago, perhaps even mightier is that of the printing press about 500 years ago. It is generally held to be the development that marked the end of Medieaval times, and has had an even more profound an effect than the first moon landing, so much did it shake the foundations of society. For one thing, the same elders entrusted with the education of the young were able to use print as part of their education protocols. This in itself enabled a shift in constructs of scholarship, as it was possible to record in print what had formerly been kept in memory. The possibilities that emerged were those of teaching learners how to develop knowledge from information, and not rely on information alone. Such possibilities have not really been taken up until fairly recent times. Emerging new paradigms present scholarship in the light of information work whose dependence on information storage systems has already transformed the relationship between scholarship and libraries to a stage where the dominant partner is the library, scholarship becoming marginalised in the so-called information age. Such a sea change requires a major adjustment on the part of both partners in what has for so long been a most productive relationship. To be able to understand the magnitude and order of the change, it is necessary to take a close look at what has underpinned it for so long. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Description:
Makerspaces have been heralded as an effective way to support the development of 21st Century and STEM capabilities, yet there is a paucity of systematic, multiple-case analysis to guide educator and researcher practice. This collective case study examined 24 primary school classroom contexts to understand what supports and constrains learning and teaching in technology-oriented makerspaces. Thematic analysis of 24 teacher in-situ reflective journals and focus group interviews of all teacher participants revealed 19 supports and 11 constraints, relating to pedagogy, task design, learner attributes, technological factors, the school environment, and teacher capabilities and beliefs. These were used to form an evidence-based framework for learning and teaching in makerspaces. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research which has tended to be anecdotal and based on single cases. Implications for future teaching, research and policy initiatives are also detailed.