Tinkering in K-12: an exploratory mixed methods study of makerspaces in schools as an application of constructivist learning

Makerspaces have experienced a surge in popularity in recent years, resulting in an influx of Maker education in K-12 settings. While Makerspaces have been studied abundantly in museums, libraries, and in after-school programs, little research has been conducted inside the K- 12 school day. The goal of this study is to discover insights of established Makerspaces inside the K-12 school environment. In this exploratory mixed methods study, educators were survived, examining school and participant demographics, Makerspace setup, as well as intersections of technology, content, and pedagogy. Next, the researcher conducted a follow-up interview with selected participants based on diversity in the following key demographic areas: teacher gender, professional background, and school environment. In order to better understand K-12 implementation of Makerspaces, the study examines seven characteristics of Makerspaces: setting, computational thinking, participant structures, teacher training, gender and racial issues, assessment, and sustainability. The data was examined through TPACK framework with a constructivist approach. Makerspaces can empower students to invent, prototype, and tinker with low-cost technology tools such as microcircuits and fabrication tools such as 3d printers. The goal of this study is to add to the body of literature regarding the role and potential value of Makerspaces in school environments. This exploration of Makerspaces in K-12 setting could be generalized to serve as a guide for teachers who want to establish their own Makerspace

Bridging the In-and-Out of School Divide: Lessons for Supporting Learning in Educational Makerspaces

Makerspaces and the practice known as “making” (creating physical and digital projects through often interdisciplinary, hands-on practices) have sparked interest in the world of educational policy, research, and practice as an opportunity for improving youths’ motivation to engage with: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), social-emotional learning, creativity, equitable learning, and more. The full extent of making’s potential as an education practice is not yet known but continues to be explored both in and out of schools. Through three successive studies, I explore the learning taking place in both in-and-out of school environments and discuss the lessons learned in both settings for understanding and improving educational maker practice across contexts. The first study consists of a gap analysis of prior research literature related to educational making for youth across contexts to inform measurement of learning in schools and research. I identified the gaps between what learning has been measured in research, by what means, for which populations, and categorized learning outcomes based on practices the literature has indicated are critical to the making process. This sparked the need for a deep investigation into relatively unexplored practices that support learning to make and learning through making. The second study expanded upon learning outcomes identified in the gap analysis in an out-of-school setting, a makerspace based on a grant for STEM making in a transitional housing facility for young adults who have left foster care without the support of family, college, and often employment. Through legitimate peripheral participation with a local maker community of practice, the makerspace supported the creative, entrepreneurial, and even therapeutic needs of the youths. The third study captures learning outcomes in a school makerspace. Students in a high school physics class worked as a team to compete locally in a drone-designing challenge and developed documentation practices to share ideas, learn from their mistakes, and get feedback. Taken together, these studies suggest that like youth, practices transform as they inhabit new contexts; a learning practice used in schools offers different affordances to the same practice out of schools. To measure and support learning in educational makerspaces or other learning contexts, one must understand both the educational practice and the larger organizational and cultural context that shapes it

Informing Recommended Makerspace Outcomes Through Linguistic Analytics

An after-school maker club collected student reflections on makerspace projects in different formats over two years: private written reflections captured in the 3D GameLab gamification platform and video-recorded reflections posted in the more social FlipGrid platform. Club mentors selected these documentation platforms on the basis of their motivational affordances thought to encourage club members to document their work. Transcribed documentation was analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) software to generate linguistic profiles for comparison. Differences between written and video-recorded documentation suggest: private, written documentation is more likely to capture evidence of cognitive processing and achievement- or risk-oriented drives, but may be more negative in tone; semi-public, video documentation is more likely to capture evidence of social affiliation-oriented drives and may be more positive in tone. Future research should investigate linguistic impacts given merged approaches of reflective writing for social spaces, or reflective writing in social groups

A Holistic Approach to Makerspaces and Pedagogy: Linking 20th Century Pedagogy with the 21st Century Makerspace Classroom

This major research paper is a narrative account of Makerspaces and my experiences as a teacher who has embraced this pedagogy. Educational reformers are calling for a dramatic shift in educational practice to meet the needs of the 21st Century learner. A Makerspace is an innovative 21st Century concept and describes a space where people can meet to share ideas, collaborate, invent and use hands-on approaches. It is a do-it-yourself movement that often involves technology, such as a 3-D printer, but also may involve knitting needles and a sewing machine. I examine the content, processes and guiding pedagogies within Makerspaces in education. Alternative forms of education such as Reggio Emilia, Waldorf and Montessori are explored to make connections to the Maker Culture. Chapter 4 offers an e-book that is intended as an educator resource. This resource may help educators and school leaders to implement a Makerspace in their own contexts

Informing Makerspace Outcomes Through a Linguistic Analysis of Written and Video-Recorded Project Assessments

A growing body of research focuses on what outcomes to assess in makerspaces, and appropriate formats for capturing those outcomes (e.g. reflections, surveys, and port-folios). Linguistic analysis as a data mining technique holds promise for revealing different dimensions of learning exhibited by students in makerspaces. In this study, student reflections on makerspace projects were gathered in 2 formats over 2 years: private written assessments captured in the 3D GameLab gamification platform, and semi-public video-recorded assessments posted in the more social FlipGrid platform. Transcripts of student assessments were analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) to generate 4 summary variables thought to inform makerspace outcomes of interest (i.e. analytical thinking, authenticity, clout, and emotional tone). Comparative findings indicate that written assessments may elicit more analytical thinking about maker projects compared with less analytical conversation in videos, while video assessments may elicit somewhat higher clout scores as evidence of social scaffolding along with a much more positive emotional tone. Recommendations are provided for layering assessment approaches to maximize the potential benefits of each format, including reflective writing for social spaces, in social groups, and about design processes and procedures

Crafting Community: A Ceramics Center

For artisans, being part of a community can facilitate engaging with the public. Networking and collaborating with peers are vital for building meaningful relationships that can lead to mutual inspiration and learning opportunities. By strengthening the connection between society and various forms of craft, we can weave invisible threads that link the stories that craft tells with the time and place in which they were created. Pottery is a craft that has existed for thousands of years. Ceramics and clay have carried the history of communities and their ways of living through centuries and have been used as identifiers of cultures and civilizations (Noke, 1924). In general, Craft can be defined as “a tool to understand relationships between people, places, time, and materials” (Wilkinson-Weber & DeNicola, 2020). It grants people the ability to materialize history and respond to societal and economic circumstances. The proposed interior design project envisions a ceramics center located in the heart of Richmond, Virginia. Featuring ceramics studios, a coffee shop, a gallery space, a market space for ceramics, and an interactive community space, the project aims to craft a warm and inviting atmosphere that promotes creativity, learning, and community engagement. As a central hub for local artists, and community members, the center will be a unique addition to Richmond’s already vibrant arts scene

MATERIALIZING MAKERSPACES: QUEERLY COMPOSING SPACE, TIME, AND (WHAT) MATTERS

This dissertation project explores makerspaces as non-traditional composing networks where makers work with (and against) unconventional digital and physical materials such as vinyl, cut paper, plastic filament, insects, Xacto blades, pipe cleaners, reclaimed wicker baskets, DNA, Python code, memes, and Raspberry Pi’s. Choosing materiality over multimodality as the best frame for understanding the material-discursive composing practices of makers, I build a queer- and feminist-inflected new materialist research methodology that orients attention toward embodiment, affect, and the production of difference in composing networks. Using playful, game-based data collection protocols, in conjunction with more traditional data sources, as well as three-dimensional analysis models crafted from foam board, yarn, safety pins, and paper, I document and analyze the material and affective dimensions of composing to build case studies around two diverse maker networks. The first case details participants’ making and composing experiences as part of a connectivist MOOC designed to increase STEM/STEAM literacies for underserved youth and youth educators. The second explores high school students’ experiences in “pop-up� makerspaces that are oriented toward 3D fabrication and prototyping; circuitry, robotics, and computer coding; and upcycling discarded objects and everyday waste for new audiences, purposes, and contexts. Both case studies address the following research questions: Who and what gets to make? Who and what gets made? What drives composition (as process and product) in the network? These questions are essential for understandings issues of representation, access, and equity in contemporary maker networks. The findings of this dissertation materialize “making� as more than a boot-strapping rhetoric that sponsors middle class white male literacies. They underscore the collective values, stances, and practices that are necessary for composing networks to become networkings which are capable of materializing a diversity of bodies and objects. This project turns Writing Studies toward a more material, embodied, and affective understanding of composing, and points to the need to rethink normative composition pedagogies that work to foreclose diversity, creativity, and experimentation. I conclude this project by articulating a queer material rhetoric I call composing sideways: this rhetoric makes space for lateral thinking, feeling, and composing practices which focus on composing the here and the now, and resisting vertical transfer as the most important pedagogical outcome for a writing classroom

Makerspaces for Education

In my dissertation, I present research examining Makerspaces for education. The concept of a Makerspace has evolved, currently being understood as a space for people to practice the idiomatic term Making, which is to tinker or fabricate. Broadly put, Makerspaces are environments where individuals use technologies to Make physical artifacts within a community of fellow Makers. When I started this work, stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds had begun to discern the educational potential of Makerspaces. Since then, several resources in schools, libraries, educational research, and community spaces have been directed towards realizing this educational potential. However, despite the belief in their potential for learning and development, there is still little systematic research outlining their educational benefits. My research in this dissertation is not just motivated by the lack of systematic research addressing the education potential of Makerspaces, but also by their potential for being venues for students to develop self-sufficiency and practice agency while working on projects that they are personally motivated to be a part of. The work comprises three related studies on the topic of Makerspaces for education. In the first study, I conduct a thematic analysis and synthesize publicly available descriptions of Makerspaces to develop a framework for educational Makerspaces. This framework can serve as a tool to support Makerspace researchers and educators in articulating a purpose and setting up an educational Makerspace aligned with that purpose. In the second study, I analyze narratives of Makers to understand their practices and knowledge in comparison to design using a narrative inquiry approach. Via this study, I make a case for the epistemological legitimacy of Making by proving it similar to design. I also find what makes Making distinct from design, which is it being a venue to realize personal purposes and meaning, adding to its educational potential. Finally, for the third study, I conduct a thematic analysis of narratives from a Maker course and an engineering camp to understand reflective practice and identity formation in the context of educational Makerspaces. This third study can be considered an addition to previous empirical work on connections between engineering, design, identity and reflective practice. The unique contribution of the study is in it being situated in the context of Makerspaces, with implications for how we teach and assess learning in such spaces. The three studies, though distinct, are closely related and inform each other. They are connected via the intent behind them and also their results and contributions. Beyond Makerspaces, my work in this dissertation explores the connections between identity formation, reflective practice, and personal meaning. It also challenges our current understandings of engineering knowledge, exploring it beyond boundaries of formal classrooms. Though the present work is situated in Makerspaces, I consider this work to add to the intersectional conversations of these areas of interest amongst engineering educators and engineering education researcher

Community Making: An Expansive View of Curriculum

Making as a term has gained attention in the educational field. It signals many different meanings to many different groups, yet is not clearly defined. This project’s researchers refer to making as a term that bears social and cultural impact but with a broader more sociocultural association than definitions that center making in STEM learning. Using the theoretical lenses of critical relationality and embodiment, our research team position curriculum as a set of locally situated activities that are culturally, linguistically, socially, and politically influenced. We argue that curriculum emerges from embodied making experiences in specific interactions with learners and their communities. This study examines multiple ways of learning within and across seven community-based organizations who are engaged directly or indirectly in making activities that embedded literacy, STEM, peace, and the arts. Using online ethnography, the research team adopted a multiple realities perspective that positions curriculum as dynamic, flexible, and evolving based on the needs of a community, its ecosystems, and the wider environment. The research team explored  making and curricula through a qualitative analysis of interviews with community organizers and learners. The findings provide thick descriptions of making activities which reconceptualize making and curriculum as living and responsive to community needs. Implications of this study expand and problematize the field’s understanding of making, curriculum, and learning environments

Makerspace Models and Organizational Policies for Technological Inclusion

In the early part of the 21st Century, discourses about the “Creative Economy” rose to prominence resulting in educational, economic, and policy initiatives supporting what became known generically as “makerspaces.” As interdisciplinary sites where arts, technology, design, and entrepreneurship meet, makerspaces were heralded as transformational organizational models for learning and innovation. This dissertation explores the social arrangements opened and foreclosed by makerspaces through ethnographic case studies of how different institutions introduced and adapted makerspace models from 2013-2019. Using a communicative ecology approach (Foth & Hearn, 2007), this study interrogates the structures and practices that shape participant experience of these collaborative media, technology, and design spaces, analyzes the construction of “maker literacies,” and traces the broader evolution of technology access concerns in the U.S. This study thereby contributes to the research literature on social production practices, technological literacy, and technological inequality as well as offering recommendations for similar initiatives. The Maker Movement refers to the early 2000s rise in visibility of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) “making” activities aided by the advent of publications such as Make magazine, online communities such as Instructables, in-person meetups called Maker Faires, and localized communities of practice in makerspaces. Unfortunately, many of the independent makerspaces that were opened during the height of The Maker Movement from 2011-2016 have since closed due to leadership issues, funding shortfalls, and other organizational challenges. As of 2019, libraries, universities, schools, and museums are the most common places to find makerspaces. Rather than a unique phenomenon, makerspaces are conceptualized here as an evolution and re-branding of community access points for social inclusion like that of the community technology centers (CTCs) that arose throughout the U.S. when policy concerns for “digital divides” were at their height. Examining these spaces from a communication perspective as part of a longer history of technology access initiatives reveals how emerging technologies continually reorganize activities and influence priorities for organizations with social inclusion goals. Through in-depth case studies of three makerspaces in Massachusetts with different institutional ties—a community access media center, a public library, and an economic/community development project—this study explores the contributions of makerspaces to local ecologies with special attention to how media and technological literacies are enacted in makerspace initiatives. In particular, the study documents how policies and practices shape participation through questioning the impetus for creating a makerspace and what activities are recognized and valued in these spaces. The study also explores the sustainability of initiatives concerned with media and technological literacies amidst the changing terrain of digital inequality in the U.S. While political and economic transformations in the U.S. continually change access initiative priorities, interrogating discourses related to digital inequality, creativity, and innovation are still important for supporting equitable community development. A fuller understanding of the promises and pitfalls of the makerspace approach will enrich our understanding of social values related to technology and may be used to inform media and technological literacy initiatives