Exploring Collaborative Design in a PK-12 Creative Writing Challenge

This study explored how PK-12 participants in the CSTEM Creative Writing Challenge engaged in a collaborative design project to produce a creative non-fiction pop-up book. As both collaboration and creativity are recognized as invaluable skillsets for success in the competitive 21st century economy, they served to focus the inquiry into this constructivist project-based learning (PBL) experience. Using ethnographic methods, this exploratory study wove narratives of student participant experiences and incorporated a variety of data, including product quality ratings derived from a rubric, student-created reflective videos, and a focus group interview. In addition to the researcher, the data were examined by two peer debriefers and one external auditor to ensure trustworthiness. The resulting naturalistic inquiry may provide transferability of a potential framework for PK-12 teachers who wish to engage in similar collaborative design experiences with their own students. The cognitive benefits (including process and multiple literacies) and psychosocial benefits (including altruism and life lessons) that these students voiced throughout their reflection provided a testament to constructivism and experiential learning. Statistical investigation showed that ratings of the pop-up book product did not parallel ratings of the process; however, this study maintained that presenting students with the opportunity to engage in inquiry-based video making of their PBL experience allowed students to authentically and formally address the life lessons they developed.Curriculum and Instruction, Department o

(Re)Counting Meaningful Learning Experiences: Using Student-Created Reflective Videos to Make Invisible Learning Visible During PjBL Experiences

This ethnographic case study investigated how the process of learning during a yearlong after-school, project-based learning (PjBL) experience could be documented by student-created reflective videos. Guided by social constructivism, constant comparative analysis was used to explore the meaningful learning that took place in addition to the planned curricula, resulting in an exploration of the intersections of life lessons that include (a) “making learning more real,” (b) being “on a mission to change the world,” and (c) “you can’t control anybody but yourself.” Findings from the study indicate that student-created reflective videos can document meaningful learning that is capable of “counting” both as a creative form of self-expression and an alternative form of measuring the learning process throughout PjBL

Children’s Negotiations of Visualization Skills During a Design-Based Learning Experience Using Nondigital and Digital Techniques

In the context of a 10-day summer camp makerspace experience that employed design-based learning (DBL) strategies, the purpose of this descriptive case study was to better understand the ways in which children use visualization skills to negotiate design as they move back and forth between the world of nondigital design techniques (i.e., drawing, 3-D drawing with hot glue, sculpture, discussion, writing) and digital technologies (i.e., 3-D scanning, 3-D modeling, 3-D printing). Participants included 20 children aged 6–12. This research was guided by Vossoughi, Hooper, and Escudé’s (2016) call for explicit attention to pedagogical practices during the integration of “making” activities. Content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data, including observation, researcher/facilitator field notes, think aloud protocols, daily reflective exit tickets, and participant artifacts. Findings highlight the ways in which participants negotiated visualization skills through (a) imagining, drawing, and seeing through creating 2-D sketches, (b) reasoning and relating through writing stories, (c) transforming through 3-D extrusion, (d) observing and noticing through 3-D sculpting and 3-D scanning, and (e) manipulating through digital 3-D modeling, mental rotation, and mental transformation. Implications for formal K–12 educational contexts and teacher preparation programs are discussed

‘‘Lend a Hand’’ Project Helps Students: Improved Spatial Visualization Skills Through Engaging in Hands-On 3-D Printed Prosthetics Project During a 9th Grade Engineering Course

Research shows that high spatial ability is linked to success and persistence in STEM. Empirical investigations often report a gender gap in favor of male students. The purpose of this research study was to assess changes to 9th grade engineering students’ spatial visualization skills through engagement in a nine-week collaborative 3-D printed prosthetics project embedded within their existing ‘‘Beginning Concepts of Engineering’’ course curriculum. Using concurrent mixed methods, this study examined pre-/post-test scores on the Revised Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Rotations (Revised PSVT:R) in connection with gender, course grades, and level of involvement in the project. Both male and female students’ spatial visualization skills improved overall through the project. Higher levels of project involvement had a positive correlation with students’ Revised PSVT:R scores, and semester course grades. Female students had lower Revised PSVT:R scores than their male peers before and after the project; however, females experienced statistically significant gains in their post-project Revised PSVT:R scores. The trend of the closing gender gap that is evidenced by the female and male students’ mean scores suggests that a novel collaborative project, which includes hands-on, spatially-rich activities, can help female students catch up on their spatial visualization and mental rotation skills. This impact is increased when students dedicate more time to the project

Preservice and Early Career Teachers’ Preconceptions and Misconceptions about Making in Education

This qualitative study examined preservice and early career teachers’ preconceptions and misconceptions about making in education. Eighty-two preservice and early career teachers participated in brief, one-time maker workshops, then wrote reflections on their experiences. Using constant comparative analysis, researchers uncovered two common misconceptions held by the participants. The first was that making in education consisted of hands-on activities designed to achieve specific content learning objectives. The second was that making was largely dependent on the use of advanced manufacturing tools, such as 3D printers. Such misconceptions could negatively impact the potential of making in education. Recommendations for resolving these misconceptions are presented, along with recommendations for future research

Pre-service Teachers’ Beliefs About Using Maker Activities in Formal K-12 Educational Settings: A Multi-Institutional Study

This qualitative study examined preservice teachers\u27 beliefs about using maker activities in formal educational settings. Eighty-two preservice and early-career teachers at three different universities in the United States took part in one-time workshops designed to introduce them to various maker tools and activities applicable to K–12 educational environments. Data were collected from 16 focus groups conducted during the workshops in spring 2016. Researchers analyzed the data using the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1985, 1991) to better understand the teachers\u27 attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control related to making activities, with the ultimate goal of using this information to assist teacher preparation programs in preparing their students to implement maker tools and strategies in their future classrooms. Participants expressed favorable attitudes toward implementing maker activities in their future classrooms and noted these tools and activities aligned with instructional strategies encouraged in their teacher preparation programs, including problem-based learning, inquiry learning, and hands-on learning activities, but noted several perceived barriers such as access to resources and working with reluctant peers and administrators

You Want Me to Teach Engineering? Impacts of Recurring Experiences on K-12 Teachers’ Engineering Design Self-Efficacy, Familiarity with Engineering, and Confidence to Teach with Design-Based Learning Pedagogy

This paper reports on findings from a group of ten teachers who were enrolled in a semester-long, graduate-level educational technology course that used design-based learning to explore the integration of making and the engineering design process into a variety of K-12 educational contexts. Using convergent mixed methods, this study examines how the course impacted teachers’ familiarity and confidence in teaching the engineering design process, as viewed through their pre- and post-semester engineering design self-efficacy scores and their weekly reflective journal entries. These measures are important factors for developing teacher experience and confidence in integrating engineering and design-based learning strategies within K-12 educational contexts. Statistically significant results include increased confidence in design and decreased anxiety toward design. Findings illustrate how participants acknowledged increased familiarity and confidence in teaching the engineering design process, including their increased ability to make connections to the engineering design process, maker tools, and techniques. Implications for teacher education programs are discussed

Considering Instructional Appropriateness of Technology Integration into Early Childhood Education

In a research context, the very nature of how one defines technology and technology integration into an early childhood (EC) classroom takes on different meanings that can complicate the national discussion. In an early childhood education (ECE) context, there are multiple concerns about technology integration that go beyond access and classroom management of student use. McMannis, Nemeth, and Simon (2013) point out that lack of research on technology integration in EC classrooms could be contributing to common misconceptions in the discussions about affordances and translation of theory into practice.In order to keep with the changing educational landscape of preparing pre-service teachers (PSTs) to effectively integrate technology into classrooms, institutions of higher education have previously required standalone educational technology courses. However, due to changing accreditation requirements or programmatic restructuring, there is migration toward the elimination of the standalone course in favor of technology integration into methods and content courses.Technology integration in an EC classroom is critical to prepare and provide students with the evolving 21st-century skills that are recommended and essential for operational success in a technology-reliant society.  While technology standards for both students and teachers (ISTE Standards, 2008) have been identified, standards for teacher educators who model initial knowledge and application necessary for PSTs to carry out those standards are still in development. Without national standards and with many teacher education programs no longer providing a specific course on technology integration to instruct PSTs on how to navigate working, learning, and teaching in an increasingly connected digital society, the questions then become --- What do PSTs know and believe about ECE technology integration? How well are instructors effectively modeling the knowledge PSTs need? And, if there is no room in programs for a standalone technology integration course, what messages about technology integration are PSTs receiving and how is instructionally appropriate technology integration being modeled by faculty instruction?

Makification: Towards a Framework for Leveraging the Maker Movement in Formal Education

Maker culture is part of a burgeoning movement in which individuals leverage modern digital technologies to produce and share physical artifacts with a broader community. Certain components of the maker movement, if properly leveraged, hold promise for transforming formal education in a variety of contexts. The authors here work towards a framework for leveraging these components (i.e., creation, iteration, sharing, and autonomy) in support of learning in a variety of formal educational contexts and disciplines

Makification: Towards a Framework for Leveraging the Maker Movement in Formal Education

Maker culture is part of a burgeoning movement in which individuals leverage modern digital technologies to produce and share physical artifacts with a broader community. Certain components of the maker movement, if properly leveraged, hold promise for transforming formal education in a variety of contexts. The authors here work towards a framework for leveraging these components (i.e., creation, iteration, sharing, and autonomy) in support of learning in a variety of formal educational contexts and disciplines