Investigating elementary school students' attitudes in makerspace activities through design-based learning

Nikou, Stavros A. and Collins, Robert and Hendry, Martyn (2021) Investigating elementary school students' attitudes in makerspace activities through design-based learning. In: European Conference on Educational Research, 2021-09-06 - 2021-09-10, Geneva (online).

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Abstract

The current proposal is inspired by the global "maker movement" in education (Halverson & Sheridan, 2014) and it aims to explore primary pupils' learning experiences in digital design and digital manufacturing activities through design-based learning. Maker Movement is as an important and promising development in educational technology (Becker, et al., 2018). It is a constructionism learning approach (Keune & Peppler, 2019) and it has the potential to support active participation in learning, facilitate bildung (deep and sustained learning) and promote skills acquisition, students' agency, collaboration, creativity and innovation (Bevan, 2017; Katterfeldt, Dittert, & Schelhowe, 2015). The Maker Movement is gaining growing interest and can raise key questions in school curricula and educational policies in Europe as well (Rosa, et al., 2017; Howard, Gerosa & Mejuto, 2014). While digital design and digital manufacturing have been extensively used in tertiary education, supporting learning in variety of subjects (anatomy, dentistry, geosciences, chemistry, arts), few studies exist in the context of primary and secondary education (Ford & Minshall, 2019). The current study aims to fill this gap by investigating the impact of digital design, 3D printing and laser cutting activities on primary pupils' motivation and acceptance. Moreover, the study aims to explore how these activities affect students' attitudes toward Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects and careers.

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