Previous research has documented the benefits of making for young learners, but few studies have examined how parents engage in maker activities during family visits to museums, both as facilitators of their children’s learning and as makers in their own right. In this study, we asked how caregivers participate in making and tinkering programs, how parents describe the benefits of making (for their children and themselves), and what aspects of the physical and social setting influence parents’ engagement. Data included observations of 88 family groups participating in various making and tinkering activities at a science center (including woodworking, fashion design, virtual reality drawing, circuit blocks, etc) and exit interviews with a subset of 66 caregivers. Qualitative data analysis connected observed qualities of the physical and social setting with caregivers’ observed and reported engagement. Through this analysis, we identified specific aspects of the physical environment, tools/materials, and facilitation strategies that invited family participation in general and that were associated with specific caregiver roles, including observing children’s learning, facilitation of children’s learning, and engagement as a maker alongside children. The implications of the findings for the design and facilitation of maker programs are discussed.
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Exploring Different Facilitator Roles in Maker-based Learning
The purpose of this study is to investigate how different facilitator roles (educator, adult caregiver, peer and self-facilitation) influence children’s learning engagement--specifically, the learning practices of seeking and sharing resources (SSR)--in a museum’s makerspace. We address two research questions: 1). In what ways do learners' engagement vary when facilitated by different facilitator roles? 2). In what ways do different types of facilitators influence SSR practices across age ranges? The results show that facilitation from caregivers and self-directed facilitation is associated with significantly more SSR practices. Additionally, we found that the influence of different types of facilitators on learning engagement varies across ages. Self-directed learning is associated with an increase of SSR as children grow, while facilitation from caregivers is associated with a decline of SSR as children age. Based on these findings, we discuss implications for facilitation in museum makerspace.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1759261
- PAR ID:
- 10474895
- Publisher / Repository:
- International Society of the Learning Sciences
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Maker Spaces facilitation informal STEM learning
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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