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1. Best Practices for Facilitation in a Choice-based, Peer Learning Environment: Lessons From the Field

   Ramey, K; Stevens, R (January 2020, Proceedings of the 14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences: The Interdisciplinarity of the Learning Sciences)

   Gresalfi, M; Horn, I (Ed.)

   Teaching is one of the most extensively studied topics in education research. However, most studies of teaching assume a standard learning arrangement, in which the teacher is the content expert and directs student learning. What happens when this is not the case, when the resources for learning lie elsewhere (online, other students) and the expertise that the teacher brings is in how to facilitate learning rather than convey content? How do teachers navigate the role of ‘facilitator’, and what are the pedagogical best practices for doing so. Here, we address these questions by examining facilitation in one set of in- and after-school making and learning environments, called FUSE. Drawing on student and teacher interviews, classroom observations, and video, we analyze the needs experienced by facilitators and the tools and practices they implemented to address those needs. 

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2. Making at Home: Interest-Driven Practices and Supportive Relationships in Minoritized Homes

   https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10050143  

   Peppler, Kylie; Sedas, R. Mishael; Dahn, Maggie (May 2020, Education Sciences)

   The maker movement advocates hands-on making with emerging technologies because of its value for promoting innovative and personally meaningful transdisciplinary learning. Educational research has focused on settings that primarily serve youth from dominant groups, yet we know surprisingly little about making among minoritized youth and the kinds of resources that support their making. This study sought to better understand the extent to which maker practices are present in the lives of minoritized youth and the network of resources that support their engagement. In this study, we analyzed survey responses of 52 youth from an urban, under-resourced community in Chicago and conducted an inductive thematic analysis of 20 interviews through a model of connected learning. Findings showed these youth participated in a diverse range of interest-driven, low-tech maker activities in their own homes more often than in school, after school programs, or through online resources and communities (i.e., YouTube, Internet, social media). Many youths displayed different levels of participation with intergenerational support, as parents and extended family members supported youth in their hands-on making. This work opens up pathways for fostering connected learning opportunities within minoritized communities by building on existing learning experiences within home settings and supportive relationships. 

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3. (Designing for) learning computational STEM and arts integration in culturally sustaining learning ecologies

   https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-01-2020-0018  

   Champion, Dionne N.; Tucker-Raymond, Eli; Millner, Amon; Gravel, Brian; Wright, Christopher G.; Likely, Rasheda; Allen-Handy, Ayana; Dandridge, Tikyna M. (November 2020, Information and Learning Sciences)

   null (Ed.)

   Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the designed cultural ecology of a hip-hop and computational science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) camp and the ways in which that ecology contributed to culturally sustaining learning experiences for middle school youth. In using the principles of hip-hop as a CSP for design, the authors question how and what practices were supported or emerged and how they became resources for youth engagement in the space. Design/methodology/approach The overall methodology was design research. Through interpretive analysis, it uses an example of four Black girls participating in the camp as they build a computer-controlled DJ battle station. Findings Through a close examination of youth interactions in the designed environment – looking at their communication, spatial arrangements, choices and uses of materials and tools during collaborative project work – the authors show how a learning ecology, designed based on hip-hop and computational practices and shaped by the history and practices of the dance center where the program was held, provided access to ideational, relational, spatial and material resources that became relevant to learning through computational making. The authors also show how youth engagement in the hip-hop computational making learning ecology allowed practices to emerge that led to expansive learning experiences that redefine what it means to engage in computing. Research limitations/implications Implications include how such ecologies might arrange relations of ideas, tools, materials, space and people to support learning and positive identity development. Originality/value Supporting culturally sustaining computational STEM pedagogies, the article argues two original points in informal youth learning 1) an expanded definition of computing based on making grammars and the cultural practices of hip-hop, and 2) attention to cultural ecologies in designing and understanding computational STEM learning environments. 

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4. Relating Best Practices to Standardization in Ocean Science

   https://doi.org/10.1109/OCEANSLimerick52467.2023.10244310  

   Nair, Rajesh; Waldmann, Christoph; Pearlman, Jay S; Nascimento, Fabio; Karstensen, Johannes; Ranganathan, Sundar; Heron, Mal (June 2023, IEEE)

   NA (Ed.)

   Over the past decade, the Ocean Best Practices System, hosted and maintained by the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, has grown to become a trusted and stable repository for all types of ocean Best Practices documentation. Given the nature of the information it contains, the repository embodies a unique resource base for supporting initiatives aimed at strengthening standardization in Ocean Science. Based on this consideration, the Ocean Best Practices System is forming a new task team to explore and evaluate the potential role that the comprehensive Best Practice information it secures could play in identifying and prioritizing processes for furthering this objective. Particular care is being taken to keep the work open and transparent through constant community engagement and by linking with international bodies/organizations dealing with measurement. 

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5. Exploring Different Facilitator Roles in Maker-based Learning

   Zhang, E. (June 2022, International Society of the Learning Sciences)

   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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