Studying educators’ practices in makerspaces to build a curriculum for maker skill learning

Through its Education Innovation Grants, the Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL) at MIT Open Learning aspires to develop the building blocks, ideas, and connections that power global transformation in learning. J-WEL grants support educational innovations across a rich variety of fields including: linguistics, mechanical engineering, literature, architecture, physics, management, political science, and more. More than $5 million in funding has been awarded to MIT researchers since 2017.

As part of an ongoing series, we are taking a closer look at each 2023 grantee’s projects. In the spotlight today is Stefanie Mueller, the TIBCO Career Development Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). She worked closely with Dishita Girish Turakhia, a former postdoctoral researcher at CSAIL and the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Their project, “Studying educators’ practices in makerspaces to build a curriculum for maker skill learning,” works to better understand the perspective of educators facilitating these learning opportunities.

Makerspaces are collaborative work spaces, often located in schools, community centers, or libraries, where people with shared interests gather to work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment (both high and low tech), and expertise. While there is a significant amount of research focused on the experiences and learning outcomes of students in makerspaces, according to Mueller and Turakhia, there is comparatively little attention given to understanding the perspectives and experiences of educators who facilitate these spaces.

The research team aims to study practices across geographically, contextually, and culturally diverse makerspaces that serve varied populations of learners. Through an interview study with makerspace educators in the Boston area and beyond, Mueller and Turakhia intend to develop recommendations for designing learning objectives and experiences for makerspaces, including creating a customizable core curriculum that can be applied across makerspaces.

What problem or challenge is your project trying to solve?

While there is a significant amount of research focused on the experiences and learning outcomes of students in makerspaces, there is comparatively little attention given to understanding the perspectives and experiences of educators who facilitate these learning environments. Understanding educators' perspectives in makerspaces is crucial because it allows us to gain insights into the strategies, pedagogies, and approaches employed to foster effective learning experiences in makerspaces. This knowledge can then be used to inform the design of educational technologies and curriculums that are aligned with educators' needs and goals, ultimately enhancing the overall learning experience in makerspaces.

In what ways do you anticipate your project will impact its intended audience or community?

One of the main goals of our project is to take the insights gained from interviewing makerspace educators to help researchers design better learning technologies for makerspaces that support educators in achieving their objectives. Learning technologies, for instance, based on AI and conversational agents, have the potential to support educators in helping a larger number of students. However, these tools need to be tailored to the specific problem domain, which in our case is the development of maker skills and more broadly STE(A)M skills.

What do you hope is the biggest takeaway from your project?

Currently, a lot of learning technologies focus on what we call ‘technical skills,’ such as how to operate the [physical] tools in makerspaces. However, our research shows that this is only a small fraction of the learning objectives makerspace educators try to accomplish. Other objectives include comprehensive skills such as helping students develop a creative mindset, gain a sense of agency, and build self-reflection skills in the context of their project work to improve the project or their own skill set in the future.

What role does collaboration play in the development and implementation of your project?

Collaboration is crucial for the success of our project. We have already conducted interviews with 8 educators from five different makerspaces, such as the NuVu Innovation School, the Fab Foundation, ARCK, Mobile Makerspaces, Innovators for Purpose, and the East Palo Alto Academy. These interviews resulted in over 9 hours of interview transcripts with over 400+ quotes that we are currently analyzing for emerging themes.

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