Making Tinkering Pedagogy Explicit: Toward the Development of Young Adult Facilitators

• In Event: 63.067 - Approaches to Informal Pedagogies: Preparing Educators to Teach in Informal Environments

Abstract

Objectives

This paper looks closely at the development of young adult facilitators (aged 15-21) in an after-school tinkering program. This program is a partnership between a science museum and an after-school center that serves elementary-aged children from immigrant and diasporic backgrounds in a low-income urban community. Facilitators include adults and young adults (YA) from the science museum and the after-school center. In this paper, we ask: What do generative professional development practices look like for YA facilitators in tinkering settings? How do the roles, forms of participation and self-reflection of YA facilitators shift over time?

Theoretical Framework

Our conceptual lenses are drawn from cultural-historical approaches to learning. This tradition defines learning as shifting participation over time – a social process that contributes to the development of the environment itself (Cole, 1996; Rogoff, 2003). Cultural-historical perspectives complement and sometimes challenge constructivist (Piaget, 1970) and constructionist (Papert, 1986) theories by emphasizing the social accomplishment of learning and the role of pedagogy.

Methods

We draw on ethnographic methods and social interactional analysis to examine how YA facilitators took on the pedagogical dispositions valued in tinkering settings (Cazden, 2001; Erickson, 1986; O’Conner & Michaels, 1996). Data sources include: 20 in-depth ethnographic field notes, audio-video recordings (100 hours), and interviews with children, YA and adult staff. Further, in line with collaborative action research (Erickson, 2006) and social design experiments (Gutiérrez & Vossoughi, 2010), researchers and educators collaboratively design and study pedagogical environments and reflect on the kinds of learning that emerge.

Findings

Our findings highlight a core set of professional development practices that supported the development of YA facilitators. These include written and verbal debriefs following each session of the program, and professional development trainings that combined first-hand experience with tinkering activities, reflections on these experiences as learners and facilitators, and guided analysis of video-recorded interactions with the children. Shared video analysis involved questions such as: Whose hands are on the project? When is a good time to intervene and when is it good to observe? We also highlight the trajectory of one YA facilitator (James, age 16) who has been in the program for over two years. James’ trajectory reveals specific shifts in the language he used to describe children and in the ways he mediated their learning. His process reflects a broader shift of the YA facilitators towards more socially and developmentally conscious forms of assistance.

Scholarly significance

Analyzing James’ trajectory in light of the professional development practices outlined above highlights 1) the ways school-like models of teaching often serve as an initial default mode for novice facilitators 2) the specific processes through which YA facilitators grow into new roles and pedagogical practices and 3) how the layered pedagogical relationships between adults, YA’s and children serve as a mutually generative resource. These findings emphasize the role of pedagogy in informal environments, the depth of disciplinary and pedagogical learning that takes place among YA facilitators, and the powerful roles that the facilitators take on as mentors and co-learners.

Authors

• Meg Elena Escudé, Exploratorium

• Shirin Vossoughi, Northwestern University