The Tinkering Gap Among Girls and Boys in a Middle School STEM Workshop

• In Event: Applying Cultural Construction Frameworks in Engineering Education Research

Abstract

Purpose

This research explores “tinkering” and the ways that middle-school boys and girls participate in an afterschool STEM program. Martinez & Stager (2013) describe tinkering as a playful approach to problem solving that along with “making” reflects a mindset essential to design-based learning in engineering. Our research questions are: (1) How do girls and boys negotiate tinkering among their peers in an after school engineering workshop? and (2) How do facilitators’ interactions with girls and boys influence the tinkering process and consequently, the social dynamics in the STEM studio? Following McDermott et al. (2006) we take a cultural analysis to understand how tinkering is connected to norms of “ability” in the engineering studio and how tinkering shapes participation among youth.

Framework

Our theoretical framework draws from previous studies of girls and boys in STEM (Archer et al., 2012; Capobianco et al., 2012; Carlone et al., 2015). When youths’ work is recognized, supported, and leveraged through meaningful participation in science and engineering activities, girls and boys begin to realize their own ability and begin to view possible future selves in STEM. In the tinkering process, we identified when one is able to retain possession of building materials, to manipulate the materials, to make a bid for recognition, and to hold the floor uninterrupted.

Methods

This qualitative research is situated in an 8-week, after-school workshop in which thirteen students, grades 6-7, met once a week in an engineering studio: a physical space to work on a design challenge, to plan, build, justify their designs, and to work collaboratively toward developing a successful solution to the design problem. Three adult facilitators assisted in the workshop. We observed three groups of youth: a mixed gender (boy-girl) team, a group of three boys, and a group of three girls (all white). Data includes videotapes of studio sessions that focus on youths’ tinkering as they constructed solutions to design problems. Videotapes were transcribed and open coded to make sense of how team members collaborated, negotiated the handling of materials, and “tinkered” during the construction process, and to ascertain the facilitators’ roles in these negotiations. We also examined interview transcripts and surveys of youths’ self-reports of ability and motivation in STEM.

Results & Significance

Our analyses revealed imbalances in the working relationships among youth: a tinkering gap. We noted a disproportionate amount of time that boys spent handling the engineering equipment and in the nature of the dialogue, much of which was characterized by directives rather than by constructive collaboration. For example, in the boy-girl team, the boy dominated the tinkering process even though both were recognized as “high ability.” Even more surprising was how this inequity was recognized but not challenged or remediated among the adult facilitators. Our research points to possible ways to open up opportunities for girls to gain experience in tinkering and the handling of materials as they participate, and for facilitators to support students of different perceived abilities in the tinkering process to foster more equitable participation in the engineering studio.

Authors

• Carol B. Brandt, Temple University

• Jean Griffin, Temple University

• Elliot Bickel, Temple University