Iteration on a University-Based Maker in Residence Program: Learning to Improve Makerspace Teacher Education

• In Event: Making the Future: Addressing Critiques, Transitions, and New Challenges in Maker Education

Abstract

Objectives: Accredited teacher education programs have taken an interest in making in pre-service teacher education (Cohen, 2017). However, research on making and pre-service teacher education has highlighted the difficulty pre-service teachers (PSTs) have in implementing making in their classes, including navigating curricular restraints (Rodriguez, Harron, & DeGraff, 2018) and negotiating tensions related to providing structure for students and allowing for student agency in design and iteration (O’Brien, Hansen, & Harlow, 2016).
Theoretical framing: In this poster, we describe an iterative process of design of an apprenticeship program for PSTs in a university-based makerspace. The apprenticeship model follows a community of practice perspective, in which learners move from peripheral participants to more central participants through observation and participation in valued practices within a community (Lave and Wenger, 1991).
Design of program: The Maker in Residence program (MiR) supports PSTs through a community of practice organized around educational technologies for making. PSTs apply to the MiR program and once accepted volunteer in the school makerspace four hours a week for two semesters. During their time in the makerspace, MiRs learn the tools available in makerspace, work on a personal maker portfolio, and help with appointments in the makerspace. The university makerspace is used by many courses within the school of education for a variety of course projects. Students in these courses make appointments and come work with a member of the makerspace staff on their assigned maker projects. Initially the MiRs shadow more senior staff, eventually taking over appointments as they gain expertise in the tools available in the makerspace.
Methods: The MiR program had been in place for two years at the university, when the director of the makerspace (second author) partnered with the first author to better understand how the program functioned and to iterate on its design to better support the pre-service teachers that participated in the program. The poster will describe the iterative cycles of the design-based research project (Cobb, Confrey, diSessa, Lehrer, & Schauble, 2003) aimed at revising the program to better support PSTs, as well as developing theory about how the makerspace supports them to integrate making into their future classrooms.
Findings, Implications and Significance: The poster describes three phases of iteration on the MiR program, the findings from each of those phases and the subsequent modifications to the program. For example, in the first phase the director introduced a maker portfolio for MiRs. We found that as MiRs made their portfolios, they focused more on final form products, rather than the process of iteration and design. We also found that MiRs were making artifacts for their classrooms rather than lessons to engage their students in making. In the next iteration, we introduced a process to document iteration through instagram. The final poster will demonstrate the process of program iteration and outcomes of each phase. Implications of this study include an understanding of how PSTs come to understand making and its role in educational settings, as well as how design-based research can support iterative improvements on university-based makerspace programming.

Authors

• Sara C. Heredia, University of North Carolina - Greensboro

• Matthew Fisher, University of North Carolina - Greensboro