Constructive Interaction: A Process Model of Project-Based STEAM Learning

• In Event: Cognitive and Motivational Processes in Project-Based Learning Environments

Abstract

I analyze the learning process in a project-based STEAM learning environment. Students in a middle-school elective were provided access to a diverse set of challenging technical and design activities and allowed to organize their own activity. Drawing on 6 months of video-based ethnography, I document the emergence of significant fluency on a range of digital and physical tasks. In an environment where students had freedom to choose their activity and received no direct instruction from a teacher, how did this learning occur? Using grounded theoretical methods, I develop a process model which I call constructive interaction. I discuss the implications of the constructive interaction model as a resource for improving the design of both project-based and traditional learning environments.

Author

• Peter Meyerhoff, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author