Stepping In and Stepping Back: How Adults Facilitate Children’s Making in a Drop-In Museum Makerspace

• In Event: Facilitation of Maker-Centered Learning in Formal and Informal Spaces

Abstract

In museums, learning is a collaborative achievement between visitor groups and the museum (Dierking & Falk, 1994). While various research has pointed to the importance of staff facilitators in both museum (e.g. Hladik et al., 2022; Pattison et al., 2018) and maker experiences (Brahms & Crowley, 2014), group members themselves are the primary facilitators of museum experiences (Pattison & Dierking, 2013; Brown et al., 2019), a pattern which may transfer to the drop-in style makerspaces museums offer. We join others who have begun critically examining how family groups coordinate their activities in drop-in makerspaces (Brahms, 2014; Letourneau et al., 2021; Jung et al., 2023), specifically presenting a case of one family monitoring needs and providing support to sustain their group’s making experiences.
Literature examining adult-child interactions in museums show adults play a positive role in supporting learning and engagement (Pattison & Ramos Montañez, 2022). However, adult support is a careful balance; some forms of adult support can be framed as “taking over” for children or other group members (Vossoughi et al., 2021), but when adults step back too far, they can be framed as unsupportive or disengaged (Wood & Wolf, 2013; see Beaumont, 2010 for a contrasting frame). In our work, we aim to highlight the nuance and skill with which adults are facilitating their children’s engagement and what influences facilitation choices.

Methods and Data Sources
We examined video of 27 families engaged in a drop-in makerspace at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Each family recorded their experience with a GoPro and then participated in a video-cued interview a month later. We examined 10 minutes from each family’s recording and identified supportive moves made by adults, which were then inductively categorized into seven main forms of support. Using interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995), we focused on a single case study family - two adults with 3 children, focusing on one-on-one interactions between the adults and each child - to understand what conditions prompted different support strategies.

Results
We found the adults were consistent in their forms of support, with little difference based on child’s age or expressed need. One adult supported their children’s engagement through negotiation, demonstration, and providing a role; they acted as a collaborative partner in making with the children, directly working on shared projects. The other adult engaged in an independent making project and provided physical assistance upon request. During their interview, the two adults expressed different priorities; the first adult emphasized having their children “try it first” and watching for trouble to arise, while the second adult emphasized the role of communication, that “they need to be specific when they do want help.”

Significance
This study highlights how adults organically support children’s making in drop-in makerspaces. Further, this study notes adult learning goals or priorities for their children may be a strong influence on their facilitation approach. As these goals may be different from the goals of the makerspace educators or designers, it is critical that researchers understand the larger family context in order to accurately describe family learning in these spaces.

Authors

• Sarah Lukowski, Museum of Science, Boston

• Megan Goeke, University of Minnesota

• Marjorie Bullitt Bequette, Science Museum of Minnesota