More about Maker-Centered Learning
It is impossible for you to understand what I want to share with you if I don’t talk about Maker-Centered Learning. Here, I want to share my references and show you where to go when you need help...
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The maker movement marks the era of collaborative learning, stimulating creativity and experimentation, and rescues the concept of “learning by making”, promoting the acquisition of essential skills for our young people to succeed in the 21st century.
In partnership with the U.S. Department of State and the Smithsonian Institution museums, CTJ started this movement in 2014 by piloting the Achieving 21st Century Skills project.
Since then, the institution has been training and building knowledge about the movement’s current practices and how to apply them to different contexts and learning spaces.
It all started with the creation of Thomas Maker space in Brasília – a vibrant, inclusive learning environment open to the community and that offers a variety of events and activities designed to encourage collaboration, systemic thinking, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
Remember the course I told you I took at Thomas?
Well, that’s where I heard about maker-centered learning for the first time. This great approach is based on research conducted by folks at Project Zero. Since 2012, the Agency by Design has been investigating the intersection of the maker movement, tinkering, design thinking, and Project Zero frameworks. They did not invent this approach but they read about it, interviewed people from around the world and documented what educators were already doing at the schools.
If you want to read a little bit more about the origin of the project, you can go to their website, where you can also find the story and other resources.
I learned important stuff with Project Zero, and it’s necessary to go back to the basics every now and then, when I am stuck when preparing a class or want some guidance on my teaching practice.
The Framework
If you want to start somewhere, you need to take your first step into Maker-Centered Learning. Here is a summary of some important concepts related to the MCL framework:
MAKER EMPOWERMENT > A sensitivity to the designed dimension of objects and systems, along with the inclination and capacity to shape one’s world through building, tinkering, [re]designing, or hacking.
SENSITIVITY TO DESIGN > Learning to notice and engage with one’s physical and conceptual environment by looking closely and reflecting on the design of objects and systems, exploring the complexity of design, and finding opportunities to make objects and systems more effective, more efficient, more ethical, or more beautiful.
LOOKING CLOSELY – EXPLORING COMPLEXITIES – FINDING OPPORTUNITIES > These are the three abilities we need to help our students develop in our maker-centered classroom. It is important to help students to make questions instead of just answering them. If I were you, I would take a closer look at these three essential abilities for maker-centered learning. There is no better place to check this out than the source itself.
Here is a link for you to explore the Agency by Design framework.
These professionals have been developing materials for teachers and educators since 2012, incorporating different layers in their work.
The idea of maker-centered learning is that people feel ready to build something new or adapt whatever they have in order to modify or make something they need. That is what I try to do in my classes. I try to prepare my students to observe and think about how they can solve problems, how they can modify what they have to fit their objectives.
Thinking Routines
Thinking Routines are strategies specially designed to help teachers and students to explore and make their thinking process visible.
Of course, they have documented everything! There is a catalog of thinking routines. You can just go there and look for the most appropriate activity you want to propose to your students!
Isn’t that just AMAZING! So, here is a present, I mean, a link for you: Agency by Design Resources About TRs.
Just a little bit more...
There are just 2 other things that I want to show you.
First, an extraordinary place called The Exploratorium. The Exploratorium is a science museum that has reinvented the idea of science museums. They have brought together science, arts, and education. It is just heaven for makers! Here is a link to their website; you can visit the museum online and find tons of resources for professional development, activities for your classes, tools for learning, and much more.
Second, and last but not least, let’s mention BNCC. All this new way of teaching and learning may feel disconnected from our reality here in Brazil. But actually, it’s quite the opposite. There are interesting and useful intersections between our national curriculum and MCL. The wonderful people from Thomas Maker have already thought about that and compared the 10 general competencies of BNCC to Maker-Centered Learning. So, if you are a teacher in a regular school in Brazil, you have to read it.
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