Maker-Centered Learning: Empowering Young People to Shape Their Worlds

The Agency by Design guide to implementing maker-centered teaching and learning Maker-Centered Learning provides both a theoretical framework and practical resources for the educators, curriculum developers, librarians, administrators, and parents navigating this burgeoning field. Written by the expert team from the Agency by Design initiative at Harvard's Project Zero, this book Identifies a set of educational practices and ideas that define maker-centered learning, and introduces the focal concepts of maker empowerment and sensitivity to design. Shares cutting edge research that provides evidence of the benefits of maker-centered learning for students and education as a whole. Presents a clear Project Zero-based framework for maker-centered teaching and learning Includes valuable educator resources that can be applied in a variety of design and maker-centered learning environments Describes unique thinking routines that foster the primary maker capacities of looking closely, exploring complexity, and finding opportunity. A surge of voices from government, industry, and education have argued that, in order to equip the next generation for life and work in the decades ahead, it is vital to support maker-centered learning in various educational environments. Maker-Centered Learning provides insight into what that means, and offers tools and knowledge that can be applied anywhere that learning takes place.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments ix List of Tables and Figures xiii Foreword xix Introduction 1 What is a Maker? And What is Maker-Centered Learning? 4 A Road Map to the Journey Ahead 8 1 Exploring the Benefits of Maker-Centered Learning 15 Learning from Maker Educators and Thought Leaders 17 Identifying the Real Benefits of Maker-Centered Learning 18 Understanding the Primary Outcomes of Maker-Centered Learning: Developing Agency and Building Character 19 Understanding the Secondary Outcomes of Maker-Centered Learning: Cultivating Discipline-Specific and Maker-Specific Knowledge and Skills 35 Recapping the Real Benefits of Maker-Centered Learning 39 2 Teaching and Learning in the Maker-Centered Classroom 43 Maker-Centered Roots and Connections 45 Who (and What) Are the Teachers in the Maker-Centered Classroom? 51 Students as Teachers 51 Teachers in the Community 55 Online Knowledge Sourcing 56 Tools and Materials as Teachers 57 What Does Teaching Look Like in the Maker-Centered Classroom? 59 Facilitating Student Collaboration 60 Encouraging Co-inspiration and Co-critique 63 Redirecting Authority and the Ethics of Knowledge Sharing 70 What Does Learning Look Like in the Maker-Centered Classroom? 73 Figuring It Out 74 What Does the Maker-Centered Classroom Look Like? 77 Tools and Materials 78 Storage and Visibility 80 Specific and Flexible Spaces 83 3 Developing a Sense of Maker Empowerment 85 What Is Agency? 89 Choice, Intention, and Action 89 Scope: Agency and the Complex Web of Interrelated Actions 91 Locus: Participating in Agentic Action 94 Agency and Maker Empowerment 98 Empowerment and Social Justice 101 Empowerment in Education 103 4 Developing a Sensitivity to Design 109 Developing a Sensitivity to Design in a Consumer-Driven World 111 The Hidden Mechanics of Stuff 112 Living in the Throes of a Throwaway Culture 114 What Is a Sensitivity to Design? 116 How Are Students Sensitive (or Not) to Design? 120 Seeing the Designed World as Malleable 122 5 Maker-Centered Teaching and Learning in Action 127 A Framework for Maker Empowerment 128 Looking Closely 130 Exploring Complexity 133 Finding Opportunity 136 Tools and Techniques for Supporting Maker-Centered Thinking and Learning 141 Dispositional Development and Thinking Routines 142 Developing Thinking Routines to Support a Sensitivity to Design 142 Conclusion 155 Maker-Centered Learning: Challenges and Puzzles 157 Considering the Ethical Dimensions of Maker-Centered Learning 158 Equity and Access in the Maker-Centered Classroom 159 Supporting and Sustaining Maker-Centered Practice 162 Looking Ahead: The Future of Maker-Centered Learning 163 Imagine If. 166 Afterword 169 Appendix A: Overview of Interview Participants 173 Appendix B: Thinking Routines 175 Notes 185 References 195 Index 203 About the Authors 223

About the Author :
EDWARD P. CLAPP, Ed.D., is Co-Director of Agency by Design and a Research Associate and Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. JESSICA ROSS is a Senior Research Specialist at Project Zero and current Project Manager of Agency by Design. JENNIFER O. RYAN is Project Manager of the Pedagogy of Play project, and former Project Manager of Agency by Design. SHARI TISHMAN, Ed.D., is Co-Director of Agency by Design and a Senior Research Associate and Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.