The use of makerspaces for the development of computational thinking skills and dispositions: pedagogical practices facilitators use

ABSTRACT

Background and Context

Focusing on computational thinking (CT) as the process to integrate computer science across subjects, and making as the activity to engage in this process, is a promising way to introduce students to computing. However, there is little guidance on what practices instructors should employ in maker activities to support CT skill/disposition development.

Objective

With this study, I aim to answer the question: Within makerspace activities what evidence exists regarding promising practices that support youth development of CT skills and dispositions?

Method

This case study takes place in a summer makerspace program, in which I examine the interactions of four facilitators with seventeen high school-aged participants through video, audio, screen recordings, participant notebooks, and observer field notes.

Findings

Findings inform our understanding of practices instructors can utilize in making activities to assist students in advancing their CT skills/dispositions: tinkering, embodiment, walkthroughs, drawing, and debugging.

Implications

In a making environment where tinkering is promoted, instructors need to provide explicit guidance in the application of CT while tinkering . This guidance can happen through the intentional application of practices that connect making to CT using cognitive apprenticeship, making conceptual knowledge more explicit. What the findings also suggest is that there is no clear-cut delineation between computational thinking, doing, or designing.

KEYWORDS:

• Makerspaces
• computational thinking
• pedagogy
• cognitive apprenticeship

Acknowledgments

This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #1543124. Special thanks to the Chicago GEAR UP team for their thoughtfulness and dedication, as well as the Chicago Public School students for their engagement and curiosity.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Science Foundation [1543124].