Learning Design for Children and Youth in Makerspaces: Methodical-Didactical Variations of Maker Education Activities Concerning Learner’s Interest, Learning with Others and Task Description

Abstract

For some years now, “maker education” has been conquering the world, and with extensive literature describing projects and activities as well as their characteristics and effects. Many authors have described principles of maker education such as working on a product and do-it-yourself activities. However, the literature on how to develop and design a maker activity with children is still limited. This would be of interest to and inform the systematic training of teachers and maker educators. In this paper we propose an overview of the methodological-didactical variations in maker education base on the systematic analysis of the original principles of adults learning in makerspaces to extrapolate the principles for working with children in maker education. Therefore, this paper offers a collection of methodological-didactical variations concerning three aspects, namely (a) the inclusion of the learner’s own interests, (b) learning from and with others, and (c) the kinds of task available at hand. In this way it is intended to offer practitioners support for the design and development of their own maker education programs.