Toward Creator-Based Learning: Designs That Help Student Makers Learn

Abstract

Contemporary educators have been advocating that teaching and learning in schools should go beyond knowledge acquisition. A critical challenge is how to help students learn like expert creators who constantly display active engagement and personal autonomy and who are keen to collaborate with others. Recently, construction-to-learn activities have received even more attention than before. The maker movement is occurring in many educational settings. However, the setup of makerspaces does not necessarily guarantee a positive impact on students' learning. Too much emphasis on the hardware tools may blur the educational focus and the merits of maker activities. This article summarizes and presents studies related to construction-to-learn activities that support students in their learning as creators. It revisits the key design principles of learning systems based on the needs of student makers: ``supporting students to express their imagination,{''} ``facilitating endless remixing,{''} and ``low-threshold/high-ceiling.{''} Design examples and research findings will be presented based on a series of studies in the field. These can shed light on the design of maker activities that can continuously engage students in construction-to-learn activities.