The Future of Education

During the last two decades, an increasing interest has emerged worldwide in schools’ “maker-culture”, which facilitates the use of technologies in creative ways by learners across grade levels (Walan & Gericke, 2023). The researchers will discuss the journey of six doctoral students who explored how the maker space learning approach can be applied to multilingual classrooms with learners and educators involved in active participation and knowledge sharing through open exploration and creative use of technology grounded in the learning theory of constructivism (Bada, 2015). Their understanding of this learning approach was negotiated by creating learning tools in multilingual maker spaces to facilitate language and content knowledge. The learning process of the doctoral candidates was documented using qualitative data collection methods (Miles et al., 2019), including discourse analysis (Gee, 2014) of written assignments and interviews. Data analysis was done from the “ground up,” examining in detail the raw data points, allowing for the emergence of coherent patterns, meaningful insights, and fundamental concepts (Yin, 2018). The discussion will highlight the tensions that emerged during the doctoral-level course from challenging traditional teaching methods of language and content with innovative approaches to learning that integrate active interaction and participation, as well as library research and field explorations. Using a maker space within a learning commons allowed for a shift in the conceptualization of multilingual classrooms to promote creative and innovative learning, thinking, and collaboration among participants.

Keywords: Digital Teaching & Learning,; Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion; Educational Innovation; Emerging Technology; Multilingualism; Transliteracy

REFERENCES

[1] Bada, S. O. (2015). Constructivism Learning Theory: A Paradigm for Teaching and Learning, IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education, 5(6), pp. 66-70. DOI: 10.9790/7388-05616670

[2] Gee, J.P. (2014) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method. Routledge, Oxon.

[3] Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M. and Saldaña, J. (2019). Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook. 4th ed. SAGE.

[4] Walan, S., Gericke, N. Transferring makerspace activities to the classroom: a tension between two learning cultures. Int J Technol Des Educ 33, 1755–1772 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-022-09799-2

[5] Yin, R. K. (2018). Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods (6th ed.). Sage.