Galleries of Language : Maker‑Centered Learning and the Language and Culture Classroom
Abstract
The use of digital exhibitions in two advanced language and culture courses within a liberal arts curriculum provides an innovative pedagogical approach to promoting language learning and critical analysis. This article proposes a pedagogy to incorporate Maker-Centered Learning (MCL), the framework that emerged from a Harvard Graduate School of Education research project, Agency by Design (AbD) in 2012, into language courses. Through the lens of the three indicators (“looking closely,” “exploring complexity,” and “finding opportunity”) and related descriptors put forward by the AbD project, the analysis of the two language courses— one French and the other Spanish—as case studies reveals how, despite differences in course objectives and design, they achieved similar results by (1) facilitating learner autonomy, (2) developing learner communities, and (3) fostering learning on a continuum by going beyond the classroom. We demonstrate that creative projects made possible through digital tools can generate opportunities for engaging with language, literature, and culture in ways that transform students into collaborators and creators of knowledge. This approach consequently displaces the MCL framework from its more traditional association with Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) fields, and bolsters the claims of scholars who view the arts and humanities as equally fertile ground for its application. The pedagogical methodology detailed here could be replicated in any language classroom.
Download Media
PDF Subscribers OnlyDOI: 10.1558/cj.40995
References
Albion, P. (2014, March). From creation to curation: Evolution of an authentic 'Assessment for Learning' task. In Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 1160-1168). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 2. Pdf
Bevan, B., Petrich, M. and Wilkinson, K. (2014), “Tinkering is serious play”, Educational Leadership, Vol. 72 No. 4, pp. 28–33.
Clapp, E. P., Ross, J., Ryan, J. O., & Tishman, S. (2016). Maker-centered learning: Empowering young people to shape their worlds. John Wiley & Sons.
Clapp, E. P., & Jimenez, R. L. (2016). Implementing STEAM in maker-centered learning. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 10(4), 481
Davy, J., & Schindler, A. C. (2015). Student curators in the archives: class curated exhibits in academic special collections. Innovative Practices for Archives and Special Collections, 31-45.
Dougherty, D. (2012). The maker movement. Innovations, 7, 11–14. 10.1162/INOV_a_00135
Dougherty, D. (2013, February). The future of the maker movement. Briefing presented at the U.S. Department of State Foreign Press Center, New York, NY.
Dougherty, Dale (2013). Design, make, play: Growing the next generation of STEM innovators. ISBN 978-0415539203
Gaztambide-Fernández, R. (2013). Why the arts don't do anything: Toward a new vision for cultural production in education. Harvard Educational Review, 83(1), 211-237.
Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit.
Grandl, M., Ebner, M., & Strasser, A. (2019, April). Setup of a Temporary Makerspace for Children at University: MAKER DAYS for kids 2018. In International Conference on Robotics and Education RiE 2017 (pp. 406-418). Springer, Cham.
Godwin-Jones, R. (2015). Contributing, creating, curating: Digital literacies for language learners. Language Learning & Technology, 19(3), 8-20. Pdf of article
Halverson, E. R., & Sheridan, K. (2014). The maker movement in education: Designing, creating, and learning across contexts. Harvard educational review, 84(4), 495-504.
Jaramillo, J. A. (1996). Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and contributions to the development of constructivist curricula. Education, 117(1), 133-141.
Little, D. (2007). Language learner autonomy: Some fundamental considerations revisited. International Journal of Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 1(1), 14-29.
May, S., & Clapp, E. P. (2017). Considering the role of the arts and aesthetics within maker-centered learning. Studies in Art Education, 58(4), 335-350.
National Standards Collaborative Board (2019). World‐readiness standards for learning languages (5th ed.). Alexandria, VA: Author. Retrieved February 12, 2020, from. https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/publications/standards/World-ReadinessStandardsforLearningLanguages.pdf.
Papert, S. (1986). Constructionism: A new opportunity for elementary science education. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Media Laboratory, Epistemology and Learning Group
Papert, S.; Harel, I (1991). "Constructionism". Ablex Publishing Corporation: 193–206. Retrieved December 20, 2019
Piaget, J., Psychology and Epistemology: Towards a Theory of Knowledge (New York: Grossman, 1971.
Prendergast, R., & Totleben, K. (2018). Course design, images, and the class-curated exhibit. RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage, 19(2), 133.
Ross, J., & Clapp, E. P. (2018). The Agency By design Inquiry Circle: Documenting Inquiry and Practice. Retrieved from pdf January 30 2020.
Vossoughi, S., & Bevan, B. (2014). Making and tinkering: A review of the literature. National Research Council Committee on Out of School Time STEM, 1-55.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
