Promoting maker‐centred instruction through virtual professional development activities for K‐12 teachers in low‐income rural areas

Abstract

With an increased interest in makerspace in K‐12 education, professional development (PD) is needed to equip teachers with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to effectively incorporate makerspace and maker technology in teaching. This study examined a virtual PD programme to improve K‐12 teachers' knowledge, attitudes and beliefs in teaching with maker technology. Data were collected from 43 in‐service schoolteachers through project artefacts, survey questionnaires and reflection journals. Results of the qualitative and quantitative analyses show that the PD experience effectively improved participants' knowledge in maker technology and the associated pedagogy, as well as their attitudes and beliefs towards teaching with maker technology. Implications for designing and implementing a virtual maker‐centred teacher PD programme and directions for future research are discussed. What is currently known about this topic Makerspaces and maker technology have been increasingly introduced to K‐12 settings to promote student learning. Teachers struggle to effectively design and implement maker‐centred instruction. Empirical research was very limited on preparing in‐service teachers for maker‐centred instruction. Maker resource deficiency in rural areas and the COVID‐19 pandemic added pressure for researchers and educators to develop alternative models for digitalizing maker‐centred professional development (PD). What this paper adds This study designed and implemented virtual maker‐centred PD activities to prepare K‐12 schoolteachers for integrating maker technology in classroom teaching. Both quantitative and qualitative results show that virtual maker‐centred PD activities significantly improved teachers' knowledge of maker technology and the associated pedagogy, and also improved their attitudes and beliefs toward teaching with maker technology. This paper provides a practical example of how maker‐centred PD for in‐service teachers could be accomplished through a virtual programme. Implications for practitioners It is beneficial for teachers to have hands‐on experience through making to better understand what maker technology can do and what the learning process is in making. Domain and context‐specific making contributed to the development of making‐associated pedagogy skills, as well as attitudes and beliefs towards maker technology. PD programmes should focus on maker knowledge and skills first to improve teachers' attitudes and beliefs. For at‐a‐distance making, it is important to provide access to a collection of tools and give teachers an immersive experience in an authentic makerspace.

Driving is believing: Using telepresence robots to access makerspace for teachers in rural areas

“…Participants having a virtual fieldtrip to makerspace with telepresence robots. Reproduced with permission from Chen and Cao (2022)…”

“…Participants having a virtual fieldtrip to makerspace with telepresence robots. Reproduced with permission from Chen and Cao (2022) a good sense of how I appeared to others. "), social presence (eg, "I felt like I was with those who were physically present in my class.…”

Validación psicométrica de la escala Conocimiento Tecnológico Pedagógico del Contenido TPACK-ES y evaluación de la autoeficacia percibida por el futuro profesorado

“…A pesar de la abundante literatura científica internacional disponible sobre sus potencialidades en el desarrollo profesional docente desde distintas disciplinas curriculares, prácticas de aula (Anderson y Kyzar, 2022;Kartal y Çınar, 2022;Sun et al, 2022;Tan y Chen, 2022) y espacios de enseñanza-aprendizaje (Assis y Vieira-Santos, 2021;Ortega-Sánchez y Gómez-Trigueros, 2020), continúa siendo necesario evaluar sus efectos en el ámbito de la formación inicial del profesorado (Aktaş y Özmen, 2020; Ismaeel y Aktas, 2022;Widyasari et al, 2022). En esta línea, ha sido demostrada su utilidad e impacto en el desarrollo profesional del profesorado en activo, a través de la mejora del conocimiento, autoeficacia, competencia digital y habilidades para la integración de tecnología en el aula (Chen y Cao, 2022;Oda et al, 2020).…”

Innovative Digital Tools for Online Learning

“…Various studies (Aslan & Zhu, 2017;Heredia & Fisher, 2022;Lachner et al, 2021;Yeni & Gecu-Parmaksiz, 2016) found that undergraduate programs need to support and encourage the development of pre-service teachers in technology integration skills and knowledge to use instructional technologies or maker tools in their future teaching environments more effectively. Similarly, PD programs play a significant role in providing in-service teachers with ongoing support for contributing to their pedagogical and tech skills (Chen & Cao, 2022;Dogan et al, 2021;Hughes & Morrison, 2022;Stevenson et al, 2019). Teachers found PD sessions beneficial when using their new understanding and experience to impact their students' learning (Martin et al, 2018).…”

“…PD programs effectively support educators' needs, learning new strategies for making interdisciplinary connections in the curriculum or new pedagogies (Chen & Cao, 2022;Dogan et al, 2021;Hughes & Morrison, 2022;Stevenson et al, 2019) and providing new physical and online tech tools for implementing them into the teaching environment (Lawless & Pellegrino, 2007;Wilkerson et al, 2016). During a six-week maker-focused PD program, this paper provides an overview of teachers' user experiences of innovative technologies to understand their experiences and challenges using these tools online.…”