Page 23 - THE Journal, March/April 2018

particular ways of thinking about problems that are disciplinary, and, to become a master of solving a scientific problem, let’s say, one does need to have many, many, many opportunities to practice thinking like a scientist,” Hagerman said. “Knowing that scientific method, or knowing how
to think like a scientist about problems,
is important. It has to be a part of every student’s mental toolkit because when there’s a problem, that scientific method may indeed be exactly the approach that one should take to solve the problem. Same with history or social studies. There are
all kinds of ways of thinking or heuristics that historians apply to solve problems that are historical, or to construct an understanding of the past in ways that can help to inform the present.”
“I don’t think that it would be wise, necessarily, to not have disciplines where kids can go deeply into the mastery of those disciplinary ways of thinking, but I don’t think that it should stop there. History class should not necessarily just be about learning to think like a historian, it should also now include the juxtaposition of the historical way of thinking with other ways of solving problems.”
Hagerman said that there are real, practical, nuts and bolts reasons for kids to practice combining these different ways of thinking.
“I think the whole question of the reciprocity of arts and science and science and arts, at the center of it is the notion
that today the people who are probably
best suited to be successful in the world are people who can leverage a range of ways of solving problems, who have had a diverse set of experiences through a range of projects and activities in school and out of school who can bring these multidisciplinary lenses to bear on any problem they want to solve,” Hagerman said. “And we know, of course, that the arts enable students to understand themselves as creative actors, that the
arts enable a different sense of self and a different identity and a different sort of connection to different kinds of problems. I think that in that kind of reciprocity there’s real power.”
Roffey explained that makerspaces
are an elegant solution to bringing all these different strands together. She said that we have to expand our definition of literacy beyond simply being able to read and write.
“We have to understand that if we’re really going to create literate adults in a fully functioning way in our world, then they have to be media literate, digitally literate,” she said. “These are things that are going to be crucial to their success
in the real world regardless of what they do. When we can look at literacies in
the sense of, ‘Can you navigate and filter information? Do you know how to be able to collaborate with other people and bring your strengths to the table?’ When we start to break down some of those things makerspaces really let us create a petri dish of the real world.”
Make Your Spaces
from the Bottom Up
Shekhter said that the inspiration for these kinds of multi-literacy projects
in her school comes from a variety of sources. In the course of her work as
the computer science teacher, she visits different classrooms throughout the
week and uses the visits to check in
and find out what the students are up
to. Between those visits and informal conversations with other teachers, she finds opportunities to “liven up” a unit with a tangible project, like when students learning about cells made models of organelles or when students reading a novel about a child with a missing hand used the school’s 3D printer to design a prosthetic hand.
Other times, as in the case of a class reading Touching Spirit Bear, another teacher will hear students getting excited about a technology — in this case the 3D printer again — and will ask her about integrating it with the lessons. For this particular novel, which is set in a Native American community, the students designed their own totems on computers and then printed them out.
Roffey echoed this idea that enthusiasm for projects is contagious in a school.
“I think what you have to do is you
have to start with a champion, and you have to start with passion,” she said. She explained that the best uptake she sees for makerspaces in schools comes after a staff maker day in which teachers are given access to a mix of no-tech, low-tech and high-tech tools and a set of curriculum- based challenges.”
Hagerman also said that teacher professional development could be improved to better support this kind of approach to teaching.
“It’s very rare, I think, that teachers get the freedom to just sort of play around with stuff,” she said. “We’re knowledge workers as teachers. You need time to just put the ideas together. And when
the professional learning feels kind of pressured or driven by some agenda that you might not even agree with in the first place, and you don’t see why it’s relevant, it’s not going to have the impact. And so, fundamentally, I think that directors of education, policymakers, need to think about creating learning experiences
that truly empower teachers, that truly empower them to lead, because these
are people who are creative; they’re innovative; they’re passionate; they’re committed to supporting kids and so they deserve to have professional learning that meets their needs.”
Why Not?
“I think the big question I have for teachers is, ‘Why not?’ Let’s just give it a try,” said. “I know that there’s the way we’ve always done things, but if we just relegate makerspace to STEM or science or math, I think what we’ve overlooked is that it has already existed in other curricular areas since human beings started creating anything.”
Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at jbolkan@gmail.com.
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