Makerspaces in the Early Years: Beliefs, practices, and knowledge of Icelandic school teachers and professional staff in museums, libraries, and makerspaces

Abstract

In recent years there has been an increased interest and development regarding makerspaces in educational practices with children. Makerspaces enable people to make digital or non-digital things, tinker, hack, be playful and creative and contain a range of resources, for example, art and craft materials, 3D printers, and laser cutters. The aim of the research study reported in this paper is to examine the beliefs and practices of Icelandic early year educators, and professional staff working in libraries, museums, and makerspaces with regard to the value and development of makerspaces for the 3-8 age group. The study is part of the European MakEY project Makerspaces in the Early Years which focuses on how makerspaces can foster the digital, multimodal and design literacy and creativity of young children. Data was collected via online survey during the summer 2017 in seven participating European countries and the total number of responses were 633 including 254 from Icelandic participants (Lahmar et al., 2017).

The results from the Icelandic part of the study, reported in detail in this paper, show a gap between teachers and museum and/or library staff regarding prior knowledge and experience of makerspaces. A minority of teachers (17%) were familiar with the makerspace concept, compared to the majority of librarians and workers at museums and makerspaces (72%). Approximately 28% of librarians and museum and makerspace staff had earlier experience of using makerspaces and 13% had organised makerspaces before. On the other hand, 15% of the teachers had used makerspaces before and 7% of them had organised makerspace activities. It varied whether participants’ workplaces provided different elements associated with makerspaces. About half of teachers, librarians and museum staff considered appropriate hardware enabling the creation of digital artefacts to be provided regularly, frequently or better (monthly to bimonthly, at least once a week or always). Around half of the teachers and a quarter of the museum/library staff thought this was true regarding a space in which children could use tools to make objects, tinker and be creative. About a third of the latter group and 12% of the teachers said this applied to equipment that enabled children to learn coding. Regular access was much less frequent to other elements associated with makerspaces. This included Tools and/or electronic kits to enable making related to STEM/STEAM activities, a 3D printer, and/or 3D printer pens or laser cutters. The vast majority of both groups thought these elements were never available. The majority of museum and library staff believed it would be difficult to obtain the necessary finances, staff or specialized equipment to set up makerspaces in their workplaces. However, the majority of the participants felt it would be useful to receive training in relation to makerspaces, especially in activities that could be undertaken but also in materials needed, health and safety aspects and how to assess children’s learning in makerspaces. The majority of participants (73% of the teachers and 60% of the library, museum staff) considered learning in makerspaces very or somewhat closely aligned with their educational philosophy?

Makerspaces can play a key role in developing general education in Iceland in terms of digital literacy utilising new technology in order to establish a maker culture. It is important to develop young students’ programming abilities, together with providing in-service teacher training and supporting the professional development of teachers and other professionals who educate young students this context. This would facilitate the establishment of a maker culture at institutions that could support young students’ education and maintain their interest. Moreover, the academic work carried out by the MakEY project is an important step towards examining and establishing the use of makerspaces for educating young learners in formal and non-formal learning spaces