Making and Thinking
Think about a time during childhood or more recently, when you made, invented, or altered something. Perhaps you baked a cake, repaired a broken faucet, put together a shelf, or designed an outfit? Was the experience positive, negative, or both? How did it make you feel?
Even if you don’t consider yourself to be a “maker” we have all participated in an activity where making was required to reach a desired outcome. In most cases, when you reached that outcome you felt a certain sense of pride and accomplishment because you were able to complete the task on your own or in collaboration with others. This feeling of satisfaction may have even encouraged and given you the confidence to explore or tackle other making experiences.
Now, think about what kind of impact would occur if we gave students the opportunity to become “makers” in the classroom. How would this new approach transform their social and emotional well-being? How would these experiences contribute to building the 21st century learning skills that we expect our students to gain?
Now more than ever, do we as educators have an obligation to prepare our students for life beyond the walls that separate school from our communities. It has become my mission to communicate the importance of allowing students of all ages, backgrounds, and intellectual abilities to Learn While Making in the classroom setting.
Why Learning While Making
Learning While Making encompasses targeted and purposeful hands on making experiences that are designed to engage the students in learning through a multi-sensory and interdisciplinary approach. It empowers students to take on the role as a maker where they build, create, design or produce while developing transferable skills that will improve learning across all disciplines.
By implementing this mindset in my classrooms and working with educators who have making experiences embedded into district curriculum, I have observed remarkable results: an improvement in student performance and motivation; a desire to advocate for social issues; and to my delight, students see the value in their work and are excited to come to school to learn!
While I have an abundant amount of qualitative data, the next step in my journey is to quantify data that demonstrates how learning through making improves students’ critical thinking skills.
According to Critical Thinking Cooperation (2006), “critical thinking is the identification and evaluation of evidence to guide decision making. A critical thinker uses broad in-depth analysis of evidence to make decisions and communicate his/her beliefs clearly and accurately.”
I chose this skill to research because if we as educators are going to prepare students for present and future endeavors, then cultivating critical thinking skills is what will help students thrive in this complex, demanding, and ever-changing world. Critical thinking is also one of my school’s student graduate aims (what we would like students to be like when they leave us after 5th grade if we were successful). Our hope is that students will leave elementary school being critical consumers of information and able to approach problems using a variety of strategies and resources to be successful.
It is my hypothesis that Learning While Making will improve student’s critical thinking skills. During my research study I will be investigating how providing my students with the opportunity to work on their own “authentic self” making projects will foster the following components that research shows encompasses a critical thinker:
1.open-minded and mindful of alternatives
2. Tries to be well-informed
3. Judges well the credibility of sources
4. Identifies conclusions, reasons, and assumptions
5. Judges well the quality of an argument, including the acceptability of its reasons, assumptions, and evidence
6. Can well develop and defend a reasonable position
7. Asks appropriate clarifying questions
8. Formulates plausible hypotheses; plans experiments well
9. Defines terms in a way appropriate for the context
10. Draws conclusions when warranted, but with caution
11. Integrates all items in this list when deciding what to believe or do
I can’t wait to begin my research and share updates with you!
About Me
My name is Jennifer Krystopowicz and I just entered my 13th year of teaching, 12 of which have been in the District of Columbia Public Schools, where I was placed as a 2007 Teach for America corps member. It was at my school, Van Ness Elementary in South East DC, where I learned about this growing idea of maker centered learning and makerspaces in schools. My principal, Cynthia Robinson-Rivers, gave myself and a few other teachers the opportunity to travel the country to learn from some of the best makerspace schools and then pilot our own makerspace in our classroom. These experiences have transformed my teaching and I am so excited to share my learning with you.
