Teachers as Designers: Embedding Lesson Study in Makerspaces to Create Artefact-Based Interdisciplinary STEAM Activities

Abstract

Ample research shows that active learning approaches enable students to develop a deep understanding of the scientific theories and principles (REF). However, frontal teaching approaches are still persistently predominant in K-12 science classrooms (REF). The initial teacher training offers a critical time window to bring about the necessary changes for future teachers to sustainably adopt novel pedagogical approaches. Prior work has addressed this issue in various ways. One line of work builds on Lesson Study as an opportunity for pre-service teachers to collaboratively develop new lessons for STEM and STEAM (HL…). Another line of work has examined the potential of Makerspaces to foster project-based learning (…). We propose a new teacher training module that Prior works has address that such hands-on, collaborative project-based approach would allow pre- to formulate, question, realize, and validate ideas in a holistic manner. (Anisimova, Sabirova, & Shatunova, 2020; Morago & Grigioni Baur, 2020). We propose a new teacher training module that integrates two hitherto separate strands of work: The first strand of work builds on Lesson Study as an opportunity for pre-service teachers to collaboratively develop new lessons for STEM and STEAM (Hlukhaniuk, Solovej, Tsvilyk & Shymkova, 2020). The second strand of work builds on the use of Makerspace in education to foster project-based learning (REF). Through a “nested loop” of Lesson Study and artefact design, pre-service teachers learn to collaboratively and iteratively construct interdisciplinary STEM / STEAM lessons centered on new artifacts for teaching that they produce using the tools of a Fablab. We hypothesize that these two approaches can work in synergy, with novel fabricated artifacts evoking new pedagogical ideas and vice versa. In the preliminary research project, we present in this paper, we examine the potential of the “nested loop” approach with the 2021/2022 cohort of high school Biology and Physics didactics students-teachers. We will investigate external and internal factors that hinder or contribute to the relevance and effectiveness of the “dual loop” of Lesson Study as a vehicle for helping teachers to adopt novel pedagogical approaches for STEM / STEAM education.