Promoting collaborative innovation and disciplinary integration in maker education through augmented reality: a design-based research

Abstract

Maker education in China's K-12 schools is facing several problems such as disconnection between theory and practice, shallow application of the maker spirit, and shortage of educational resources. To address those problems, this study proposed an innovative instructional model for maker education, which was enabled by augmented reality (AR) technology and was informed by the theories of collaborative learning and disciplinary integration. After three iterations of design, evaluation, and revision, the study empirically refined the proposed model of maker education and validated a set of instructional design principles, including relevant task context, general inquiry sequence, diverse scaffolding, flexible collaboration strategies, and extended instruction time. The study results indicated that AR can be used as a adhesive to integrate subject content from various disciplines, and thus can inspire creative thinking and collaborative inquiry for students. The study concluded with six validated instructional design principles for conducting AR-supported maker education in elementary school.