Teachers’ Perceptions of the Maker Mindset and its Facilitation

Abstract

The maker mindset has been identified as one of the focal elements in maker education, and in formal education, teachers have a key role in nurturing it in their students. The maker mindset has been examined mainly theoretically and in relation to students. The present, empirical study explores teachers’ maker mindsets and investigates how teachers perceive this concept and describe its facilitation when implementing maker activities. The concept is approached with four constructs identified in previous maker mindset literature: resilience/growth mindset, creativity, collaboration orientation, and willingness to tinker. Data were collected using an adapted maker mindset instrument administered to 58 pre- and in-service teachers and via semi-structured pair interviews with experienced teachers (N=10). Both data sets were analyzed with qualitative content analysis combining theory-driven and data-driven approaches. The results revealed that the teachers emphasized all four constructs of the maker mindset. They perceived the maker mindset as a complex and multidimensional concept and highlighted the constructs willingness to tinker and resilience/growth mindset. In terms of facilitation, the teachers underlined the constructs collaboration orientation and creativity. In addition to student collaboration, the teachers emphasized collaboration among teachers as a means for the successful implementation of maker-centered activities. The findings highlight the critical role of teachers’ own awareness of maker mindset constructs when promoting students’ maker mindsets.Keywords: Maker mindset, maker education, K-12 formal education, in-service teachers, pre-service teachers