Maker Education Meets Technology Education : Reflections on Good Practices

In this book two fields meet, Technology Education with its long history, and Maker Education, a relative new shoot in the educational field. Both focus on learning through making and both value agency and motivation of learners. The purpose of this book is to understand and analyze the kind of informal and formal educational activities that take place under the umbrella of the Maker Movement and then relate this to the field of Technology Education to uncover what researchers, innovators and teachers in this field can learn from the principles, ideas and practices that are central to the Maker Movement and vice versa.

The book contains two types of chapters. The first type is case study chapters that span from Mexico, China, Korea, Denmark, the Netherlands to Kenya and from primary to tertiary level, showing a variety of good practices in maker education including both formal and informal contexts. In the subsequent thematic chapters, dedicated authors have used the case studies to reflect on themes such as curriculum reform, social learning, materiality, spatial thinking, informal versus formal learning as well as the sustainability of learning and relate what is happening in Maker Education with Technology Education to imagine possible futures for Maker Education.

Remke M. Klapwijk is a researcher at Delft University of Technology on the Pedagogy of Design and Technology Education and co-founder of the Delft Science Hub in which primary schools, teacher educators, engineers and designers cooperate. She co-developed the toolbox Make Design Learning Visible, a formative assessment tool and developed various (in-service) teacher resources and trainings. Together with Peter Troxler she chaired the First Dutch Fablearn Conference in 2018.

Jianjun Gu is Doctor of Education, Distinguished Professor of Changjiang Scholars Program of the Ministry of Education, National Cultural Famous Scholar and Outstanding Talent, Director of K-12 Technology and Engineering Education Center, Director of STEM Education Research Institute and Director of the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) China Center.

Yang Qiuyue is Doctor of Education, researcher at Hubei University of Technology on the Vocational and Technology Education. Her research interests relate primarily to technical literacy, STEAM education, technical design thinking, creativity, formative assessment, vocational and technical ability development.

Marc J. de Vries is Professor of Science Education and Professor of Christian Philosophy of Technology at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. He is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Technology and Design Education and series editor of the International Technology Education Studies book series.