Agency by Design
Educational initiatives that emphasize making, design, engineering, and tinkering have been gaining traction in schools and organizations across the country. While maker-centered learning is not a new concept, recent and emerging trends suggest a new kind of hands-on pedagogy—a responsive and flexible pedagogy that encourages community and collaboration (a do-it-together mentality), distributed teaching and learning, and crossing boundaries.
Agency by Design (AbD) is a multiyear research initiative at Project Zero investigating the promises, practices, and pedagogies of maker-centered learning experiences.
Introducing the New Agency by Design Website
Welcome to the new Agency by Design website! Because the new website is so rich with content and features, we think it might be helpful to take you on a tour to get a sense of all it has to offer. The new site boasts 29 educator tools and practices that accompany the Agency by Design framework for maker-centered learning, featured documentation and assessment resources highlighting the most recent phases of work, Agency by Design media and publications, and project and funder pages to highlight the Origin Project, Early Childhood in the Making, and Making Across the Curriculum. The video below walks you through the elements of the site and gives an overview of each page.
想象如果...
這個思維習慣鼓勵學生先練習把思想發散，為一件物品/系統思考各種新的可能性。然後再鼓勵學生把新想法融合起來，決定一個有效率的方法去建立，修繕，打破物件/系統原貌，或者是重新設計一個物品/系統.
Exploring Complexity: A Capacity of Sensitivity to Design
Educator Gus Goodwin shares how his students engage with the Agency by Design capacities during a design and engineering challenge, specifically highlighting the capacity Exploring Complexity.
Video by Alex Coppola
Featured photo by Jaime Chao Mignano
思考，感受，关心
这个思维习惯鼓励学生思考在一个特定的系统里不同人物的观点。其目标是帮助学生理解基於在系統里的不同角色，不同的人物会有不同的思考、感受以及他们关心的事情。这个思维习惯培育学生的思考观点与角度，提出问题和明确下一步的研究。
Tinkering Towards a Definition of Tinkering
How do you define tinkering? In this post, Agency by Design principal investigator Shari Tishman tinkers towards a definition of tinkering that considers standard text book definitions, examples from real life tinkerers, and a consideration of the “symptoms” of tinkering.
零件，用途，關聯性
這個思維習慣通过讓學生慢下來，小心仔细地觀察物件和系統，鼓勵學生超越一個物件/系統明顯的特徵看到更多。
Imagine if...
This routine first encourages divergent thinking, as learners think of new possibilities for an object or system, and then encourages convergent thinking, as learners decide upon an effective approach to build, tinker, re/design, or hack an object or a system.
Understanding Agency Part II: Putting an Abstract Concept into Action
AbD researchers describe how their use of agency “vignettes” help them gain new understandings around the concept of agency.