An easy reference handout of the Agency by Design Framework for Maker-Centered Learning.
Documentation & Assessment Tools
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videosParts, Purposes, Complexities in a Technology Classroom
Parts, Purposes, Complexities in a Technology Classroom
High School technology students in Darlease Monteiro’s class use Parts, Purposes, Complexities to analyze website apps prior to designing their own.
publicationsParticipatory Creativity: Introducing Access and Equity to the Creative Classroom
Participatory Creativity: Introducing Access and Equity to the Creative Classroom
Participatory Creativity: Introducing Access and Equity to the Creative Classroom presents a systems-based approach to examining creativity in education that aims to make participating in invention and innovation accessible to all students. Moving beyond the gifted-versus-ungifted debate present in many of today’s classrooms, the book’s inclusive framework situates creativity as a participatory and socially distributed process. The core principle of the book is that individuals are not creative, ideas are creative, and that there are multiple ways for a variety of individuals to participate in the development of creative ideas. This dynamic reframing of invention and innovation provides strategies for teachers, curriculum designers, policymakers, researchers, and others who seek to develop a more equitable approach towards establishing creative learning experiences in various educational settings.
activities and practicesMapping Systems
Mapping Systems
The practice of mapping allows learners to build and demonstrate their understanding of the parts, people, and interactions that comprise a given system.
activities and practicesCritical Sensitivity to Design Questions
Critical Sensitivity to Design Questions
A set of questions for students and educators that support critical inquiry and awareness when approaching human-designed objects and systems.
thinking routinesParts, Purposes, Complexities - Adapted for Early Childhood Education
Parts, Purposes, Complexities - Adapted for Early Childhood Education
This routine encourages learners to slow down and make careful, detailed observations as they look beyond the obvious features of an object or system and think about how it works. This thinking routine can help foster curiosity as children notice details, ask questions, make connections, and identify topics for future inquiry.
publicationsThe Inquiry Cycle in Action
The Inquiry Cycle in Action
The Agency by Design Inquiry Cycle has been designed to support educators in the processes of designing, documenting, assessing, and reflecting on maker-centered learning. This tool was collaboratively developed over time, and formally prototyped with cohorts of maker educators in two locations: Oakland, California, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In this paper, Agency by Design researchers Jessica Ross and Edward P. Clapp loosely use the structure of the Inquiry Cycle to describe the iterative process of developing this tool, along with some suggested implications for practice. Throughout the piece, we share the experiences of our teacher partners as they grappled with this tool—tweaking, hacking, and remixing it—as they explored its potential for designing, documenting, assessing, and reflecting upon their work in the maker-centered classroom.
activities and practicesPeople, Systems, Power, Participation
People, Systems, Power, Participation
A protocol for looking critically at content and developing a sensitivity to the role(s) of power and participation in the design of objects and systems.
thinking routinesParts, People, Interactions
Parts, People, Interactions
This thinking routine helps learners slow down and look closely at a system. In doing so, young people are able to situate objects within systems and recognize the various people who participate—directly or indirectly—within a particular system.