Weng Xiaojing, Chiu Thomas K F, Jong Morris S Y
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Front Psychol. 2022 Jan 17;12:800569. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.800569. eCollection 2021.
A growing interest has been observed among K-12 school educators to incorporate maker pedagogy into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education to engage students in the design and making process. Both cognitive engagement and emotional engagement of students can be promoted through satisfying the psychological need of relatedness that concerns a sense of connection and belonging. How to support relatedness would influence the effective development of students' cognitive competencies, namely creativity and critical thinking, and non-cognitive characteristics, namely interest and identity. Therefore, the present study investigated how two relatedness support strategies-real-world problems (RWP) and mentoring influence the development of student's STEM-related cognitive competencies and non-cognitive characteristics in STEM marker activities. We implemented a 7-week intervention study with three classes of Grade 9 students (aged 13-15 years) in Hong Kong ( = 95). Three intervention conditions were designed in the experiment, comprising textbook problem (TBP), RWP, and RWP with mentoring (RWPM). Our analysis showed that (i) the differences in creativity among the three groups were non-significant, (ii) the RWP and RWPM groups showed stronger critical thinking than the TBP group, and (iii) the RWPM group exhibited stronger STEM interest and identity than the other two groups. This study revealed the effectiveness of adopting RWP strategy in developing secondary students' perceived cognitive competencies (e.g., creativity and critical thinking) and the feasibility of employing a mentoring mechanism for cultivating learners' perceived non-cognitive characteristics (e.g., STEM identity and interest). Hence, we also offered practical suggestions for teachers.
人们发现，从幼儿园到12年级的学校教育工作者越来越有兴趣将创客教学法纳入科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）教育，以使学生参与设计和制作过程。通过满足与联系感和归属感相关的心理需求，可以促进学生的认知参与和情感参与。如何支持这种联系感会影响学生认知能力（即创造力和批判性思维）以及非认知特征（即兴趣和身份认同）的有效发展。因此，本研究调查了两种支持联系感的策略——现实世界问题（RWP）和指导，如何在STEM创客活动中影响学生与STEM相关的认知能力和非认知特征的发展。我们在香港对9年级的三个班级（13 - 15岁）的95名学生进行了为期7周的干预研究。实验设计了三种干预条件，包括教科书问题（TBP）、RWP以及有指导的RWP（RWPM）。我们的分析表明：（i）三组之间的创造力差异不显著；（ii）RWP组和RWPM组比TBP组表现出更强的批判性思维；（iii）RWPM组比其他两组表现出更强的STEM兴趣和身份认同。本研究揭示了采用RWP策略在培养中学生感知认知能力（如创造力和批判性思维）方面的有效性，以及采用指导机制培养学习者感知非认知特征（如STEM身份认同和兴趣）的可行性。因此，我们也为教师提供了实用建议。
