Creativity in Makerspaces: Applying Learning Theories and Socio-Cognitive Frameworks to Understand Designer’s Knowledge and Creativity

DS 86: Proceedings of The Fourth International Conference on Design Creativity,Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

Year: 2016
Editor: Julie Linsey, Maria Yang, and Yukari Nagai
Author: Megan, Tomko; Julie, Linsey
Series: ICDC
ISBN: 978-1-904670-82-7

Abstract

Designers in makerspaces, or informal active learning environments, engage in numerous experiences and seek out sources of information when it comes to creating a new design. During this process, the designer’s learning and level of knowledge changes and provides them with opportunities for innovation. Innovation, finding novel and useful designs, often requires a level of expertise combined with creativity. Studies of experts indicate that experts structure their knowledge differently than novices providing cognitive advantages. Within campus makerspaces, novice and expert designers gain and apply knowledge from classes; yet it remains difficult to gauge what the designer is learning and how this impacts their ability to innovate. In order to gain more insight, we propose evaluating how existing learning theories and frameworks are connected to the knowledge and creativity of designers who use makerspaces. We have defined the theories and frameworks in this paper along with how they link to creativity in makerspaces.

Keywords: learning theories, socio-cognitive frameworks, makerspaces, creativity

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