Makerspaces and Self-Concept: Reshaping Students' Perceptions of Creativity and STEM

Research Paper Recommended citation: Hebden, K. L., Cook, E. J., & Millar, V. (2025). Makerspaces and Self-Concept: Reshaping Students' Perceptions of Creativity and STEM. In Kangaslampi, R., Langie, G., Järvinen, H.-M., & Nagy, B. (Eds.), SEFI 53rd Annual Conference. European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), Tampere, Finland. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17631708. This Conference Paper is brought to you for open access by the 53rd Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) at Tampere University in Tampere, Finland. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License. Makerspaces and Self-Concept: Reshaping Students' Perceptions of Creativity and STEM K Hebden a,1, E J Cook b, V Millar c, a Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia, 0000-0001-6150-1720 b Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia, 0000-0002-6722-360X c The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 0000-0002-1350-9530 Conference Key Areas: The attractiveness of engineering Keywords: Creativity, Self-Concept, High-School, Future-Engineers ABSTRACT This study investigates how participation in school makerspace subjects impacts students' self-concepts, focussing on their academic self-concept. This paper presents part of an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design which involved 147 students from four schools, comparing makerspace classes with control classes. Quantitative data was collected using the Academic Self-Description Questionnaire (ASDQ) at the start and end of the semester, capturing the change in academic selfconcept. Results showed significant increases in Visual Arts, Digital Technologies, and Creative self-concepts for makerspace students compared to the control group. While limited by the sample's demographics and the schools' adherence to maker movement principles, this research highlights the potential of makerspace subjects to expand students' academic self-concepts and career perspectives, particularly in STEM fields. 1 Corresponding Author K Hebden [email protected] 1 INTRODUCTION Like many countries, Australia has a long-term issue with declining participation in STEM. This is particularly the case in “Maths intensive” subjects such as Advanced Maths, Physics and Chemistry (Kennedy et al., 2014), and is an issue that can be seen across schooling and into university. Participation in these subjects is particularly problematic when gender, SES, minority groups and remoteness (i.e. students from rural, regional and remote areas compared to those in metropolitan areas) are considered. A range of programs and approaches have been implemented in an attempt to improve participation with little improvement in the participation in Engineering, Computer Science, Maths or Physics (Soete et al., 2015; Wang & Degol, 2017). The Expectancy Value Theory identifies many contributing factors in students' choice to pursue STEM careers, including students’ self-concept and their perceptions of STEM careers (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000). A student’s self-concept includes their perception of who they are now, referred to as their present self, and who they are going to become, referred to as their future possible selves. Research has shown that student’s academic self-concept, their perception of their own academic abilities and performance in different subject areas, is a reliable predictor of participation in STEM (Buday et al., 2012; Sax et al., 2015). As such, programs that aim to increase participation in STEM should ideally influence students’ self-concept, both their present self and their future possible selves. Students’ perception of what scientists and engineers do is known to be a significant factor influencing young people (Hill et al., 2010). Students often have misconceptions about scientists and engineers, associating engineers with building and doing rather than thinking, designing and problem solving (Fralick et al., 2009). These stereotypes of STEM professionals are influenced by popular culture, which often portray scientists and engineers as logical and process driven but not creative (Cheryan et al., 2015). Creativity is important for the future STEM workforce (Vieira et al., 2024) and an essential element of many STEM current careers (Cropley, 2016). Cropley and Cropley (2005) define the creativity in these careers as “functional creativity”, which refers to creativity in the generation of novel and effective solutions to real-world problems. It emphasizes the practical application of creative thinking to produce outcomes that are both original and useful. This mismatch in perception of STEM careers as compared to the reality may be one possible issue that needs to be overcome to help students see themselves as future STEM professionals. Fasso and Knight (2019) proposed that makerspaces in schools have key features that could influence a student’s STEM identity, defining identity as being drawn from the student’s self-concept as well as social acceptance from the community. Makerspaces are places that are resource rich, where people can make things in the space. Makerspaces arose as a result of the Maker Movement, starting in 2005 (Dougherty, 2012), and are now found in many western countries. This social movement is about creating, tinkering and making through “experimental play”. Makerspaces are found in public libraries, community centres, universities and schools (Blikstein & Krannich, 2013; Craddock, 2015; Fasso & Knight, 2019). The making that happens as part of this Maker Movement varies and is left purposely ambiguous to be inclusive (Tomko et al., 2018). Within schools, makerspaces are often associated with STEM education (Martin, 2015). Considered as more than a room full of tools (Tomko et al., 2018), a makerspace allows a community to create and share ideas. These spaces are referred to with a variety of names, including Makerspaces, Fablabs, Tinkerspaces, Hackerspaces, digital fabrication labs, STEM or STEAM rooms and, within a library context, hybrid spaces. This research looks at how students’ self-concepts change through participating in a school makerspace subject. The elements of self-concept that this study investigated are the students’ academic self-concept, and future possible selves. Research indicates these aspects of self-concept are good indicators of future participation in STEM careers (Buday et al., 2012; Khan, 2012; Sax et al., 2015). 2 METHODOLOGY 2.1 Data Collection This study is part of a larger project, using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, as described by Creswell and Clark (2017). The focus of this paper is the initial quantitative data collection, which was undertaken through a survey to find the statistical trends in students' academic-self-concept changes. This was followed with qualitative student focus groups and teacher interviews to explain the statistical results (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2011), which will be presented in future analysis. Four schools participated in the research. At each school students in a makerspace class and a control class completed the survey at the start and end of the semester, and the makerspace class students were invited to participate in a focus group. The makerspace and control classes involved different teachers and students. Three of the control classes were creative elective subjects (drama, creative writing and printmaking). The fourth control class was a science class. Table 1 summarises the total number of participants from each class. Table 1. Number of participants Makerspace class Control class School 1 18 (1 class) 23 (1 class) School 2 27 (2 classes) 22 (2 classes) School 3 21 (1 class) 18 (1 class) School 4 10 (1 class) 8 (1 class) Total 76 71 Across the four schools, all students who participated were also studying core subjects in English, mathematics, science, humanities and physical education at a Year 9 or Year 10 level. Academic self-concept was measured at the start and end of one semester using the Academic Self-Description Questionnaire (ASDQ) developed by Marsh (1990). This questionnaire uses a 6-point Likert scale to measure 8 items for different subjects. In this study the ASDQ-2 was used, as appropriate for Grades 7-10. This questionnaire has been tested for validity within this age group, across different genders and within the Australian culture (Byrne, 2002). The questions were adapted to reflect the current subjects found in the Australian curriculum, such as changing Computer Studies to Digital Technology or DigiTech. DigiTech is a relatively new addition to the Australian Curriculum, focusing on developing students' knowledge, understanding, and skills in using digital systems, data, and creating digital solutions. The subjects for which self-concept was measured in this study were: - English self-concept (E) - Humanities self-concept (H) - Mathematics self-concept (M) - Science self-concept (S) - Product Design self-concept (PD) - Visual Arts self-concept (VA) - Performing Arts self-concept (PA) - Digital Technologies self-concept (DT) - Physical Education self-concept (PE) - Creative self-concept (C) The change in self-concept was calculated by subtracting the initial self-concept score from the final self-concept score for each subject area. 2.2 Data Analysis An Independent t-test was conducted to compare the subject specific self-concept change between the Makerspace class students and the Control class students. Prior to this analysis, relevant assumptions were checked. The dependent variables, change in subject specific academic self-concept scores, represent an underlying continuous measure, calculated by averaging 8 discrete scores, and were taken to be continuous. The independent variable was the class type that the students participated in, e.g. makerspace or control class, which is a categorical variable. There is independence of observations, meaning that no students appeared in both the makerspace class and the control class. In 3 of the 4 participating schools, the use of two subjects that were timetabled at the same time ensured that no student was in both classes. In school 1, where students were in both the makerspace class and the control class, students only completed the survey in the makerspace class, ensuring independence of observations. The normality of the data was confirmed with a visual check of histograms and Q-Q plots. Whilst there was some deviation from normality, including a small number of outliers and a slight skewness, given the relatively large sample size, the use of an independent t-test was deemed suitable. The sample size of participants in each category of class, N=76 and N=71, was roughly equal which removed the requirement of homogeneity of variances. 3 RESULTS 3.1 Independent t-tests The independent t-test results show that for English, Humanities, Performing Arts, Product Design, Science, Mathematics and PE there was no significant difference in self-concept change between the Makerspace and Control classes, thus students’ self-concept in these subjects was not significantly affected by participation in a Makerspace class. However, the t-test results show that for DigiTech, Visual Arts and Creative self-concept there was a significant difference in self-concept change between the Makerspace class and Control class. The Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances for Visual Arts (F = 3.08, p = .08) and creativity (F = 0.06, p = .81) suggest equal variances can be assumed, however for DigiTech (F = 4.84, p = .03) this cannot be assumed. Table 3. Significant Independent t-test statistics Factor Class Type M SD 95% CI t statistics p LL UL Visual Arts Maker 0.244 1.08 -0.68 -0.06 t(145) = -2.39 .018 Control -0.13 0.76 DigiTech Maker 0.49 0.92 -0.62 0.09 t(140) = -2.63 .01 Control 0.14 0.71 creative Maker 0.57 1.23 -1.38 -0.58 t(145) = -4.82 <.001 Control -0.41 1.23 These results indicates that students in a makerspace class experience a statistically significant increase in their self-concept in Visual Arts, DigiTech and creativity when compared to the control class. The side-by-side box plots in figure 3 show the change in self between the control and makerspace class for Visual Arts, DigiTech and creativity. a) b) c) Fig. 3. Side by side box plots showing the change in self-concept over the semester for (a) Visual Arts, (b) DigiTech and (c) creativity. 4 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Students in makerspace subjects increased their creative self-concept (M = 0.57, SD = 1.23) more than students in the control classes (M = -0.41, SD = 1.23), t(145) = 4.82, p < .001. Given that the control classes were predominantly creative electives, including creative writing, printmaking and drama, the change for makerspace students is not solely because they were being creative. 92% of participating students reported that they had not studied a class in the makerspace before, having only had short interactions with the space (e.g. single-class workshop or lunchtime activity) before their subject commenced. The increase in creative self-concept could be because the students are seeing themselves be creative in a new context, adding to their perceptions of how creative they are, whereas the control class students are using their creativity in familiar contexts. Alternatively, there could be specific features of Makerspace classes or the pedagogies used in them that lead to this increase in Creative self-concept. Analysis of the qualitive data from this mixedmethods study will explore this further. Another finding from this study is that students’ Visual Arts self-concept had a significant increase for the students in the makerspace class (M = 0.244, SD = 1.08) compared to the control class (M = -0.13, SD =0.76), t(145) = -2.39, p = .018. School 3 indicated they included visual arts in their interdisciplinary STEAM (makerspace) subject, however the teachers at the other three schools stated their makerspace subjects did not contain any visual arts components. Thus, it appears participation in a makerspace subject increased students’ self-concept in visual arts in comparison to the control classes, despite them not actually studying visual arts in the makerspaces. This is possibly because students associate creativity with visual arts (de Souza Fleith, 2000), interpreting the creative work they did in the makerspace as a form of visual art. Future work in the area will further exploration on students’ perceptions of what constitutes Visual Arts, and how they associate it with creativity. The study has several limitations. Participating schools are not representative of the broader educational context in Australia. All participating schools had high socioeconomic status (SES), and substantial fees. There were three girls’ schools and one co-educational school, thus results cannot be generalised. It is important to note that the makerspaces in all participating schools were developed based on principles of the maker movement, which may not be representative of all school makerspaces. These limitations highlight the need for future research to include a more diverse range of schools, encompassing various gender compositions, socioeconomic backgrounds, and makerspace implementation strategies to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the topic. Makerspace subjects show potential to broaden student’s academic self-concept, particularly with regards to creativity. They are also places where students’ perceptions of engineering can change, or develop in the first place, in a more representative way compared to popular culture. Future analysis of qualitative data will be used to gain an understanding of what features of makerspaces are influencing the students. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Declaration of AI Assistance: I declare that artificial intelligence tools were used in the preparation of this manuscript, specifically for language enhancement and grammar checking. These tools were employed to improve the clarity and readability of the text. However, all research, analysis, interpretation of results, and substantive content are the original work of the author(s). The use of AI was limited to linguistic refinement and did not contribute to the intellectual content, findings, or conclusions of this research.