FABlearn publicaties onderzoek

Maker Education in The Netherlands – state of play and lessons for the future

FabLearn invited submissions of research papers to the first FabLearn conference in the Netherlands. In this publication the accepted papers are collected.

We are proud to organize the first FabLearn conference in the Netherlands where many maker education initiatives are shared in masterclasses and on a fair. As early as 2007, the first maker initiatives started in the Netherlands and making keeps gaining momentum in education. As new parties are embracing maker education – its teaching principles as well as the innovative making technologies – it is a good moment to make up a balance of what has been achieved so far and to discuss where maker education could go. The research papers enable us to systematically reflect on the Dutch makers education experiences.

The six papers brought together at the FabLearn Netherlands 2018 conference give a broad picture of maker education in the Netherlands. Some are written by insiders of the maker movement and others are written from the perspective of design and technology education. In this tradition, making and prototyping is seen as a crucial element and vital to the learning of young people. For a complete picture, contributions from arts education are necessary as well, however, research in this area is still scarce. The papers describe various maker initiatives in primary, secondary and higher education and in libraries, however, many of them describe initiatives in primary education. Each paper has its own focus, and together they show what has been achieved in maker education in the Netherlands, and they highlight issues and new approaches that will forward learning through making in an even better way than before.