Making pedagogy for spatial literacy: a case study of an origami workshop in an after-school makerspace

Spatial skills are crucial to STEM disciplines and involve a variety of cognitive processes and skills related to visualising, reasoning and communicating about spatial relations. Particularly in the primary school years, attaining 'spatial literacy' gives children a valuable set of skills and knowledge that can aid them in successful participation in STEM subjects. However, it is poorly understood what constitutes spatial literacy for primary school age children. Furthermore, research into pedagogy for spatial skills is limited, with training interventions often resembling psychometric tests. Therefore, it is pertinent to explore which spatial skills and knowledge are most important for primary school age children to develop and how pedagogy could look to help children to attain spatial literacy. Maker education provides an integrated and design-based approach to learning in which children could practise spatial skills and knowledge by applying it in a creative way. Origami provides a particularly interesting medium to explore these questions as it has previously been used successfully to train psychometrically assessed spatial skills. This paper details a 'research through design' case study of the development of a theoretically informed origami workshop and its implementation in a makerspace during an after-school makerspace programme. The origami workshop and its pedagogical qualities are described and the implementation of the origami workshop in an after-school makerspace is analysed in light of spatial literacy. These findings are discussed and contextualised with insights from the literature. Finally, several recommendations for further research on spatial literacy for primary school age children, specifically in the context of maker education, are made.