Fostering Creativity in School Makerspaces: Principles and a Framework for Assessing Creativity-Supportive Design

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by OmBimo

School-based makerspaces are increasingly viewed as powerful settings for nurturing creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving. Yet creativity research has often emphasized individual traits or end products, neglecting environmental conditions—physical, social, emotional, and cognitive—that shape students’ creative involvement. This paper re-centers “Press” in Rhodes’ Four Ps as a central driver. It proposes six principles for creativity-supportive environments and synthesizes them into a Creative Educational Environment Assessment Model for context-responsive, equitable, and pedagogically robust evaluation and improvement.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Creativity in school makerspaces

Creativity assessment gap

Press as an environmental lens

Purpose and research questions

Fostering Creativity in School Makerspaces: Principles and a Framework for Assessing Creativity-Supportive Design Larysa Kolesnyk, University of South-Eastern Norway, Notodden, Norway Brynjar Olafsson, University of South-Eastern Norway, Notodden, Norway Camilla Groth, University of South-Eastern Norway, Notodden, Norway Eva Lutnæs, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway Abstract School-based makerspaces are increasingly recognized as powerful contexts for fostering creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving. However, educational research on creativity has often prioritized individual traits or final products, underemphasizing the environmental conditions-physical, social, emotional, and cognitive-that shape creative engagement. This paper argues for re-centering Press, the environmental dimension of Rhodes’ Four Ps model, asa central driver of creativity in educational makerspaces. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature from creativity studies, learning sciences, and educational psychology, the paper identifies six interrelated principles that characterize creativity-supportive learning environments: a supportive socio-emotional atmosphere, learner autonomy, inspirational stimuli, collaborative culture, teacher support and guidance, and equitable access to technology and resources. These principles are synthesized into the Creative Educational Environment Assessment Model, a prospective conceptual framework designed to evaluate and enhance makerspaces in ways that are context-responsive, equitable, and pedagogically robust. The model emphasizes process as well as product, incorporates intellectual resources as a dimension of creative support, and situates teacher capacity as a systemic driver. Intended as both a theoretical scaffold and a practical tool, the framework offers researchers, educators, and policymakers actionable guidance for transforming makerspaces into environments where creativity is structurally supported and democratically accessible. Keywords Makerspace, creativity assessment, environment, education, pedagogy Introduction School makerspaces have gained substantial traction in recent years, offering technology-rich environments that emphasize hands-on, student-led, and project-based learning through the act of making (Blikstein, 2014; Korhonen et al., 2022; Gravel & Puckett, 2023) . These spaces are specifically designed to teach and foster essential 21st-century skills—such as critical thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, technological proficiency, and creativity—skills that are critical for the evolving job markets of the future (Binkley et al., 2011; Larsson & Miller, 2012; Piirto, 2011) . Creativity, which involves generating and evaluating possibilities by connecting information in new ways or finding viable alternatives to problem solutions (Beghetto, 2020), lies at the heart of both the concept of 21st-century skills and maker-centered learning (Clappet al., 2016) . As the maker movement has entered the educational context (Davies & Seitamaa- Hakkarainen, 2024), school makerspaces offer unique opportunities for students to develop their creative capacities. Makerspaces thus also provide us with a context for assessing creative environments, and for studying how environments can be better equipped to facilitate teaching for developing creative capacities. General creativity research has disproportionately emphasized individual traits (e.g., persistence, divergent thinking), cognitive processes (e.g., ideation, iteration), or the originality of products. Far less attention has been devoted to the environmental conditions, the Press in Rhodes’ (1961) Four Ps framework, that shape, enable, or constrain creative engagement. This imbalance is not a mere oversight; it limits both our theoretical understanding of creativity and the capacity to design inclusive, equitable, and effective learning environments that could support sharing creative ideation and communication. Exis

FAQs

What problem does the paper address in creativity research?

It argues that existing research often overemphasizes individual traits or final products while underemphasizing environmental conditions that shape creative engagement.

What does the paper propose as a framework for creativity-supportive makerspaces?

It re-centers “Press” from Rhodes’ Four Ps and identifies six interrelated principles, then synthesizes them into the Creative Educational Environment Assessment Model.

How does the assessment model treat process and resources?

The model emphasizes creativity process as well as product, and includes intellectual resources as a dimension of creative support while positioning teacher capacity as a systemic driver.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by OmBimo