It has been discovered that cooperative action research and the processes involved are useful to help instigate and document a transformation in teaching culture based on a cooperative process. This is one of the main conclusions of the DIYLab European project after its implementation in a primary school in Spain.
The project was undertaken in primary, secondary and higher education institutions in Spain, Finland, and the Czech Republic. UIC Barcelona Education lecturer Maria Domingo-Coscollola participated in the project, along with University of Barcelona lecturers Judit Onsès-Segarra and Juana M. Sancho-Gil.
The conclusions of this project were published in an article entitled La cultura DIY en educación primaria. Aprendizaje transdisciplinar, colaborativo y compartido en Hub DIYLab, published in the Revista de Investigación Educativa journal. The main focus of the study was to incorporate learning modalities related to Do it Yourself (DIY) culture, into the participating institutions and schools. Based on a methodology utilising the principles of cooperative action research, discussion groups were held with families, teachers and pupils/students.
The researchers also pointed out in their article that it is important to progress towards a school focusing on students, on society today, and on experiential, meaningful and continuous learning. In order to do this, they explain that there are significant needs to be met. This involves rethinking pedagogical relationships, revising the role of teachers, paying attention to the emotional processes that are part of learning, working on digital competences in a cooperative way to promote learning and avoid the rigidity of distributing content into stagnant time and subject-based compartments.
An open platform called DIYLabHub was created for this project to share students’ audiovisual projects. During the implementation of the platform, observations, recordings and field notes were made. Based on these sources, the results and conclusions were drawn from the audiovisual projects which primary school pupils in Spain created and shared on the Hub, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the project in terms of pedagogical relationships, digital competences and how they can remain sustainable.
