Abstract

Material artifacts play an important role in many learning environments. Such artifacts can include sketches, manipulatives, 3D models, toys and games, or the scrap materials found in makerspaces. Some theorists have argued that material artifacts, even though they do not move or talk, should be considered to have autonomous agency and to interact as equals with human participants. But there have been few empirical studies that explore whether or how material artifacts are attributed agency by human participants. This paper contributes to this issue by analyzing interactions between professor and student in design studio classrooms, where the student’s created work is the central focus. I analyze the close coordination of talk—including syntactic constructions and verb aspect—with nonverbal action, including eye gaze, gesture, body orientation, and body position. In the first set of findings, I identify six interactional mechanisms that attribute agency to the work, in both verbal and nonverbal modalities. I demonstrate that through the use of these six laminated multimodal resources, the student’s creative work is socially constructed as an agentive participant. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of artifact agency in social practices. In the second set of findings, I show how professors enlist these six practices in discursive patterns that scaffold students in mastering the dialogue of creativity: a process that distributes creative agency between the student and their unfolding work. These dialogues model for students a creative process characterized by iteration, ambiguity, exploration, and emergence. I conclude by discussing the implications for our understanding of teaching and learning for creativity.

摘要

材料制品在许多学习环境中发挥着重要作用。此类人工制品可能包括草图、操作工具、3D 模型、玩具和游戏，或在创客空间中发现的废料。一些理论家认为，物质人工制品，即使它们不会移动或说话，也应该被认为具有自主性，并与人类参与者平等互动。但是，很少有实证研究探索物质人工制品是否或如何被人类参与者归因于代理。本文通过分析设计工作室教室中教授和学生之间的互动来解决这个问题，其中学生的创作作品是中心焦点。我分析谈话（包括句法结构和动词方面）与非语言动作的密切协调，包括眼睛注视、手势、身体方向、和身体姿势。在第一组研究结果中，我确定了六种交互机制，将代理归因于工作，包括语言和非语言形式。我证明，通过使用这六种层叠的多模式资源，学生的创造性工作在社会上被构建为一个能动的参与者。这些发现有助于我们理解人工制品代理在社会实践中的作用。在第二组研究结果中，我展示了教授如何将这六种实践纳入话语模式，帮助学生掌握创造力的对话：一个在学生和他们展开的工作之间分配创造力的过程。这些对话为学生塑造了一个以迭代、模糊、探索和涌现为特征的创造性过程。