This page lists every page on the site, with a line on what each one covers. The site is written for educators, partners, funders and the communities DreamSpace Academy works with. Each page says what is known, what the academy has seen in its own work, and what is still being tested.
The organisation
The way DreamSpace Academy works rests on four things:
- people with the skills to solve problems;
- a place to build;
- the money, buyers, introductions and continued support that a skill needs before it can earn a living;
- a network that connects an underserved community to the wider world.
Each page below says how well its part is backed by evidence.
About the organisation
How the academy began, what it believes, and its purpose, definition, mission, vision, values and standards of practice.
Why this work exists
The local conditions the work sets out to change, and what is not claimed about them.
Theory of change
How the work is meant to produce results, the streams of work that run side by side, and a grade for how well each claim is backed by evidence.
The DreamSpace Lifecycle
How people join, the test a candidate passes to become a changemaker, the four kinds of support, and the ways of leaving that are not failures.
Labs & research
What a lab is, its three uses, the four conditions before anything is called a lab, and the academy's own research plans.
Ventures & incubation
How founders come through the pathway, the kinds of venture the academy has incubated, and how each of the three kinds of outcome is reported.
Venture pathway
How people enter, the step where a candidate becomes a Changemaker, launching a venture, the support on offer, and the questions still open.
Impact & the global goals
The global goals the work serves, what carries each one, and the goals that came off the list.
How the work is funded
Where the money comes from, how the academy hopes to pay for its work in future, and the rules for describing its own role.
Measurement
The levels of result, from activity to impact; the innovation ladder, from a project to a solved problem; the eight registers and checks that make results measurable; and the rules for reporting them.
The education system and the MakerSpace
The education system is how people learn the skills, in schools, at partner sites, online and in the academy’s own spaces. The STEAM programmes are one part of it. The MakerSpace is a separate product: a makerspace that local partners can set up, and one more place the courses can run. Both are below.
The education system
The STEAM programmes are one part of what DreamSpace Academy teaches. The academy also runs business and entrepreneurship training, digital security and media literacy training, and training for teachers and people already at work. What the academy teaches.
How learning is checked
A course is completed by showing evidence of what was learned, checked against a published standard. Turning up is not enough. Where someone starts depends on what they can already show, so skills learned anywhere count.
In the STEAM programmes, a stage says what the work is for. Stages have names, not numbers. A level says how deep someone has gone in one subject, and it belongs to a course rather than to a person. The teaching approach explains each of these, and assessment sets out the standard for finished work.
Constructionism, a theory of how people learn, makes the case for learning by building things other people can see and use[1, 4]. Reviews that pool a large body of studies find that makerspaces support creativity[24, 25]. Assessing what learners make is also an established practice, with a record of use elsewhere[21]. The reference library lists every source this site draws on.
Research on learning by making gives good evidence for the first three: Learn, Make and Solve. It does not for Earn, the step from skills to income. So the academy treats Earn as a hypothesis, something to measure, and does not claim it as a result. See what “Earn” does and does not claim.
Learning by making
What the key terms mean, what is fixed, what is left open, and the published research the approach is built on.
The Changemaker Journey
The stages used in the STEAM programmes, how depth in a subject is tracked, how learners move on and where they start, and the maker profile.
Facilitation
The order teaching follows, the two ways it is delivered, and what a trainer and a facilitator each do.
Assessment
The standard for completing a course, the stages a piece of evidence can be in, and what a certificate needs.
Programmes and domains
What the academy teaches beyond the STEAM programmes, the subjects they offer now, how a course is divided into levels, and what every course has to publish.
Innovation & enterprise
Research, entrepreneurship and basic business knowledge taught through every subject, and what “Earn” does and does not claim.
Empowerment Inside School
The in-school programme running now: its reach, schools, learning outcomes and what comes next.
The MakerSpace
The makerspace that local partners can set up, and how it spreads to new places.
Library
Articles, answers, terms, sources and past activities.
Articles
Explanations, with sources, of why the academy works the way it does.
Common questions
Questions from parents, schools, donors and partners, including the ones with no settled answer yet.
Glossary
The words that have a particular meaning on this site, what each one leaves out, and the words the site does not use.
References
The published works this site draws on, grouped by topic.
Activities
The academy’s activities since 2018, one page each, with dates.