Sandbox Approach to Empowering Learners’ Aspirations
Sandbox Approach to Empowering Learners’ Aspirations
2 A Sandbox Approach to Empowering Learners’ Aspirations
Gwen Nguyen
Gwen Nguyen is an advisor on the Learning + Teaching team at BCcampus
My little one is in preschool, and just a few days ago she came home and excitedly told me, “Mami, Mami, it’s summer! It’s sandbox time outside.” I don’t know if it was the weather, the idea of playing outside, or the sandbox that made her enthusiastic that day, but her excitement made me think. When was the last time I felt that excited about going to school, coming home, and sharing with someone that I had learned or played with something?
What Is a Sandbox?
Have you heard of the term sandbox? Although it seems self-explanatory, it carries multiple meanings depending on the context. According to Merriam-Webster, a sandbox is a box filled with sand usually found in playgrounds where children can play. These spaces allow children to engage in various games and unleash their creativity.
The term has also been adopted in fields such as technology, software development, game design, and education. In technology and software development, it refers to a testing environment that enables developers to experiment with new code or applications without affecting the production environment. It provides an isolated space where developers can test and debug their software before deploying it to a live system.
Expanding on the concept of a safe haven for young children to explore the real world through play, sandbox is also used in the context of teaching and learning. In this context, a sandbox approach is an educational approach where learners are placed in environments or situations that closely resemble real-life scenarios but without any risk. In other words, the sandbox emphasizes hands-on, experiential learning in a safe and controlled environment. It provides learners with the freedom to explore and experiment with concepts or ideas. In such environments, learners can “learn effectively while still experiencing a sense of authenticity and accomplishment” (Gee, 2007, p. 39).
Whether it’s a play area for children, a testing environment for developers, or an experiential learning approach in education, the concept of a sandbox highlights the importance of providing a safe and creative space for exploration and growth.
Sandboxes Everywhere
The sandbox approach has proven effective in providing an environment where teachers can collaboratively work together through successive iterations, collecting and analyzing data and developing a report framework without fear of failure or inadequacy (Mudrinic, De Leo, Nicks, Knobel, & Lankshear, 2023). It has also been applied as a valuable and sustainable method of professional development as well as a platform for content sharing during online teaching (Ervin-Kassab, 2020, 2022). Sandboxes play a crucial role in enhancing the effectiveness of educational technology interventions, reducing costs and generating evidence on the imp