Pupils' Activities in a Multimaterial Learning Environment in Craft subject A Pilot Study using an Experience Sampling Method based on a Mobile Application in Classroom Settings

Abstract

This study investigates holistic craft processes in craft education with an instrument for data-collection and self-assessment. Teaching in a study context is based on co-teaching and a design process, highlighted by the Finnish Basic Education Core Curriculum 2014. The school architecture and web-based learning environment is combined. Division for textiles and technical work is no longer supported in this multimaterial learning environment. The aim of the study is to 1) make pupils’ holistic craft processes visible in everyday classroom practices with information collected by a mobile-application and 2) point out the curriculum topics that are covered during everyday classroom practices as defined by the teachers. The data is collected using an Experience Sampling Method with a gamified learning analytics instrument. Teachers’ classroom activities were used as the backbone for the thematic mapping of the craft curriculum. Preliminary measurements were carried out in a Finnish primary school in grades 5–6 (age 10–12, n = 125) during a four-week period in October-November 2016. The list of classroom activities was updated after the four weeks’ experiment and was tested in March-May 2017 with all the pupils of the pilot school (N = 353). The key findings were that a) for pupils the self-assessment was easy as a technical process but there were several factors in the everyday classroom settings that made the process challenging and b) it was relatively difficult for teachers to describe the classroom activities in terms of the new curriculum; however, after four weeks they could not only described the activities in more details but had also developed new activities that supported the ideas of the new curriculum better.

Keywords: multi-material craft, learning environment, holistic craft process, experience sampling method