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

Abstract

<div><br /></div><div>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, <br />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<br />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 <br />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 <br />a gamified learning analytics instrument. Teachers’ classroom activities were used as the backbone for the thematic mapping of the craft curriculum. Preliminary measurements were <br />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<br />-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 ma<br />de 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 <br />not only described the activities in more details but had also developed new activities that supported the ideas of the new curriculum better.<br /></div>