Crafting Maths. An Integrated Project of Mathematics and Crafts Education
Author(s):
Lasse Eronen (presenting / submitting) Sirpa Kokko (presenting) Kari Sormunen
Conference:
ECER 2013
Network:
03. Curriculum Innovation
Format:
Paper

Session Information

03 SES 07 JS, Curriculum & Mathematics Education: Creative Learning

Paper Session
Joint Session with NW 24

Time:
2013-09-11
17:15-18:45
Room:
D-405
Chair:
Birgit Pepin
Discussant:
Nienke M. Nieveen

Contribution

Finland has always scored one of the highest positions in the world wide comparisons on educational achievement, like PISA, and the country has got a reputation of "education superpower" (BBC, 2012). However, in the latest PIRLS and TIMMS evaluations, the Finnish pupils' success in mathematics was lower than earlier, and their motivation to studying mathematics was one of the lowest in these comparisons. This has resulted in the decision makers to start to look for more suitable and pupil centred pedagogical methods to teach mathematics. (Ministry of Education 2012.) Already, according to PISA 2003 (Välijärvi & al., 2007) results, the development of effective learning will continue to be one of the major pedagogical challenges and goals of the Finnish comprehensive school. The Finnish school system has been facing the same problems as for example USA; the mathematics education community is officially committed to the constructivist ideas of teaching, but traditional teaching practices change slowly (cf. Ravitz et al. 2000).

This paper introduces experimental pedagogical project at a Finnish comprehensive school with 8th-grade pupils (N = 17, girls 8, boys 9, 14-years-old). The project was developed to integrate Mathematics (the capital letter refers to the school subject) with teaching of another school subject, Crafts which doesn't have a status of standard core school subject in many other European countries (Eurydice 2009; Kokko 2012). In Finland, Crafts is compulsory for pupils mainly in grades one to seven. From the third year onwards, craft education has mainly been arranged in two separate fields called 'textile work' and 'technical work' (Kokko 2009). In this project, mathematics was integrated in the area of technical work. The curricula of both Crafts and Mathematics emphasize problem solving skills (FNBE 2004). The first purpose of the pedagogical project was to improve the pupils’ attitude towards mathematics education. In order to reach this purpose, we aimed to increase the pupils’ understanding about the ways to apply mathematics to studying of crafts. The second purpose was to broaden the pupils’ understanding about the nature of crafts as a problem solving process.

The research task was to find out what kinds of perceptions the pupils had after the project about Mathematics and Crafts. The task led us to the following research questions: 1) What kinds of experiences did the pupils have about an integrated approach to learning of Mathematics and Crafts?  2) What kinds of connections they saw between Mathematics and Crafts? The project started in mid-September 2011 and it lasted about 25 weeks. Instead of two regular 75-minute lessons of Mathematics per week, the pupils were to spend one lesson in the Crafts classroom working on the integrated project and another lesson studying ordinary Mathematics. The pupils were instructed  to design and construct an apparatus or equipment, which was somehow related to energy, and mathematics was to be applied in the planning and design processes. The pedagogical model of the project was based on problem based learning (Graaff & Kolmos, 2003).

Method

The data of this case study consists of individual interviews. After the project got finished, the researchers conducted in-depth-interviews with each pupil (N=17). The interview themes focused on the pupils’ experiences about their success in the project, on their learning experiences, their descriptions on their working process, their experiences about teamwork, their background on mathematics and crafts, their self-evaluation in mathematics and crafts, their views about connections between Mathematics and Crafts, and open feedback on the project. The length of the interviews varied between 15-30 minutes. All the interviews were audio-recorded and then transcribed to be analyzed. The analysis was based on the methods of content analysis and the approach was phenomenological. All the three researchers took part in each step, and a common understanding about the research procedure was to be found to increase the trustfulness of the research. First, each researcher went through all the data. Then, the rough data was compiled according the above mentioned themes. After that, the thematic texts were categorized according to the emerged categories. Finally, the categories were generalized in order to find answers to the research questions.

Expected Outcomes

The preliminary results show that the learning of both Mathematics and Crafts was strengthened during the project. The pupils emphasized the importance of good team work. The experiences of the project depended on the pupils' background with crafts. On the one hand, the pupils with strong background of technical work enjoyed the project which again strengthened their skills. On the other, those pupils, mainly girls, who had studied more textile work at school, found the project more demanding and would have needed more guidance from the teacher. An overall experience was that the pupils' problem solving skills where strengthened and they learned to adapt skills, knowledge and thinking together. On the whole, the project gave the pupils an experience of different learning situation which was mainly received positively. Their attitude towards studying this kind of integrated Mathematics turned very positive. However, the attitude towards Mathematics as a school subject remained the same. The pupils learned that there exist some connections between Mathematics and Crafts but couldn't think of any wider ways to adapt mathematics. Their understanding about the nature of crafts was broadened. Apparently, the project could reach the larger objectives that connect Mathematics and Crafts on the curriculum level.

References

BBC 2012. UK education sixth in global ranking. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20498356 (Accessed 21.1.2013) Eurydice 2009. Arts and cultural education at school in Europe. http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/thematic_reports/113EN.pdf (Accessed 21.1.2013) FNBE 2004. National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2004. Helsinki: Finnish National Board of Education. de Graaff, E. & Kolmos, A. 2003. Characteristics of Problem-Based Learning. International Journal of Engineering Education 19 (5), 657-662. Kokko, S. 2009. Learning practices of femininity through gendered craft education in Finland. Gender and Education 21 (6), 721-734. Kokko, S. 2012. Learning crafts as practices of masculinity. Finnish male trainee teachers’ reflections and experiences. Gender & Education 24 (2), 177-193. Ministry of Education 2012. Student performance in Finland at international top level. http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Verkkouutiset/2012/12/pirls_timss.html?lang=en (Accessed 21.1.2013) Välijärvi, J., Kupari, P., Linnankylä, P., Reinikainen, P., Sulkunen, S., Törnroos, J., Arffman, I. 2007. The Finnish success in Pisa – and some reasons behind it 2, Pisa 2003. http://ktl.jyu.fi/ktl/pisa/english/ (Accessed 21.1.2013) Ravitz, J., Becker, H.J. & Wong, Y.-T. (2000). Constructivist-Compatible Beliefs and Practices among U.S. Teachers. Teaching, Learning and Computing: 1998 Survey. Report #4. http://www.crito.uci.edu./tlc/html/findings.html (Accessed 21.1.2013)

Author Information

Lasse Eronen (presenting / submitting)
University of Eastern Finland
Joensuu
Sirpa Kokko (presenting)
University of Eastern Finland
Joensuu
Kari Sormunen
University of Eastern Finland
Joensuu

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