Browsing by Author "Kantola, Anssi"

The purpose of this study was to survey and describe attitudes and perceptions related to craft education in a target group of 6th graders (n = 143) in three primary schools in Vantaa. These attitudes and perceptions were compared to corresponding attitudes of 9th graders (n = 459) living in Southern Finland's urban areas surveyed by the Finnish national board of education (FNBE). Differences in attitudes and perceptions were also compared between boys and girls in different grades. In addition, the purpose of this study was to theoretically examine the applicability of the FNBE's attitude scale for assessing students' self-efficacy in craft education The data was collected with the FNBE's attitude scale which is loosely based on the Fennema-Sherman test. The students' attitudes and perceptions were measured in three attitude dimensions: "Self-concept in Craft", "Liking Craft" and "Experiencing utility in Craft". The research method was a survey-type cross-sectional study and the data was analyzed with statistical methods. The applicability of the FNBE's attitude scale to assess self-efficacy in craft education was examined theoretically and conceptually, as more precise examination would have required an experimental approach. The results showed that the attitudes and perceptions of 6th and 9th graders in craft education were on average quite positive. The self-concepts in craft were slightly more positive among 6th graders than among 9th graders. The difference was due to the lower perceptions of 9th grade girls compared to 6th grade boys. The only difference observed in "Liking Craft" was among 6th graders: girls indicated liking craft slightly more than boys. Attitudes in "Experiencing utility in Craft" were slightly positive among all groups. 9th grade boys were observed to experience more utility in craft than 9th grade girls. All the observed differences were statistically significant (p < ,05) but the effect sizes of gender and grade were small (r = ,11-,19, ηp² = ,010-,031) and thus they explained only a small part of the differences. Furthermore, "Self-conception in Craft" dimension from the FNBE's attitude scale was found to be applicable for assessing self-efficacy of students in craft to some extent. In conclusion, it seems that a self-efficacy scale for craft education does not exist and this study pointed out that one should be developed, as there is arguably a need for one.