Browsing by Subject "digital learning environments"

The aim of this study was to clarify which factors constitute an e-portfolio that supports and promotes learning in craft education, and how these factors appear in authentic e-portfolios made by lower secondary school pupils. The Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2014 emphasizes learner centrism, self-directed learning, learning-to-learn skills, goal setting skills, and problem-solving skills as objectives of education. The basis of craft education is in the examination of transversal themes in a holistic manner. In addition to learning the holistic craft process, e.g. versatile use of ICT and reflective and critical thinking are considered objectives of craft education. Assessment in craft education is based on documentation of the holistic craft process. In this study, the e-portfolio method is examined as a way of implementing the objectives and meanings of craft education in practice. A content model of e-portfolio for craft education was constructed based on previous studies, literature and the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2014, summarising the central contents, aims and potential of e-portfolios in craft education. 8 e-portfolios made by lower secondary school pupils in craft education were analysed. The data was collected as a part of the Growing Mind -research project in one Helsinki-based comprehensive school. The data was analysed through qualitative content analysis to examine the ways the factors of the content model were embodied in the e-portfolios. The e-portfolios appeared as stories and diaries communicating the learning processes from the pupils’ viewpoint. The e-portfolios provided information about the authors’ thought processes, activities, and the grounds of their activities. The e-portfolios were produced in different ways and their contents and emphasis varied. All of the e-portfolios expressed the craft learning process in forms of goal setting, artefact documentation, feedback and inter-action, interdisciplinary learning, learning ICT-skills, and holistic craft process containing the generation of ideas, the design, the making process, and the assessment of the artefact and the process. The results of this study indicate that the e-portfolio is worthy of consideration as a method and tool in craft education especially when it is produced in a dynamic way as a part of a learning task.