Browsing by Subject "qualitative content analysis"

The goal of the thesis is to explore the contents of tasks in craft studies. The background of the study is placed in the experiences that both the scholar and other craft teachers have of difficulties in teaching designing. The data consists of tasks given to university students. The study examines the projects carried out in the university craft courses and the contents found in tasks designed by teachers. The study explores the following tasks found in the data: the phases of craft processes, design elements, and the action models of craft. The data of the exploration was collected from four Finnish universities, and the lecturers were approached by e-mail. The tasks including a craft project carried out by students were picked out from the data; there were 43 such tasks. The data was analyzed using the method of qualitative content analysis based on the theory driven approach. Classification frames were outlined with the help of the theory, and they were completed with the themes arising from the data. The phases of craft processes occurred in the data in many different ways: most usually, the tasks included the phases of design, manufacturing, and assessment. Ideation occurred the least in the data. Problems in design elements were examined from the following points of view: technique, material, and product. On the basis of these observations, the well-defined problems occurred most in the tasks. There were numerous design constraints, and most of them had technique-based manufacturing as a point of departure. There was a large variety of both verbal and visual representation in the tasks. Craft techniques, craft skills, and problem solving tasks were emphasized in action models of craft. Among these, there were less craft as self-expression and routine-like manufacturing of a product. The craft tasks followed the tradition of learning techniques and skills. However, the objective of holistic craft occurred in most of the tasks.