Beyond Programming and Crafts: Towards Computational Thinking in Basic Education

Continually increasing demands are being placed on the educational system to prepare students with technical skills due to the exponential implementation of information, technology and automation in the workforce.  Students should work with design, problem-solving and computational methods and tools early on in their school lives in basic education and across diverse areas of learning. It has been argued that a fundamental understanding of technology requires computational thinking. However, teachers have difficulties integrating technology and programming into students’ active learning in crafts. In this systematic literature review, the main aim is to view descriptions of programming through craft science-based concepts of craft labour and, thereafter, to seek examples to enable teaching programming in craft education during basic education. Considering the selection criteria to undertake the analysis, the final data set comprised of 10 articles dealing with programming and craft, and 68 articles describing the possibilities of combining crafting and programming in basic education. According to the results, it seems that contemporary multi-material and design-based holistic craft may encompass different forms of technology and programming such as prototyping, robotics, microcontrollers, 3D modelling, applications for documentation, visualisation, share-out and storytelling via multiple channels. These all help students to learn computational thinking as they start out with design and practical problems and proceed to technology-mediated programming skills. It is hoped that the findings will provide theoretical perspectives for practitioners and policymakers to see the mutual benefit arising from the integration of crafts, technology and computation in basic education

Praxis: Connecting knowing and doing through designing and making.

The purpose of this research project is to explore how we learn and to design an experiential, studio-based learning framework based on designing and making that incorporates these findings. Research indicates that people learn best when they follow their own interests and curiosity; through perseverance and trial and error; in a mixedage, facilitated, exploratory environment; pursuing project-based investigations with authentic context. Creativity is fundamental to innovation and problem solving and is nurtured by interdisciplinary learning, a playful mindset, and one’s intrinsic motivation. Design provides a systematic process to deeply understand, ideate about, prototype, and test a proposed solution or intervention to a problem. Making is an opportunity for learners to more deeply understand their ideas and thinking through tangible representations and to foster a sense of empowerment and agency over their world. A systems perspective allows learners to see the connections and relationships between the parts and processes they consider. By developing ecological literacy and incorporating resilience into their designs, learners create sustainable and adaptive solutions. The proposed design-make framework is an adaptive, studio-based alternative learning system. Through service-oriented, project-based investigations, learners use the multiple resources in the design-make studio to deeply understand the problem in question and their ideas around that problem through iterative prototyping and presenting their findings to their mentors and peers for reflection and feedback

Exploring the use of a virtual reality learning environment to support innovation education in Iceland

Innovation Education (IE) in Iceland aims to train students to identify needs and problems in their environment and to find solutions: this is referred to as the process of ideation. The thesis explores the contexts of teaching and learning, incorporating the VRLE with IE to support the students’ work. There is a focus on blended learning, as the VRLE is used in conjunction with conventional classroom-based activity. The work employed the grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) perspective, in order to observe the complex social/educational activity relating to this real-life learning context. It was intended to build understanding (grounded theory), rather than an attempt to establish cause and effect. The author intended to observe, describe and interpret settings as sources of data and the main aim was to gain a greater understanding of the use of the VRLE in supporting students work in conventional Innovation Education classes within Icelandic schools. The overall research question was: ‘How does the use of the VRLE affect teacher’s pedagogy and the students’ work, in conventional Innovation Education in Iceland?’ [Continues.

Nordic Childhoods in the Digital Age

"This book adds to the international research literature on contemporary Nordic childhoods in the context of fast-evolving technologies. It draws on the workshop program of the Nordic Research Network on Digital Childhoods funded by the Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS) during the years 2019–2021. Bringing together researchers from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland, the book addresses pressing issues around children’s communication, learning and education in the digital age. The volume sheds light on cultural values, educational policies and conceptions of children and childhood, and child–media relationships inherent in Nordic societies. The book argues for the importance of understanding local cultures, values and communication practices that make up contemporary digital childhoods and extends current discourses on children’s screen time to bring in new insights about the nature of children’s digital engagement. This book will appeal to researchers, graduate students, educators and policy makers in the fields of childhood education, educational technology and communication.

Re-designing Design and Technology Education: A living literature review of stakeholder perspectives

Created following the amalgamation of several individual subject disciplines, in England, design and technology is in decline. Debates about its purpose and position have taken place since its inception but arguably these have not transferred into a rigorous research base. There is a growing body of scholars exploring the field, but with the decline of the subject, so the community working and investigating it is also diminished. Without a strong foundation, the actions of the few may not carry sufficient weight to generate full and meaningful debate that would influence those with the power to change policy on curriculum and lead to innovation. If we are to have any hope of reversing the subject’s deterioration, we must do something bold and significant. While an awareness of the subject’s history and its evolution is integral to our understanding of how and why we are where we are, merely reflecting on the past will do little to help the subject move forward. Hence, the principal aim of our research is to explore what a re-designed design and technology could look like. To achieve this, this study draws on different stakeholders’ visions of how they perceive the subject’s future

Developing the Professional Knowledge of Teachers of Technology and STEM in Secondary Schools

The sixteen works presented in the thesis derive from eleven years as a teacher of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in different secondary high schools in England and in Wales, and as a researcher and teacher educator for twenty-seven years, as first an educator of physics teachers at the University of Wales, Swansea from September 1987 and then of technology and science teachers at The Open University beginning in April 1992. The selected publications provide a unique 33-year arc of development and an interconnected overview of the way that an understanding of the elements of professional knowledge for teachers can be investigated and the results then used in the creation and the on-going development of initial and in-service teacher education programmes. The sixteen publications’ contribution to the field and their resulting impact is demonstrated, for example, by their having been cited 479 times. Using and exploiting a range of evaluative research methods that can be described as Research and Development (R&D), this thesis considers publications which address the education of teachers in general, and Design and Technology teachers and STEM teachers in particular. The publications coalesce around three interconnected themes that address three critically important research questions: Theme 1. Teacher Professional Knowledge - Research Question 1 (RQ1): What are the elements of teacher professional knowledge and what is their inter-relationship? • Empirical research conducted, and the resulting development of a general model of teacher professional knowledge (publications 1 – 4). • Exploitation of the model as a ‘Graphical Tool’ through an international collaboration in the DEPTH Project (Developing Professional Thinking for Technology Teachers) (publications 5 and 6). Theme 2. Developing Teachers of Technology - Research Question 2 (RQ2): In what ways can the suggested elements of teacher professional knowledge support the development of teachers of Technology? • Empirical research on teaching and learning and teacher education in technology education. • Development of approaches and models in technology teacher education including open and distance learning techniques (publications 7 – 10). • Comparative classroom-based research providing international perspectives in teaching technology (publications 10 – 13). Theme 3. Developing Teachers of STEM - Research Question 3 (RQ3): In what ways can the suggested elements of teacher professional knowledge support the development of teachers of STEM? • Empirical studies and a critical analysis of the relationship between science and technology in the UK. • Development of strategies both in teaching and in school organisation that need to be addressed when helping teachers meet the challenge of teaching STEM in the secondary school (publications 14 – 16). Using a research and development (R&D) methodology to evaluate and build on courses to develop teacher professional knowledge and addressing the Research Questions, the key concepts that the thesis contributes to new knowledge are: RQ1: • The discovery, verification, and exploitation of a new way to conceptualise the common aspects of teacher professional knowledge across subject domains. • The development of a graphical tool to explore teacher professional knowledge, and the discovery that teachers can use it to investigate and share professional understandings in their own contexts, demonstrating its applicability across education regimes internationally. RQ2: • The development of new open and distance learning techniques for the professional development of Technology teachers through the use of new technologies. RQ3: • The exploration, and dissemination of in-school strategies that can be used to develop and support secondary teachers of STEM, wherever they are located, by enabling them to collaborate by ‘looking sideways’ at the work that is done by colleagues in the contributory STEM subjects; and ways in which those developments can be supported by school leaders

A Proactive, Experiential and Student-Centered Learning Approach: A Case Study of the Effects of A Social Media Video Editing “App” in A Traditional Classroom Setting

The use of social media App’s has exploded in recent years. The purpose of this case study was to explore the use and implications of a social media App for shooting and editing video, when used in a higher education classroom where video projects are required. The study examined how the use of a student-centered App — in place of more traditional video and editing instruction — effected the student-learner model. The research questions included: RQ1 How does a social media video App impact student learning in a traditional higher education classroom? RQ2 What is the impact of a social media video App on the collaborative student-centered process? RQ3 Why does a social media video App enhance student-centered learning outcomes? The study used observation, in-depth individual participant interviews and a focus group of participants. The study found that participants favored the use of a video App for learning. Moreover, the case study pointed to a preference for collaborative, experiential student-centered learning. This self-directed and peer-involving learning approach resulted in more creative solutions, with participant benefits grouped into three themes: first, interaction was enhanced, with students reaching out to each other and voluntarily increasing use of digital tools; second, collaboration increased, with the increasingly iterative cycles of problem-solving involving both participant peers and digital tools; and, third, creation of assignment solutions that were experiential in nature, resembling the more complex and professional digital products of produced by organizations outside the classrooms