The attainment of the ideas of Handicraft and Home Economics syllabus in school reality
2015
Lind, E., Tallinn University (Estonia) | Veeber, E., Tallinn University (Estonia)
Today, technology is increasingly becoming a part of our daily experiences and there are domains of life where human hands have no function in the creation of a product. All this raises the question how much or whether at all should one be able to make something by hands, and, therefore, perhaps is craft as a school subject outdated and should be replaced by the theoretical discussions about the technological processes? Surely, the content of craft education cannot be the same as it was in the beginning of last century. New standards arise in the handicraft and home economics instruction: it is not enough for students to merely acquire skills and the ability to make something by imitation; but the whole process has to be connected with pupil’s meaningful creative action, ethnic experience, innovation and modern technology. This is the direction pursued in Estonian syllabus development. But it is quite another situation, when it comes to the content of the subject and the activities chosen to promote the learning in the reality of school practices. A study was carried out to learn in what extent are subject teachers able to adjust their teaching practices according to the syllabus? The handicraft and home economics bachelor’s degree students were asked to write an essay describing their subject-related learning experiences in comprehensive school. The short writings of university entrants of three different academic years were analysed according to the phenomenographic study analysis theory. Results showed that, unfortunately, subject teachers have difficulties in altering their habits and this shows the need for syllabus based in-service training.
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