Development of teacher education students’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) through reflection and a learning-by-doing approach in craft and technology education

Abstract

The approaches of learning by doing and making have always been inherent components of Finnish craft and technology education. Craft is a practical subject that involves many hands-on activities during which students actively practice experimentation, investigation, invention, problem-solving and designing skills. The same ideology is utilised in craft and technology teacher education courses at the University of Jyväskylä. The overall purpose of this study was to increase our understanding of the development of teacher education students’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in craft and technology education through reflection and the learning-by-doing approach. To achieve this goal, students were asked to fill out a reflective questionnaire after one of their hands-on working sessions. The open-ended questionnaire was formulated on the basis of Roberts’ (2012) four philosophical stances so that each of them were equally able to provide representative information in relation to students’ reflections on it. During the academic year 2019–2020, a total of 115 students responded to the questionnaire while taking the ‘Pedagogy of Multi-material Craft and Technology Basic Course’. Data were analysed by identifying themes based on the frequency of their occurrence. Philosophical stances of ‘knowledge acquisition is inherently interactive’ and ‘examining things based on practical consequences) proposed’ by Roberts (2012) were the most evident ones in teacher education students’ reflections. This study demonstrates how the learning-by-doing approach and use of a reflective tool can facilitate the development of students’ PCK in craft and technology education.