Examining Estonian Schoolteachers’ Attitudes Towards the Use of Applied Science Knowledge Within Craft Education

Abstract

This article examines the possibility of supporting craft education by incorporating knowledge students have gained via science lessons: such knowledge largely refers to the mathematics and physics taught in Estonian comprehensive schools. Results were gleaned from interviews with craft teachers in Estonia, in order to establish their attitudes to the idea of integrating science with craft. Their ideas are presented here, along with a comparison of their understanding of the pedagogy. The results of the study address the
following research questions:
1. Do teachers consider the National Curricula supportive, in terms of integrating science knowledge in order to support craft education?
2. How do teachers recognise knowledge of science during craft processes?
3. Are teachers aware when science is integrated into their teaching?
4. What do teachers consider the benefits of such integration?
The research demonstrated the pedagogy of integrating knowledge of science with craft as a novel idea, based on a process of merging the two knowledge models. The result of this process is a development of a new area of knowledge that can both enable students’ understanding and their design and fashioning processes. Moreover, it relates to realworld phenomena and thus helps students with their ideation. Such new knowledge is achievable when knowledge from one of the fields is used in the other field, whether science or craft. The integration of science with general craft education is dependent upon both the National Curricula and a teacher’s method of teaching.