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Integrating Literature with Craft in a Learning Process with Creative Elements

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Abstract

Art-related learning should be the central way of doing and playing in preschool, because the high quality of art-related education has a positive effect on children’s well-being, identity development, and creative thinking. In our study we tested an integrated learning process where reading literature and telling stories is combined with the making of a craft product. In addition we created a framework of compulsory, optional and free elements to plan and evaluate the creative learning process. Our research material consists of anticipatory stories collected by storycrafting, characters made by children with craft materials/techniques, and character descriptions. The storycrafting method is implemented in this study as an anticipatory story based on a fragment of a fictional text. The character is made using the concept of a holistic craft, where the pupil designs, produces, and evaluates the whole process. The data were collected in a preschool group that consisted of 10 children, 7 boys and 3 girls. Based on the study results, it is possible to conclude that most children benefitted from the process. It seems that literature and storycrafting support designing craft products. Our study showed that integrated learning process could be an effective and a creative way of working in a preschool group.

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Acknowledgments

The present study was carried out in cooperation with PhM Virpi Yliverronen, postgraduate student of University of Helsinki. A full paper based on the same data will be published by Yliverronen in 2013. We would also like to thank the preschool group, the eighth-formers and their teachers for participating in this experiment.

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  1. Rauma Unit, Department of Teacher Education, University of Turku, P.O. Box 175, 26100, Rauma, Finland

    Juli-Anna Aerila & Marja-Leena Rönkkö

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  1. Juli-Anna Aerila
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  2. Marja-Leena Rönkkö
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Correspondence to Marja-Leena Rönkkö.

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Aerila, JA., Rönkkö, ML. Integrating Literature with Craft in a Learning Process with Creative Elements. Early Childhood Educ J 43, 89–98 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-013-0626-1

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