CERLI, Centre for Research on Learning and Instruction, and CELE, Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning and Education, present one researcher each month. In May, University Lecturer Virpi Yliverronen from CERLI takes the spotlight.
Currently, I am researching familiar themes, mainly the activities of children under school age in diverse and multi-directionally integrated craft activities. Occasionally, of course, I go outside my own bubble to look at craft culture and topics related to teaching crafts. Right now, I am working on several new writing projects. This stage does not produce anything visible, but it has to be done so that at some point something can be published.
Investigating this topic is important because I want to understand children's thinking, actions and motivations from their point of view. There is much more logic and nuance in the actions of even the youngest children than can ever be seen at a quick glance. Through research in craft education, I continue my own crusade to demonstrate the importance of craft activities in developing thinking and visuomotor skills – essential skills for school and life. Individual craft techniques come and go, technical mastery is not essential for children, but ‘learning to learn’ skills need to be in place.
In my daily life as a researcher, my work includes basic work with computers, datasets and sources in a familiar environment at home. There are often too many distractions and interruptions at work. Data are collected in authentic environments in day care centers, sometimes also in schools. A researcher's daily routine also includes research meetings with fellow authors to discuss the research. All in all, the research work sits between and at the margins of the work of teaching, and during busy teaching periods, it is simply necessary to put research aside.
I collaborate with teachers and researchers in craft education and related disciplines at various universities in Finland.
When I'm not researching, I'm teaching, preparing lessons, giving assessment feedback or guiding students with research. When I have time, I follow current affairs and social debates. And, of course, track and field – without it there is no summer. So does a craft teacher make crafts? Well, not so much these days...
My greetings to those working in learning and teaching research: Research on learning and teaching, and more broadly on human behavior, is an important topic, although this is often not reflected in the level of recognition and research funding. After all, the global issues in many areas are linked to human behavior – teaching helps to make people behave better and more responsibly. Hang in there.
Researcher of the Month is a joint publication series of the Faculty of Education's Centres for Research CERLI and CELE, presenting one researcher once a month. The previously published presentations have been compiled on the series' website.
