COMMUNICATIVE PERSPECTIVES AND SOCIAL INTERACTION WITHIN INTELLIGENT CLOTHING PROJECT: A CASE OF ELECTRONICS Matti Pirttimaa, Jukka Husu & Mika Metsärinne Turun opettajankoulutuslaitos, Rauman yksikkö eNorssi -seminaari Helsinki

The aim of the study The aim of the study is to research communicative approaches and social interaction during craft and technology processes within the intelligent clothing (ICL) project. The project was put in practise in two 6th grade classes in Rauma Teacher Training school in Finland during a crossover period between crafts’ technology and textile groups. The focus of this research is in the phase of electronics and programming of the project. The theoretical frame of reference is based on socio cultural perspective on learning. The socio-cultural perspective emphasizes interaction between teacher and students: language is a tool for mediating understanding.

Knowledge and concepts Craft includes theoretical, cognitive knowledge, practical “how to” knowledge and knowledge involved in the making or creating something, creative act brought together with an idea or concept. (Risatti 2007, ) Learning is not something like transferring knowledge or skills from teacher to student: It is an ongoing process of meaning making, comparing and checking understandings on the social plane, conducting to assimilation and internalization of knowledge. (Mortimer & Scott 2003, 10.) Concepts concerning electricity and electronics are problematic: they are complex and abstract: at the same time, they are topics of modern technology and they are a central area of physics and science curricula at all levels of education.

Knowledge and skills in craft and technology Traditionally in Finland, school craft has emphasized individual knowledge and skills in design and crafting. In this article, we regard human development, knowledge construction, learning and the development of skills as socio-cultural phenomena, in which language and other semiotic systems can be thought as psychological tools for understanding and development. Engaging students in learning dialogues would be a means for familiarize them to the abstract knowledge

Knowledge and skills in craft and technology Craft and technology skills are a series of dimensions, concerning for example ability to plan and design, problem solving, to take risks, esthetical skills, technical skills, evaluation and psychological-motoric abilities. (Kojonkoski-Rännäli 2005, 290 – 291.) The skills’ development can be thought to be a process, in which the modelling, provided affordances, discourses, mental training and physical exercising are leading to a better management of trained skills.

Productive disciplinary engagement (Engle & Conant 2002) Productive disciplinary engagement is possible, if the teacher : a)allows students to problematize subject matter, b)gives students authority to address such problems, c)holds students responsible to others and to shared disciplinary rules and d)provides students with relevant resources. (Engle & Conant 2002, 399.) Coal oriented working towards completed craft and technology product entails more different practical work than pure scientific exploring and related discourse.

Productive disciplinary engagement (Engle & Conant 2002) Making possibilities for the students to learn scientific knowledge, to design and to work productively, in other words productive disciplinary engagement in craft and technology project is a challenge for the teacher The time for scientific inquiry and discourse is away from the time for designing and manufacturing. The balance between productive practical work, learning craft and technology skills and learning science is important to be obtained. Discourse and dialogue is essential, but real dialogue is rare and challenging related to graft and technology project.

Classroom discource and communicative approach The teacher has a central role to guide the meaning making processes on the social plane (Vygotsky) in the classroom (Scott, Mortimer & Aguiar 2006, 627). For advancing learning and teaching it is important to make visible the structure of the classroom discourses Teachers need theoretical tools to see the possibilities of different communicative perspectives which allow them to reflect upon and modify their classroom practises (Scott, Mortimer & Aguiar 2006, 624). For describing the communicative perspectives we use the framework based on dimensions dialogic – authoritative, and interactive – non- interactive discourses. (Mortimer & Scott 2003, Scott, Mortimer & Aguiar 2006, also Hackling, Smith & Murcia 2010.)

Classroom discource and communicative approach Classroom talk is dialogic when several “voices” or more than one point of view or idea is represented and taken into account. The ideas are explored and developed. The talk is authoritative when attention is just in one point of view and there is no exploration of different ideas. More than one point of view may be heard, but they are not taken into account and there is no exploration between them. The talk is considered to be interactive when it allows for the participation both students and the teacher, but non-interactive if one of the classroom agents excludes the others

Classroom discource and communicative approach Four types of communicative approaches can be defined by combining these two dimensions: interactive – dialogic, non-interactive – dialogic, interactive – authoritative, and non-interactive – authoritative. Both authoritative and dialogic passages of interaction is needed during the science lessons, if the learning goal is the meaningful understanding of scientific conceptual knowledge (Scott, Mortimer & Aguiar 2005, 606). The concept of current flow is one example of scientific phenomena during the intelligent clothing project. As stated earlier, the balance between practical work, learning craft and technology skills and learning science is important to be obtained.

Research of organizing teaching through the learning dialoque Wells (1999) suggests define thematic units as tools for observation and inquiry: He uses the term spoken or written genre. The genres could emphasize the social functions of classroom discourse. They constitute a tool kit for coordinating actions and for negotiating and communicating participants’ understanding to their activities. (Wells, 1999, ) In this research we are analysing dialogues between teacher and student using several (nine) essences of language genres: management (Mortimer & Scott 2003, 26), paving, controlling, diagnostic, exploratory, instructional, modelling, reflective and directive (Lockhorst, Wubbels & Van Oers 2010, 103).