Ossi Autio

The Finnish Five-String Kantele: Sustainably Designed for Musical Joy.

Abstract This article discusses the five-string kantele as an example of the Finnish national heritage, a school instrument and an example of sustainable design. A qualitative case study was made by collecting the data from the Finnish students – prospective teachers – and the sixth form pupils, who had designed and carved their own five-string kanteles. The purpose of this research was to find out which aspects of five-string kantele design are considered the most important for sustainable principles and design among these youngsters. As results, the elements and principles of designing the five-string kantele are discussed and its relevance to five sustainable characteristics (creative, ecological, economic, aesthetic and socio-environmental) is presented. The sustainable values of the kantele and the purpose for which it is made are also considered.

Creative and Co-operative Science and Technology Education Course: Theory and Practice in Finnish Teacher Education Context

Numerous models for curriculum changes, as well as new pedagogical strategies, are available nowadays, both in the literature and in school textbooks. However, in spite of some good efforts, behaviourist methodologies still appear to be dominant in education today. This chapter describes a special science and technology education course that promoted co-operative and creative problem solving in primary school teacher education. The purpose of the course was to study creativity through analysing a special method for problem solving and to create new pedagogical approaches which promote active, co-operative and problem-centred learning in science and technology education. In addition, we attempted to evaluate a process that included several phases, from recognizing a problem to testing and evaluating it, and where a small group of student teachers together solved a problem in a science and technology education context. On the basis of our results, we suggest that creative problem solving which includes decision making in several phases forces students to engage in tasks that develop, among others, high-order thinking skills, social skills and problem-solving skills.