The LEAD-project (Learning and digitalisation in home economics education) puts together a unique group of teacher educators and researchers (minimum 8 persons) of home economics area from 4 Nordic-Baltic universities. It is beneficial to exchange the know-how and experiences in particular region since the future challenges in terms of content and teaching methods of the subject area are similar. At the same time, experiences need to be shared over the national borders as every participating institution has their own specific knowledge that cannot be found from the other countries. Therefore, collaboration gives additional value when developing innovative learning materials that fit the needs of all participating countries. LEAD sets home economics education in contemporary schools into the center for integrating students’ previous knowledge and building organized knowledge structures. The target group in this project is comprehensive school students in Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Norway, who are reached by home economics teachers in given countries. LEAD-project has two intertwined intentions. First, to find methods how to implement ICT purposefully in home economics lessons. The innovation lies in a novel understanding of how to effectively use digital technologies in home economics education to promote students learning in a genuine way. There are not many ready-made pedagogical solutions for home economics teachers to apply in subject teaching. Available materials are mostly designed for the introduction of the topic or for revising the learned material. Therefore, LEAD is interested to find solutions that would give students help during the learning process when constructing knowledge individually or in the group. Second, to find innovative ideas for novel learning tasks, which expect students experimenting and knowledge construction. Experimenting supports the integration of knowledge. Putting school-learned knowledge into action helps students to understand the task at hand; to deepen their knowledge structures; and see the possibilities to transfer the knowledge also in everyday life situations. LEAD includes several activities to reach the goals. Innovative strategies and creativity methods will be used for finding solutions that are novel in all participating countries. Interactive methods, like seminar, face-to-face discussions and group work activities, are used in several phases of the project for raising the knowledge of participants as well as working out innovations. The work is organized mainly through meetings on national level (group work) and internationally through online meetings. Although, common study activity and transnational meetings are needed to have shared understanding and make decisions. Co-editing shared files enables collaborative content creation and getting feedback on developed materials throughout the developmental phase and thereby, to raise the quality of innovations. Developed materials will be tested in contemporary schools, one from each participating country, for evaluating the quality and suitability. The impact will be evaluated by participating teachers, students as well as partner organizations through qualitative data collection. Data is collected primarily for the purposes of improving the materials and getting feedback for project impact, although, it will be used also for scientific purposes. Lear outcome: first, developed learning materials (at least for 12 home economics lesson). These are innovative in the context of home economics education as these apply methods of science education, enabling students to experiment and by that construct knowledge. Developed innovations help teachers to purposefully integrate digital technologies into home economics teaching and thereby to prepare lessons according to the contemporary needs of the subject. Second, written didactic explanations which open the principles of developed learning materials and offer ideas how to use these effectively in home economics education. Developed innovations are adjusted and translated to be suitable for participating countries. The principles and good practices will be shared to subject teachers in every participating country, organizing one-day training events. All developments are made freely available through online possibilities. After the project, home economics teachers in particular countries have the knowledge to use designed learning materials. It is predicted, that developed materials raise the quality of subject teaching,by increasing didactic possibilities of using ICT for learning. These help students to deepen their knowledge structures and promote the acquisition of skills and key competences. Developed materials can be modified for another school subjects or out of school activities. All partners will continue introducing LEAD-project materials after the project period through their ordinary subject teacher education and in-service teacher trainings.
The LEAD-project (Learning and digitalisation in home economics education) united a group of teacher educators and researchers of the home economics area from 4 Nordic-Baltic universities - Tallinn university, University of Helsinki, University of Gothenburg and University of Agder (all together 12 members). It was beneficial to exchange the know-how and experiences in a particular region since the future challenges in terms of content and teaching methods of the subject area are similar. LEAD-project set home economics education in contemporary schools into the center for integrating students’ previous knowledge and building organized knowledge structures. The target group in this project was comprehensive school students in Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Norway, who were reached by home economics teachers. The LEAD-project had two intertwined intentions. First, to find methods on how to implement ICT purposefully in home economics lessons. The innovation lies in a novel understanding of how to effectively use digital technologies in a given subject to promote students' learning in a genuine way. Before the LEAD-project there were not many ready-made pedagogical solutions for home economics teachers to apply or these were mostly designed for the introduction/revision of the topic. Therefore, we looked for solutions that would give students help during the learning process when constructing knowledge individually or in the group. Second, we wanted to find innovative ideas for novel student-led learning tasks, which expect students experimenting, knowledge integration and construction. Putting school-learned knowledge into action helps students to understand the task at hand; to deepen their knowledge structures; and see the possibilities to transfer the knowledge also in everyday life situations that is the main goal of home economics education. Several activities helped to reach the goals of the LEAD-project. Interactive methods, like seminars, face-to-face discussions and group work activities, were used for raising the knowledge of participants as well as for working out innovations. The work was organized mainly through meetings on national level (group work) and internationally through online meetings. Although, common study activity and transnational meetings (as much as was possible with COVID-19) were used to reach shared understanding and make decisions. Much effort was given to co-editing that enabled collaborative content creation and getting feedback on developed materials throughout the developmental phase and thereby, to raise the quality of innovations. Developed materials were partly tested in contemporary schools to get instant feedback. The overall impact of the material was evaluated by teacher students as well as home economics teachers. Data was collected primarily for the purposes of improving the materials and getting feedback for project impact, although it will be used also for scientific purposes after the project period. The outcome of the LEAD-project is a freely available electronic material that helps teachers to purposefully integrate digital technologies into home economics teaching and thereby to prepare lessons according to the contemporary needs of the subject. In addition to lesson design and learning tasks, it consists of written didactic explanations which open the principles of developed learning materials and offer ideas how to use these most effectively in home economics education. Developed material was adjusted and translated to be suitable in all participating countries. The material was introduced and good practices shared to subject teachers in every participating country, during seminar days. All developments are made available through several online possibilities (e.g. university pages, FB-groups, e-learning material databases). We believe that home economics teachers who participated in the dissemination event have the knowledge to use designed learning materials. Based on the qualitative feedback, the participants were inspired and excited to use the material in their lessons. Therefore, it is predicted that developed materials will raise the quality of subject teaching by increasing didactic possibilities of using ICT for learning as well as help students to deepen their knowledge structures and promote the acquisition of skills and key competences. The result of the project was especially needed and relevant due to COVID-19 crises as teachers were forced to switch on online learning and needed good ideas on how to use ICT tools in home economics lessons. The COVID-19 crisis has also influenced the long-term benefit of this project. The need to use digital tools in all school subjects has increased remarkably and therefore the didactical knowledge and lesson materials developed during LEAD-project will be added to the teacher training courses in universities. Therefore, all partners will use LEAD-project materials also in their in-service teacher training.