Natural materials provide children opportunities for artistic engagement, which encourages a dialogue between children and material and provides a platform for children to discuss their perspectives on significant issues like sustainable futures. This article examines the land art characters created by pre-primary education children in the garden…

This article describes a project called "The art based methods in developing transversal competence" funded by The Finnish National Board of Education. The article is based on the hermeneutic phenomenological approach in action research. The project developed learning environments as well as project-based learning with emphasis on the…

The present article discusses the possibilities of interdisciplinary integration for teaching art to primary-school students in after-school activities. Integrated teaching, as one of the ways for putting into practice the socioconstructivist approach to learning and the theory of the guided construction of knowledge, is used as a basis for…

New knowledge on cognition and learning generated in the various fields of neuroscience is now being incorporated into the learning sciences. This development might have broad significance for the theoretical development of the field of education, in particular leading to a renewed and more nuanced understanding of learning as an embodied process.…

The aim of this study was to investigate the ways in which textile materials and techniques are expressed in contemporary art in Finland. The first phase of data collection was to identify a population of Finnish artists who use textile craft-based forms in their art and who produce their works themselves. After that, six discretionary selected…

This article is the report of a large-scale, international research project involving focus group interviews of adolescent and young adult members of a variety of self-initiated visual culture groups in five urban areas (Amsterdam, Budapest, Chicago, Helsinki, and Hong Kong). Each group was established by young people around their interests in the…

This article based on my doctoral thesis examines the Basic Arts Education system in Finland, focusing on Basic Crafts Education and its description through action concepts. The main task of the study was to create a concept model. In the first part of the study a concept map was created from the practice of Basic Crafts Education. The aim of the…

Finnish educators are concerned with the affective and aesthetic aspects of environmental education, with sensitivity to the urban, as well as the natural, environment. This article, one of several in this issue on art education in other countries, describes how human environment concepts are used in Finnish art teaching. (SJL)

Introduces and describes this special international issue focusing on educating through the arts. Argues that the arts promote children's sense of success, creativity, and self-expression. Notes contributions to this international issue from Canada, Finland, Norway, Australia, and the United States. Includes a bibliography of 11 references on…