1. Design-
oriented
Pedagogy –
an
Example of
Child-driven
Education
Jorma Enkenberg
Professor (Emeritus)
University of Eastern Finland
jeeberg@gmail.com
@jormaenkenberg
Lahti 30.8.2012

2. The two main decisions in educating of our
children
Working on children
Your experiences, concerns, hopes, fears,
desires, interests count nothing. What count is
what we are interested in, what we care
about, and what we have decided you to learn
(Holt)
or
Working with children
Education demands you to write script of your
own life with the help of people who love and
care about you (Gatto).
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3. And on the other hand…
...we discovered that education is not
something which the teacher does, but
that it is a natural process which
develops spontaneously in the human
being. It is not acquired by listening to
words, but in virtue of experiences in
which the child acts on his environment.
The teacher's task is not to talk, but to
prepare and arrange a series of motives
for cultural activity in a special
environment made for the child. (Maria
Montessori)

4. Most preferred ways to learn
In groups 55%
By doing practical things 39%
With friends 35%
By using computers 31%
Alone 21%
From teachers 19%
From friends 16%
By seeing things done 14%
With your parents 12%
By practising 9%
New Millennium Learners
In silence 9%
Initial findings on the effects
By copying 8% of digital technologies
At a museum or library 5% on school-age learners
(OECD/CERI International
By thinking for yourself 6%
Conference “Learning in the
From others 3% 21st Century: Research,
Other 1% Innovation and Policy”, 2008)
Base: All pupils (2,417) Source: Ipsos MORI

5. Lahti 30.8.2012
Common classroom activities
Copy from the board or a book 52%
Listen to a teacher talking for a long time 33%
Have a class discussion 29%
Take notes while my teacher talks 25%
Work in small groups to solve a problem 22%
Spend time thinking quietly on my own 22%
Have a drink of water when I need it 17%
Talk about my work with a teacher 16%
Work on a computer 16%
Listen to background music 10%
Learn things that relate to the real world 10%
Have some activities that allow me to move around 9%
Teach my classmates about something 8%
Create pictures or maps to help me remember 7%
Have a change of activity to help focus 7%
Have people from outside to help me learn 4%
Learn outside in my school’s grounds 3%

6. Learning as a system

7. Learning is always situated in a certain culturally-
specific system
Home, playgroup, kindergarten,
primary school, home learning,
secondary school, high school,
college and university, interest
group, library, museum, reading
circle e.g.
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8. Learning as activity system
Goal/desire
Object
Tools Actor(s)
Context
Result
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9. Home – an example of natural learning
system
A child is naturally a researcher and
experimenter and aims to construct
meanings about the objects in the world by
collecting information through interactions.
Most of the learning is not a consequence
from teaching but it results from continuous
and breathing-like acting – participating in
daily activities.
Our brains are programmed for learning ,
they learn from our mistakes and form a
self-correcting system.
(Meighen,2003)
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10. Shared/child-driven
learning
In shared/child-driven learning activities are based on
learners’ needs and interests as well ason their goals,
framed and supported by teachers.
It is constructivist, continuous and reciprocal in the
community of teachers, other learners, parents and
other adults.
It supports optimally interactions between the learners
and objects for learning as well as negotiations of
meaning.
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11. Design-oriented pedagogy (DOP)
Self-learning Participating in community
Conception of learning
Personal tools A child as a
Context for learning designer
Mediating tools Instructional
model
Social media A child as a
researcher
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12. Design principles in DOP
Anchoring learning process to children’ ideas, thinking,
conceptions and interpretations about the phenomena in
question (epistemological principle)
Driven questions and whole tasks engage to learn
(instructional principle)
Emphasis on conceptual objects and artifacts, that represent
the phenomena in question/objects for action utilizing
physical and cognitive tools (ontological principle)
Enhancing becoming to know and learning by collaborative
work and designing (learning principle))
Using children’ own tools and technologies in collecting
information and communication (technological principle)
Teacher affords learning resources, guides and support the
actions (principle of teacher’s agency)
.
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13. An example of design-oriented pedagogy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVKeTflC5Qg
http://www.thinglink.com/scene/29701760602236
5185#tlsite
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14. Interesting empirical
questions
Design-oriented pedagogy and development of
conceptual and theoretical thinking?
Pedagogy and engagement to learning?
Acceptance of the pedagogy in different,
international educational cultures?
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15. 15

16. LEARNING
OBJECT
As learning objects we mean digital
representations about real phenomenon and
tools for constructing meaning about it.
Representations refer directly or indirectly
to existing objects and context where the
objects is situated.
Representations allow perceiving the object
from different perspectives. Physical and
cognitive tools enhance the negotiation of
meaning about them.

18. 18

19. Joensuu 25.9.2011 19

20. Only the flexible, human, personal
and democratic learning system will
educate people, who do not hurt
themselves or each others, do not
spoil our environment and who try to
build our cultures in the framework of
sustainable values, collaboration and
fairness.
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21. 21

22. More
Enkenberg, J. (2010). A framework for the future teaching and learning
environments. Paper presented in Julis 2010 meeting, University of Eastern
Finland, Joensuu.
Liljeström, A., Enkenberg, J. & Pöllänen, S. (2012). Making learning whole: an
instructional approach for mediating the practices of authentic science inquiries.
Cultural Studies of Science Education.(DOI) 10.1007/s11422-012-9416-0
Liljeström, A., Vartiainen, H.& Enkenberg, J. (in preparation) Social networking of
action and knowing in design-oriented learning.
Meighan, R. (2003). Learning Systems: the good, the bad and the ugly.... In
Learning Cooperative Quarterly. Vol.1, No.2. 9-11.
Vartiainen, H. & Enkenberg, J. (2011). Enlargement of Educational Innovation: An
Instructional Model of the Case Forest Pedagogy. Proceedings of the 4th
International Network-Based Education 2011 Conference The Social Media in the
Middle of Nowhere. University of Lapland Publications in Education 25.
Vartiainen, H.; Liljeström, A. & Enkenberg, J. (accepted for
puplication).Introducing a design-oriented pedagogy to educate learners to meet
the future needs. Journal of Universal Computer Science.
http://www.skogsstyrelsen.se/Projektwebbar/Case-Forest/
Parikka-Nihti, M. (2011) Pieniä puroja. Lasten Keskus
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