A TEXTILE-BASED LEARNING GAME AS A DESIGN CHALLENGE: A LEARNING BY DESIGN PROJECT IN TEACHER EDUCATION

High quality teachers and teacher education are the key components in meeting the challenges education has confronted over the past few decades. Thus, the focus in teacher education can no longer be on theory-based and lecturing-based pedagogy. This article describes one pilot-project in teacher education which may break down the traditional concept of a curriculum unit, disciplines, and knowledge-based and teacher-centred instructional strategies. This pilot-project was contextualized within the framework of learning-by-design. The students' design challenge was to produce a textile-based learning game for teaching textile material knowledge at school. The idea of this article is to describe the produced learning game, the students' learning process, and their experiences while playing the game with pupils. The data derives from artefacts, essays and portfolios from two craft student teachers. The project changed the learners' practices: the students had to solve the design challenge; they needed different kinds of skills, multi-disciplinary knowledge, holistic thinking, information processing, critical evaluation and co-operation to support the activity. The produced learning game integrated different school subjects. Almost invariably, all the pupils liked to learn textile material knowledge through playing, the only thing the students would have altered was the size and the rules of the game.