Investigative activity in pre-primary technology education - The Power Creatures project

Oct 15, 2026

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The present study explores pre-primary students’ investigative activity during a longitudinal, integrative technology education project, the Power Creatures project. Investigative activity is framed as inquiry-based learning combined with creative hands-on designing and crafting. Nineteen children aged five to six and two teachers participated, with data drawn from six video-recorded small-group sessions focused on electronics and felted creatures with soft circuits. Theory-based deductive content analysis shows that playful investigation supports learning everyday technologies and enables transfer across situations, supported by careful pedagogical scaffolding.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Investigative activity concept

STEAM integration and goals

Project description: The Power Creatures

Child-centred pedagogy and inquiry

Hands-on design and soft circuits

Study method and data analysis

Video-recorded small-group sessions

Deductive content analysis

Investigative activity in pre-primary technology education—The Power Creatures project Marja-Leena Rönkkö, University of Turku, Finland Virpi Yliverronen, University of Turku, Finland Kaiju Kangas, University of Helsinki, Finland Abstract The present study explored pre-primary students’ investigative activity during a longitudinal, integrative technology education project: the Power Creatures project. Investigative activity refers to the way young children act in a learning context that combines inquiry-based activities with creative hands-on activities, such as designing and crafting. Nineteen pre-primary students (aged five to six years) and two teachers participated in the case study. The main data set consisted of six video-recorded small-group sessions in which the children experimented with electronics and designed and made felted creatures containing soft circuits. The data were analysed using a theory-based, deductive content analysis. The results indicate that playful, investigative activities support pre-primary students’ learning of everyday technologies and that children can transfer their understanding of the technological process from one situation to another. This process requires careful pedagogical planning and scaffolding that maintains the longitudinal process and adapts to its established and evolving goals. Keywords pre-primary education, technology education, investigative activity, STEAM, craft education, child-centred pedagogy Introduction Starting from a very young age, technology plays a significant role in children’s lives. Therefore, in recent years, technology education has been emphasised as important in the early years of education curricula (Fleer, 2011; Marsh, 2016; Sundqvist & Nilsson, 2018) . Early childhood is a period in which the foundation for effective and enduring learning is built (Mawson, 2010; Turja, Endepohls-Ulpe & Chatoney, 2009) . The purpose of technology education is to help children understand everyday technology and how it can be used to solve daily life problems (Fox-Turnbull, 2019; Sundqvist & Nilsson, 2018) . Here, children are encouraged to observe a technological environment in which they learn to compare, classify and organise the information acquired through observations or measurements, hence supporting their growth as thinkers and learners. At the essence of young children’s technology education is emphasising human activity, innovative solutions, and inquiry-based and experimental activities, not technical devices (FNBE, 2016; Kilbrink, Bjurulf, Blomberg, Heidkamp & Hollsten, 2014) . Learning goals should have significant overlaps with scientific, engineering and design practices, as well as crosscutting concepts (Quinn & Bell, 2013) . In the present research, we situate pre-primary technology education within the integrative STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) approach (e.g., Bequette & Bequette, 2012) . In STEAM, the ‘A’ refers to not only arts but also design and humanities (Daugherty, 2013), shifting the focus from technology as applied science towards more multidisciplinary and creative problem solving (Jones, Buntting & de Vries, 2013; Williams, 2012) . This shift has been fuelled by the need to educate—starting from early stages of education—future citizens who can understand, critically reflect and creatively influence the technological world (Ge, Ifenthaler & Spector, 2015) . The integrative and future-oriented approach to technology education is also emphasised in the Finnish National Core Curriculum for pre-primary education (FNBE, 2016) . The curriculum highlights encouraging children’s interest in science and technology, creative designing and making, problem solving, examining and experimenting with structures and materials, and reflection on the processes and products. According to the curriculum, all competences are approached and learned in integrative ways. We present a longitudinal STEAM projec

FAQs

What is investigated in the Power Creatures project study?

The study investigates pre-primary students’ investigative activity during a longitudinal integrative technology education project.

What did the children do during the project?

Children experimented with electronics and designed and made felted creatures that contained soft circuits, combining inquiry with hands-on crafting.

How were the study data analyzed?

Data were analyzed using a theory-based, deductive content analysis approach based on six video-recorded small-group sessions.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by nayy☆