Interactive and Child-Centred Research Methods for Investigating Efficacious Agency of Children

Authors

• Pirkko Hyvönen University of Oulu, Finland
• Eeva-Liisa Kronqvist University of Oulu, Finland
• Sanna Järvelä University of Oulu, Finland
• Elina Määttä Department of educational sciences and teacher education Learning and educational technology research unit (LET), University of Oulu,
• Arttu Mykkänen Department of educational sciences and teacher education Learning and educational technology research unit (LET), University of Oulu,
• Kristiina Kurki Department of educational sciences and teacher education Learning and educational technology research unit (LET), University of Oulu,

Keywords:

Efficacious agency, self-regulated learning, child-centred research methods, formal and informal contexts

Abstract

Children need support to strengthen their efficacious agency, which, in turn, in-creases their well-being and learning capabilities. Efficacious agency includes the idea of chil-dren’s active participation, and in research, it is necessary to develop multiple methods for a child-centered approach for examining it. In this article, we present two case studies of chil-dren’s (aged 6 to 10) perceptions of success. The first is comprised of stimulated recall inter-views and a video observation, and the second uses children’s photographs as triggers for elici-tation interviews. We aim at showing that interactive and child-centered methods in authentic environments can overcome current challenges in studying children, and can produce deeper knowledge about children’s efficacious agency in learning contexts.