Technology Education

In recent years, several New England projects have promoted professional development and curriculum design in optics and photonics. Funded in part by the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF), these projects have prepared middle and high school teachers, college faculty and career counselors from more than 100 New England institutions to introduce fiber optics, telecommunications and photonics technology education. Four of these projects will be discussed here: (1) The New England Board of Higher Education's (NEBHE) Fiber Optics Technology Education Project, (FOTEP) was designed to teach fiber optics theory and to provide laboratory experiences at the secondary and postsecondary levels. (2) Springfield Technical Community College's Northeast Center for Telecommunications Technologies (NCTT) is developing curricula and instructional materials in lightwave, networking and wireless telecommunications technologies. (3) The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics project ComTech developed a 12-week, hands-on curriculum and teaching strategies for middle and high school science and technology teachers in telecommunications and focused on optical communication (fiber optics). (4) NEBHE's project PHOTON is preparing middle, secondary and postsecondary instructors to introduce theory and laboratory experiences in photonics, including geometric and wave optics as well as principles of lasers and photonics applications.

STEAM is a developing educational model of how the traditional academic subjects (silos) of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics can be structured into a framework by which to plan integrative curricula. It includes review s of the epistemologies of general and discipline specific developments in conjunction with the individual discipline’s standards, as related to integrative, or holistic, education. Investigating these educational relationships to one another is currently being explored as a way to find the commons of education in relation to pedagogy and language. Along with the development of commons is the need for the disciplines to work with one another in a structure that is able to be adaptable to the many variations of discipline combinations that make up different directions that people in society pursue. This paper is an introduction to concepts on the development of such a structure.

Nowadays, the use of Web based Education (WbE) in distance learning education is considered to be an innovative method of learning. Supportive parties argue that WbE renews the educational practice through the use of computers and their applied methodology, as well as the technologies provided by the use of the internet. These result in consciously renewing the educational material and in creating a flexible structure which promotes the individualization of learning. The proposed model aims at delivering technological classes through the internet, offering a flexible use of means and tools, allowing a synthetic presentation of selected bibliographic texts that cover the whole cognitional object, developing a cooperative spirit and individualising the learning procedure.

The present research investigated and studied students' representations about daily life technologies, in a prospect of studying technology in Greek primary education. In the research participated 60 Greek primary school students aged 9 to 12 years old. Re- search data were collected through semi-structured, personal, clinical-type interviews. Each interview investigated student's conceptions and views about the following thematic areas: the

Around the world, in high- and low-income countries alike, mental illness and high-risk behaviors contribute to profound suffering and loss at the level of the individual and the state. In the case of China as in other developing countries, gains made in the areas of economics, technology, education, and overall standard of living are being offset by a rise in

Technology Education offers an authentic and invaluable range of skills, knowledge, capabilities, contexts and ways of thinking for learners in the 21st century.  However, it is recognised to occupy a comparatively less defined and more fragile curricular position than associated, but longer established, subjects such as Mathematics and Science.  While recognising that no single factor lies behind such a condition, this paper draws upon thinking in the philosophy of technology, technology education and the ontology of artefacts to argue that transformation may be considered as a epistemic source for technology in a similar way to ‘proof’ within Mathematics and ‘interpretation’ within Science.  Encapsulating technology’s intimate relationship with materials, it is ultimately argued that the transformation of a technical artefact from an ill-defined into a well-defined ontological state constitutes a prime source of technological knowledge for pupils.  Moreover, it provides an alternative route into further consideration about the nature of the domain, epistemology and curricular identity of the subject.

This paper explores the critical importance of diversity in technology education for fostering innovation qualities, new knowledge and capabilities among learners for the knowledge economy. It asserts that the premise for increasing participation behind questions like" What does technology have to offer females and minority groups?" is fundamentally one directional and so gives a negative message to minority cultures and groups in technology education. The proposition implies limited understanding of the role and contribution that ...

As we have noticed from our own classroom experiences, children often find it difficult to identify the adequate operations learned in mathematics class when they are solving mechanical-operators problems in Technology class. We wanted to design a project that exploits the idea of a hands-on relationship between mathematics and technology to teach students the concept of "transmission coefficient" in schools. Our purpose was to bridge mathematical knowledge and mechanical parts in technological devices. Our belief was that visual-tangible representations enhance human cognition by scaffolding the information process. We supplied a kit with rubber foam ("Fomi") and balsa wood parts to construct an analogical clock. This included a series of gears to work with three different ratios. The project was conducted in 2007 and 2008, with 38 students ranging from 10 to 14 years of age. The students were from the 5th and 7th grades in two different schools. The project inc...

The stated aim of technology education in New Zealand is to develop students' level of technological literacy. This paper introduces the Technology Assessment Framework (TAF) as an organisational tool for the development and delivery of technology programmes that focus on increasing students' technological literacy through the enhancement of their technological practice across technological areas and contexts. The TAF was developed and refined in 1999 and 2000 as part of a two year New Zealand Ministry of Education funded research project, and integrated within a national professional development programme in 2000 designed for preservice and inservice teacher educators in New Zealand. This paper backgrounds the sociocultural theoretical position of the TAF and explains how it reflects and furthers the aim of technology education in New Zealand. The TAF is then presented and explained with the aid of illustrative examples from classroom practice.

Skip to main content: Home; About; Help; My Account. ePublications@SCU. ePublications@SCU. < Previous; Next >; Home > ERA > 1439. ERA Research Outputs. Title. Food innovation and technacy genre theory: strategies for teaching and learning. Authors. Angela Frances Turner, School of Education (EdDep) Kurt Walter Seemann, School of Tourism & Hospitality Management (STHMDep). Document Type. Book Chapter. Peer Reviewed. Peer-Reviewed.  ERA Review Only. Share. COinS. Follow. ...

This paper reports on detailed case studies into emerging assessment practices in technology in two New Zealand primary schools (Years 1–6) with nine teachers. This research is part of the two year Research in Assessment of Primary Technology (RAPT) project and formed the basis for the one year New Zealand Ministry of Education funded Learning in Technology Education (Assessment) project. Emerging classroom assessment practices in technology, a new subject area in the national curriculum, are discussed. It was found that the existing subcultures in schools, teachers' subject expertise and the school wide policies impacted on the teachers' assessment practices. Assessment was often seen in terms of social and managerial aspects such as team work, turn taking and information skills, rather than procedural and conceptual aspects. Therefore teachers' formative interactions with students distorted the learning away from procedural and conceptual aspects of the subject, and the learning and the formative assessment interactions focused on generic skills rather than student technological understanding. The importance of developing teacher expertise in three dimensions of knowledge about the subject, knowledge in the subject and general pedagogical knowledge is highlighted. Thus the findings from this research have implications for thinking about teaching, learning and assessment in technology.

This scoping paper draws on a review of the literature, with the aim of exploring how students’ capacity to innovate, can be developed in the Technologies domain of Systems Engineering. Innovation and the need to innovate has generated much rhetoric from business leaders, various State and Federal governments, as well as other agencies such as the Office of the Chief Scientist. The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (Barr et al., 2008) places an emphasis on the role that schools through their educators and the curriculum play in building the capacity of students to think and act as innovators and creators of technologies. There is, however, tension between the traditional methods of teaching, and the need to embrace a more interactive mode that encourages 21st century skills of collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity (Keane, Keane, & Blicblau, 2016). Technacy, considered as a literacy is concerned with not simply teaching the pure...

Le développement de l’éducation technologique, en France comme dans la plupart des pays occidentaux, depuis le début des années quatre-vingt, tente de répondre à la désaffection des élèves pour les études scientifiques et technologiques. Cet ouvrage, qui est la note de synthèse présentée par l’auteur pour obtenir l’habilitation à diriger des recherches, présente les différents éléments qui constituent les travaux de recherche en didactique de l’éducation technologique, en France et dans le monde, afin de positionner les problématiques posées par ces enseignements. Elles concernent tout particulièrement les questions liées à la transposition didactique, aux organisations curriculaires et aux conditions d’études dans les enseignements technologiques.

Les premiers travaux conduits par l’auteur s’intéressent à l’utilisation et à l’acquisition d’un langage technique (le GRAFCET) par des élèves dans des situations scolaires et ils montrent que, face à un problème de ce type, les élèves ne découvrent jamais toutes les contraintes et qu’ils transforment celles qu’ils découvrent en simples cas particuliers de la fonctionnalité du système ; une résolution optimale consiste à découvrir l’ensemble des contraintes et à les transformer en fonction par émission d’hypothèses sur la fonctionnalité et par gestion de l’incertitude. La gestion du rapport implicite/explicite des contraintes renvoie à la nature même de l’énoncé de la tâche et impacte directement l’activité des élèves ; un grand nombre de contraintes implicites accroit la signification du problème dans le sens de ceux que résolvent les experts lorsqu’une explicitation accrue facilite la découverte du problème tout en le vidant de sa signification. Cette articulation entre les tâches et l’activité des élèves est au cœur de toute comparaison de dispositifs d’enseignement. Ainsi, des organisations qui privilégient un fort guidage de l’action dans la découverte et la résolution du problème se révèlent pauvre du point de vue des apprentissages alors que la combinaison de dispositifs par confrontation aux obstacles suivie d’un travail sur des solutions erronées s’avère très performante de ce point de vue. Cette question d’organisation est d’une importance décisive dans les enseignements technologiques, les dispositifs et le matériel utilisé sont généralement coûteux.

L’ouvrage interroge ensuite la question de la transposition didactique dans ces disciplines scolaire à partir d’une étude sur le rôle de la démarche de projet industriel. Cette étude montre qu’une telle organisation curriculaire de l’enseignement de la technologie autour de la démarche de projet industriel induit des organisations qui privilégient les tâches de fabrication et le guidage de l’action au détriment de l’articulation usage-conception-fabrication et d’une approche par résolution de problèmes. Les choix effectués dans la délimitation d’un champ de références influent sur l’ensemble du processus d’enseignement-apprentissage. Ils jouent un rôle déterminant sur les apprentissages des élèves, sur l’organisation de l’enseignement et sur ce qui est enseigné. Ces contraintes imposent simultanément la matière à enseigner et la manière de l’enseigner, les questions à étudier et les formes de l’étude. Il y a une intimité de liens entre le geste professionnel, la technique et la technologie qui repose sur les symboles organisés dans les langages techniques, émergence de la construction du logos et de la tekhnè. Cette articulation forte entre l’activité orientée vers une fin et le langage qui permet de la décrire relève des liens entre la praxis, l’activité orientée vers une fin, et la praxéologie, le discours sur la praxis. L’éducation technologique vise à rendre compte de ces articulations que l’on retrouve exprimée dans les cinq facteurs d’évolution suivants : i. rendre compte de la modernité, ii. passer d’un univers domestique à un monde industriel de préférence high-tech, iii. réaliser des objets afin de vérifier des principes ou des lois scientifiques, iv. déplacer le rapport entre concret et abstrait vers des rapports concepts – outils, v. informer les élèves en vue d’une orientation sur la diversité des métiers, l’évolution des professions, le développement de l’égalité des chances d’accès. Dans ce débat sur la transposition, le problème ne vient pas de l’origine de la transposition et donc d’une opposition entre un savoir savant et des pratiques sociales. On n’enseigne pas des pratiques mais un savoir sur la pratique qui s’en dégage qualitativement. Il y a nécessairement extraction des praxis individuelles pour délimiter des praxéologies. C’est bien la transposition des organisations praxéologiques qui pose problème.

Cette organisation de connaissances est spécifique par son objet et le point de vue adopté. En ce sens, elle définit une science particulière et autonome avec une épistémologie spécifique distincte des autres sciences. Cette organisation de connaissances délimite le champ de références d’une éducation technologique tout en déterminant les conditions de la transposition. Les organisations curriculaires constituent une étape scripturale décisive dans le processus de transposition. Dans ce processus, c’est la transposition de praxéologie qui pose problème. En effet, reconstruire une organisation praxéologique suppose que l’on transpose le type de tâches autour desquelles cette organisation s’est développée. Une hypothèse est de jouer sur le degré de possible décontextualisation. Il s’agirait dès lors de repérer dans des organisations praxéologiques ce qui relève plutôt de l’organisation des savoir-faire (articulation type de tâches et technique) de ce qui relève de l’organisation des savoirs (l’articulation technologie – théorie). Jusqu’à quel point peut-on rendre compte d’une organisation praxéologique en utilisant des savoirs comme descripteurs ? Ce débat est un débat essentiel pour les enseignements technologiques car il concentre la question de la référence en délimitant les questions à étudier et en induisant la manière de les étudier. Les conditions d’étude constituent le second axe des perspectives de recherche ouvertes ici, notamment dans des visées d’ingénierie didactique. Il s’agit, à partir d’observations des organisations mises en place dans les classes, d’élaborer et de tester des environnements de travail d’élèves. Le cadre épistémologique définit au préalable permet de référencer les activités proposées aux élèves, notamment des articulations que nous avions notées comme privilégiées : objet, activité et langage ; objet, type de tâches, technique, technologie et théorie ; conception, réalisation et utilisation.

L’aménagement du travail de l’élève, la dévolution du problème, les dispositifs de guidage que l’on peut mettre en place constituent autant d’espaces de développement de travaux à propos des enseignements technologiques. Une autre question récurrente est celle de l’évaluation soulevée dans l’organisation de ces enseignements : comment évaluer les productions des élèves dès lors qu’elles ne relèvent pas d’une fabrication matérielle. Au travers de cette question, qui peut paraître triviale, c’est toute la dynamique du processus technologique qui est en jeu. Autrement dit, comment évaluer la solution choisie par un élève dès lors que l’on privilégie l’axiome suivant : un problème technologique connaît plusieurs solutions, c’est la description du problème en regard des contraintes qui permet d’en choisir une parmi les autres. Ces deux axes ont des répercussions sur la formation des maîtres, qu’elle soit initiale ou continue. La portée épistémologique ainsi dégagée permet de penser différemment l’organisation des savoirs nécessaires pour enseigner la technologie et donc celle des curricula de formation universitaire qui permettent à un étudiant d’accéder aux fonctions d’enseignant des disciplines technologiques, entre savoirs académiques et savoirs professionnels.

Automation of oral reading assessment and of feedback in a read-ing tutor is a very challenging task. This paper describes our re-search aiming at developing such automated systems. First topic is the recording and annotation of CHOREC, the Flemish database of children's oral ...

Learning Management Systems (LMS) reinforce the learning process through online classroom environments. A standard LMS supports an inclusive learning environment for academic progress with interceding structures that promote online collaborative-groupings, professional training, discussions, and communication among other LMS users. Instructors should balance active learning with the use of LMS technological resources and the use of guidelines from the qualified curriculum. An LMS allows instructors to facilitate and model discussions, plan online activities, set learning expectations, provide learners with options, and assist in problem-solving with processes for decision making. An Instructor’s presence within an LMS creates an engaging learning environment. Students can retain their autonomy, enthusiasm, and motivation with LMS use. Stakeholders of the educational community must find scientific studies to support their contributions in LMS platforms to assist scholars in learning ...

As we have noticed from our own classroom experiences, children often find it difficult to identify the adequate operations learned in mathematics class when they are solving mechanical-operators problems in Technology class. We wanted to design a project that exploits the idea of a hands-on relationship between mathematics and technology to teach students the concept of ‘transmission coefficient’ in schools. Our purpose was to bridge mathematical knowledge and mechanical parts in technological devices. Our belief was that visual-tangible representations enhance human cognition by scaffolding the information process. We supplied a kit with rubber foam (Fomi) and balsa wood parts to construct an analogical clock. This included a series of gears to work with three different ratios. The project was conducted in 2007 and 2008, with 38 students ranging from 10 to 14 years of age. The students were from the 5th and 7th grades in two different schools. The project included six stages of both theory and hands-on work. In a final stage, the students were given a written test. All students were able to make workable systems of their design for a time-measuring device. This proved important for technological education. On the other hand, manipulating gears along with visual reasoning strategies allowed all students to achieve an understanding of operations with fractions. We think this is a major achievement in mathematical education.

As we have noticed from our own classroom experiences, children often find it difficult to identify the adequate operations learned in mathematics class when they are solving mechanical-operators problems in Technology class. We wanted to design a project that exploits the idea of a hands-on relationship between mathematics and technology to teach students the concept of "transmission coefficient" in schools. Our purpose was to bridge mathematical knowledge and mechanical parts in technological devices. Our belief was that visual-tangible representations enhance human cognition by scaffolding the information process. We supplied a kit with rubber foam ("Fomi") and balsa wood parts to construct an analogical clock. This included a series of gears to work with three different ratios. The project was conducted in 2007 and 2008, with 38 students ranging from 10 to 14 years of age. The students were from the 5th and 7th grades in two different schools. The project included six stages of both theory and hands-on work. In a final stage, the students were given a written test. All students were able to make workable systems of their design for a time-measuring device. This proved important for technological education. On the other hand, manipulating gears along with visual reasoning strategies allowed all students to achieve an understanding of operations with fractions. We think this is a major achievement in mathematical education.

This paper discusses the history of the instructional design and technology field in four major time periods: (1) 1900s – 1930s, (2) World War II – 1970s, (3) 1980s – 1990s, and (4) 21st century. Since the 20th century has been discussed in detail in earlier works, this paper puts more focus on the 21st century section, which includes discussions of social media, online and blended learning, mobile learning, the open educational resource (OER) movement, massive open online courses (MOOCs), virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), digital game-based learning (DGBL), gamification, the maker movement, new instructional design process models, and instructional-design theory. While previous discussions of the history of the field focused on the history of instructional media and instructional design and the evolution of learning theories, this paper includes the discussion of the evolution of instructional-design theories and models, which have received relatively less attention.