An ‘An autoethnographic reflection on new educational technologies in the design and technology curricula from schools in Dubai and England’.

To what extent does design and technology (D&T) equip children and young people with the technological skills they need for the future? This reflection discusses and critiques observations on international D&T curricula in the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, exploring innovative practices such as virtual reality (VR) and other new educational technologies to support assessment and add depth to the curriculum. In this paper, I discuss educational perspectives from an autoethnographic standpoint and the extent to which contributing factors, such as culture, have impacted me as a D&T practitioner. My observations come from teaching and leading within a an oversubscribed and high-performing co-education international through-school in Dubai. From five years situated within this particular environment I participated in the teaching and learning of the subject across the primary and secondary phases, in an expatriate community of over two thousand students from over eighty different nationalities. In comparison to the second educational environment, being an oversubscribed state co-educational secondary school in the Greater Merseyside area in England. These two educational establishments have distinctly different demographics and methods of delivery in their approach to D&T. My reflections on some of the challenges and ‘quick wins’ are shared with the aim to offer insights and observations that any Key Words:  best practice, design and technology (D&T), curriculum, International, National, Virtual Reality

Teaching K-8 Children about the Internet Will Be Difficult: Preliminary Findings from a Mixed-Method Study

In the contemporary society, children need to become competent internet users. Previous studies suggested that in order to achieve this goal, it helps if children understand basics of how internet works. However, these studies also indicated that children’s knowledge about internet’s functioning is patchy. Furthermore, children possess many misconceptions and existing research does not examine how to boost their understanding of the internet’s functioning. Here, we present a mixed-method study, in which children (Grade 4, 6, 8; N = 50 + 50 + 38): a) were interviewed about how the internet works; b) half of them (random assignment) was explained this topic during a 50-min-long 1:1 tutoring session (with activating tasks); c) were interviewed again four months later. The interviews and the teaching session examined/promoted understanding of the following concepts: servers, wifi routers, network routers, wireless vs. wire connection, storage of data on the internet, digital traces, and cookies; among others. The interviews are now being analysed through thematic and frequency analyses. Preliminary findings corroborate previous findings about misconceptions and are consistent with ‘knowledge in pieces’ theories of knowledge representations. Typical reasoning among children about the internet structure includes satellites and central computers/towers. Only expert children know about distributed, server-like storage. Children understand the internet primarily through their personal experiences, only most knowledgeable children view it as a global network with a complex internal, but only vaguely understood, structure. The teaching session promoted understanding in short term, but much less so in a long term. Four months later, only few children retained knowledge about network routers, some about servers. Children tended to return to their prior misconceptions and their post-understanding remained patchy. Some held both prior misconceptions and contradictory new ideas. Altogether, our results suggest that teaching K-8 children about the internet functioning will be challenging and specific approaches, such as those capitalizing on activating children’s prior knowledge, will be required

The Utensil and the Tool: Making Definitions Gender Inclusive

In Thinking through technology, Carl Mitcham puts forward his philosophical framework on technology in four aspects; objects, activities, knowledge and volition (Mitcham, 1994). When describing technology as objects, he presents a 'slightly modified and enlarged' list by Lewis Mumford (1934) specifying 'some basic types of technology as object' (Mitcham, 1994, pg. 162). By dividing the body of technological objects into clothes, utensils, structures, apparatus, utilities, tools, machines, and automata, I argue that these divisions and descriptions of the objects will create gendered perceptions of technological objects. One example of this is the dichotomy of utensils as objects used inside the home, and tools as objects usually used outside the home. In this research paper, I intend to discuss these conceptualizations of the philosophy of technology as expressed by Carl Mitcham, with the aim of finding more gender inclusive definitions of the utensil and the tool. Technology and masculinity have been closely intertwined for a long time and can partly be traced to women's exclusion from the labour market. Despite numerous initiatives in the past of enhancing women's attitudes, interest or will to pursue technology the gender balance in the field has remained none or little affected. I argue that without an inclusive philosophy to rely on, the field of technology will continue to exclude half of the earth's population. By discussing Mitcham's philosophy of technology as object, examine contemporary definitions, and elaborate on alternative conceptualizations, I will supplement this framework that has been of great importance to educators and philosophers of technology

Supporting Initial Teacher Education Students Assessment Literacy and Capability Development

Recent curricular reform in Ireland has utilised classroom-based assessments as part of the national assessment strategy at the junior level in post-primary education. This calls for teachers to exercise their judgement in relation to their pupils' capability which is recorded for the certified national award of the Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA). Ensuring effective assessment in this regard requires the development of assessment literacy and capability in the teaching cohort which starts on the continuum of teacher development at the initial teacher education (ITE) phase. Teacher judgement in assessment is reliant on multiple factors that impact on the assessment outcome. It is therefore important to design components of ITE programmes that provide opportunity to strategically develop this capability for implementation in practice. The case study presented in this paper presents an initial analysis of the practices and experiences of (n=87) Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students as they engage in a peer assessment activity that is part of an assessment literacy and capability development strategy on a technology education ITE programme. This was facilitated through the use of Adaptive Comparative Judgement sessions (ACJ). In these sessions, the participants engaged in the establishment of assessment criteria and implemented them in the holistic assessment of peers' work through the ACJ method along with providing formative feedback and making a summative judgement of the quality of the work. The findings present the usefulness of ACJ in providing pre-service teachers a space to develop assessment literacy and capability through the active and experiential learning approach taken

Teacher training in robotics - evaluating the implementation of robotics and teachers motivation and self-efficacy towards robotics.

The competent, critical, cooperative, and creative use of digital technologies has become a fundamental requirement for participation in society and professional life. Human-robot collaboration, which is increasingly common in industry, and networked production through the Internet of Things are prime examples of this. Teachers therefore need to be prepared for the challenges in times of digital transformation in order to prepare students for the increasingly digitalised labour market of today and tomorrow. As part of the so-called master plan for digitization, the project “Robonatives" is equipping technology labs at 65 schools. In order to ensure a structured implementation in line with the project's objectives, the University of Oldenburg, among others, is supporting these schools in the development of curriculum for long-term integration into the schools' own curriculum. Teachers are provided with advanced training courses addressing the use of robots, occupational safety, and ethical and social issues, as well as the design of learning situations. The aim is to establish the topic in schools in the long-term, beyond the project's duration (24 months). In line with this, the article presents and evaluates a study on how robotics is embedded in the lessons of the project schools. A further aim of the evaluation is to measure the teachers' motivation and self-efficacy to teach robotics, in order to evaluate the training concept and to identify further needs

Different textbooks in technology education – different opportunities for developing subject literacy

This study aims to investigate textbooks in technology education and what characterizes the content related to how instructional materials in technology for grades 7-9 (ages 13-16) provide students with opportunities to develop subject literacy in the subject of technology - how and to what extent. A delimitation is made to the specific content that covers industrial processes, which according to the curriculum should be taught to students aged 13-16 in the Swedish school. Textbooks constitute an important basis for education, and the study analyses the section that deals with industrial processes in four different technology textbooks commonly used for students aged 13-16. The content of texts, images, tasks, etc. has been interpreted in relation to (1) which language development aspects are addressed, (2) which prior knowledge students need to understand the content of the texts, (3) which concepts are discussed, and (4) which knowledge and prior knowledge students bring with them to upper secondary school through these textbooks. The study investigates how concepts are explained, as well as everyday words, words with different meanings in different subjects, and concepts alongside the subject-specific ones, as well as which other words and concepts may be unfamiliar to students and how they are explained and described. Text structures and linguistic structures are presented, as well as how headings and text transitions affect the understanding of the content. An important aim is to analyse the opportunities for developing subject literacy provided and whether the examples provided contribute to students' understanding of the subject and to their ability to communicate their understanding of the subject. The preliminary results show differences in what characterizes the content of the books. The preliminary results also show differences regarding the conditions for developing subject literacy

Developing the Professional Knowledge of Technology Student Teachers via a Parallel Approach: A Longitudinal Study

In a small scale, four-year longitudinal, quasi-experimental research project, technology student teachers could study the school subject in parallel, together with the development of discipline knowledge (or their major) within the broader development of their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). We investigated the performance of students – who had studied the school subject at school and those who studied it in a postschool-university context – in their (1) major, (2) specialised methodology/ pedagogy and (3) their experiences and competencies during their final year work-integrated learning period in schools. We interpreted the findings within the broader theoretical framework of Shulman’s PCK by relating the first aspect to content knowledge, and the second aspect to pedagogical knowledge. We found that the parallel approach to PCK development in technology teacher education seems to be viable to increase the number of prospective technology student teachers, with the requirement that it happens within a social constructivist, co-operative learning environment with ample opportunities for cognitive and practical apprenticeship in a community of practice. However, by building on Shulman’s PCK and Gardner’s cognitive theory, Banks has developed the internationally acknowledged model of teacher professional knowledge (TPK). It entails the active interaction between subject knowledge, school knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and experience which underpins the personal subject construct of the teacher. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to reinterpret the previous findings through the lens of Banks’ TPK model by following a qualitative meta-synthesis as research methodology. In conclusion, implications for curriculum design of initial professional education of technology teachers are drawn

Primary to Secondary Engineering Learning: A Framework for International Consideration

The teaching of engineering has made its entrance into the subject of Design & Technology Education (DTE) around the world over the past few decades. This inclusion has been particularly true for the United States which refers to its DTE-related subject as Technology & Engineering Education. The inclusion of engineering has likely been due to the closely aligned epistemologies and classroom practices between engineering and DTE. But, while engineering has been emphasised in primary and secondary schooling, there has also been limited guidance for articulating how engineering could/should be taught, both authentically and equitably, across the years of school and how it is connected with other school subjects. To aid in this effort, a Framework for P-12 Engineering Learning was formed through over 3 years of iterative research and development work and published by the American Society of Engineering Education (2020). This framework was created to help provide a unifying vision and guidebook to inform decisions for improving the coherency and equity of engineering teaching and learning across the country. In addition, throughout this process, Engineering Performance Matrices (EPMs) were generated to offer sample blueprints of how the engineering concepts and sub-concepts identified within the framework could build upon each other to support teachers in creating authentic learning experiences that increase in sophistication over time—enabling students to achieve any designated engineering-related performance tasks or standards related to engineering/technology.  The goal of this poster presentation is to share the framework, and the EPMs, with the international DTE community for consideration of any useful components that could be adapted for their own efforts related to engineering learning. The poster will specifically highlight engineering literacy elements of the framework, the EMPs, and examples of ways in which this information can be used to establish engineering-focused instruction in the pursuit of engineering-literacy for all

Gifted students’ needs in technology education

Students who are gifted and students with high abilities can have special educational needs. Teaching should be challenging and stimulating and teachers and educators in inclusive settings have a variety of needs to consider, included the gifted students’ needs. However, when it comes to secondary technology education, little is known about gifted students’ needs. The aim of this ongoing study is to describe and synthesize knowledge about gifted students’ needs in technology education through a systematic research literature review and a thematic analysis. The tentative results are four themes describing gifted students’ needs in technology education as Complexity, Autonomy, Support, and Authenticity. The themes can be used by teachers and guide them in their efforts to plan and implement diverse and differentiated technology teaching as a proactive response to the gifted students’ needs in inclusive settings