A Pre-study of Two Design Methodologies in a Pre-service Teacher Education Activity

Construction with different materials, tools and techniques has a long history as an activity in preschool. In Sweden, this area of activity has commonly been known as bygg och konstruktion (to build and construct). However, exactly what this term entails in relation to technology as a content matter is not entirely clear. But since the construction activities has such a rich history in preschool, official documents and guidelines could shed light on this. Consequently, the aim of this paper was to examine construction activities’ role in preschool activities and how these activities has been presented historically. This was done by examining historical documents pertaining to the Swedish preschool. The examination shows that bygg och konstruktion has been a distinct part of different content matters in official governmental reports and curricula documents since at least the early 1950s, during the same time period when the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare became responsible for the Swedish child care. In the 1970s and early 1980s, during a period when the political discourse revolved around how a perceived lack of interest in natural science from the populace could hinder economic growth, it was partly placed in the content area of natural science. During the end of the 1980s and early 1990s, during the same time as the school subject of technology emerged, it was partly placed in the new content area of technology. During all of this time, parallel to its inclusion in natural science and technology, bygg och konstruktion can also be found in the aesthetical content area. The analysis of the historical documents also shows that no clear distinction is made between bygg and konstruktion ­– the terms are used as synonymous to each other

Understanding the head of department role: leading Design and Technology

In the secondary school curriculum, in England, Design and Technology is to some extent regarded as less beneficial and it is becoming more unpopular with pupils. Therefore, Design and Technology heads of departments find themselves leading a curriculum subject that is in an uncertain situation. The purpose of this study is to consider the perceptions of Design and Technology heads of departments about their practice in monitoring teaching and learning in their departments. This study uses cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) (Engeström, 2001) as a lens to view interview data from six case studies. CHAT is often employed in analyses of activities in workplaces, for example, to uncover how people use both material and conceptual tools and what aspects of tasks they prioritise (Edwards, 2011). Data were collected through field visits that included observations and interviews. The analysis of data reveals how tools were appropriated differently or similarly in Design and Technology department leadership activity systems. The findings identify tools which mediate the work of Design and Technology heads of departments in secondary school. How the heads of departments perceive these tools is analysed to suggest the object of the Design and Technology department leadership activity system. This paper proposes that the contextual settings of subject departments influence department head leadership in forming their own conceptions about their practice

Using movie-making to visualise pre-service teachers\u27 perceptions of technology

This study uses a Bourdieusian framework to determine pre-service teachers\u27 perceptions of technology before their engagement in any formal coursework of a technology education teachers preparation program. The analysis focuses on movies depicting three states of technological capital, revealing a duality between movie narratives and written reflections. These movies underscore a Western-centric perspective on technology, ethics, and social understanding. One film triggered self-awareness among students regarding smartphone use, demonstrating the potential of movie-making for prompting personal reflection. The study emphasises experiential learning through stop-motion movie creation. Moreover, aesthetics emerges as an avenue for students to articulate technological viewpoints, transcending conventional instructional methods. Aesthetic processes unveiled students\u27 technological capital, although effective transformation centres on pedagogical adaptation. The study\u27s methodological integration of storyboards and reflective components gives insights into students\u27 evolving knowledge. The discussion shed light on technology education within the STEAM classroom. Findings show that by embracing students\u27 perceptions and facilitating knowledge expression, educators can contribute to exploring technology\u27s multifaceted role in the educational landscape

The Impact of an Integrated Literacy and Design Activity on Student Attitudes Toward Coding

Coding is a growing and important area within Design and Technology Education and is also one of the arenas of education where the most significant effort is being given to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion. To introduce young learners to coding and engineering design, a pioneering curricular unit was designed for upper elementary schools, intertwining literacy within its framework. To reasonably fit in the already overcrowded standards for elementary schools in the United States, the integration of multiple subjects was a defining feature of this unit which we termed “Digital Storyboards.” Digital Storyboards integrate engineering design, literacy, and coding into one unit which emphasizes students’ ability to design, develop, and automate an illustration from a favorite story using a variety of electronic elements including LEDs, copper tape, and micro:bits. Students are intentionally taught core content from literacy (the elements of a story), engineering (design), and computational thinking (variables, loops, Booleans) while they create and program their own digital storyboards as part of a 10-week unit in class. While initial implementations of digital storyboards in one classroom positively impacted all students, a more significant impact was discovered with female students specifically – an important idea since females are traditionally underrepresented in coding. Following our pilot work, the digital storyboard project was expanded into 16 classrooms with more than 200 students. Our findings, as well as the practical implications for teachers engaged with elementary and secondary content related to literacy, engineering, design, and computer science, will be shared

Teaching Food Technology through the Narrative of Food

This paper takes the position that food technology may be taught in secondary schools (learners aged 11 – 16 years) by a consideration of the narrative of food in the world. This narrative starts with food production mainly through agriculture and moves on to include storage, preservation and processing, sales, and distribution at different levels of scale, complexity, and sophistication dependant on context and concludes with food preparation and consumption. The place of food in society is dependent on the way in which various technologies are deployed throughout this narrative and how these may or may not help in our responses to the two great challenges confronting humanity today: social justice for all and the stewardship of Planet Earth in the face of climate change. It is important that young people learn about this in school in the light of both sustainable food production and nutrition. This paper will discuss how knowledge and understanding of this narrative, the embedded technologies and these challenges might be taught as the basis for a secondary school food technology course

Teachers\u27 perceptions and impressions of the forest and the city as a starting point for teaching biomimicry

The study aims at professional development directed towards finding new pathways in education for and in sustainable development. In this study, we consider the ways in which primary teachers from two schools in Gothenburg, Sweden, work with the forest and the urban environment as a learning environment. The teachers\u27 descriptions are the basis for introducing biomimicry as a way to strengthen teaching in, and about, sustainable development. Biomimicry has the potential to bridge knowledge of forest ecological systems and how these can be imitated in human-made technological systems in the urban environment. The research questions that this study focuses on are what experiences and understanding of the two places, the urban area, and the forest, are in the foreground of teachers\u27 reflections? In what ways does the collage method make visible teachers\u27 relationships with the urban environment and the forest? The collage method was used to stimulate teachers’ reflection, conversation and writing about forests and urban areas learning environments, and about the forest and technical systems in the urban environment as teaching content. Data were collected when groups of 3-4 teachers in each group, first illustrated their experiences and understandings of the environments individually and secondly described their collage as a written text and in conversation with the group. The research project\u27s potential to strengthen cooperation is based on the teachers\u27 motivation for knowledge to develop their teaching in, and about, sustainable development and to use nearby forests and urban areas in a more in-depth way

Subject specific pedagogy in technical vocational education – the implementation of a new way of teaching

Research regarding classroom pedagogy of subject specific contents in the field of technical vocational education is scarce, nationally in Sweden, but also in an international perspective. This paper presents results from a Swedish action research project and it aims at exploring the process of a learning study, which deals with the settings in MIG/MAG welding and the intervention of the new pedagogic approach CAVTA (Conversation Analysis and Variation Theory Approach). The empiric material consists of video recorded welding education in a workshop and documented meetings in a welding teacher team. The theoretical toolbox of CAVTA permeates the teaching and learning processes as the teachers in the intervention try to implement patterns of variation in the planning, enactment and evaluation of the teaching and learning processes. In combination with the variation theoretic principles embedded in the teaching, ideas inspired by conversation analysis are implemented – the main element being an enhanced interaction, thus enabling for the students to display their understanding of the subject specific contents. The results show how CAVTA can be integrated in the teaching of settings regarding MIG/MAG welding, so that certain aspects of the object of learning is visualized. Furthermore, the findings show how the integration of CAVTA support the manifestation of a student’s understanding of the object of learning. How variation and the use of several senses and simultaneous different semiotic resources are activated as essential components in the teaching and learning processes, is made explicit in the paper. Plans for a recently launched research project including several different technical vocational education programs are also presented. The lack of classroom studies regarding technical vocational education calls for exploration in research, but should not avoid the ambition of development. This study captures the design and the development of a new pedagogic approach. Our hope is that the study will contribute to a growing body of knowledge within the field of technical vocational education and spur on further studies in this field of research.&nbsp

Five years construction kits in primary schools: Results and impacts of a project to facilitate technology education - an evaluation study

In March 2018, metal construction kits were distributed to all elementary and special schools in Rhineland-Palatinate. They were distributed to all elementary and special schools in Rhineland-Palatinate as part of the MINT project "Technikkiste" (transl.: technology box). At the end of the year 2018, three more expansion sets with solar cells followed for each school. So far, no request has been made to the schools, even after five years of the project\u27s start made to the schools as to how and whether they use this material. Therefore, within the scope of this research an evaluation study for the elementary schools in the form of a questionnaire was carried out in July 2023. The study is intended to find out both the current usage behavior with the metal construction boxes as well as to get an impression of the teachers regarding the in-service training measures that took place as part of the project. 921 elementary schools in Rhineland-Palatinate were invited to participate in the online survey. 69 answered the questionnaire some more gave informal feedback. The special schools, which were also supposed to have received the metal construction kits, were left out of the survey, as they are likely to have different usage patterns and therefore a different behavior and would therefore require a different questionnaire. It is particularly noteworthy that only about 70% of the participants who responded are even aware of the metal construction boxes. Around 30% stated that they were not familiar with the metal construction kits. In addition, only about 43% of the participants indicated that the metal building boxes have ever been used in the classroom at their school. One of the main reasons that participating teachers do not use the metal building boxes is that the school has not received boxes or has too few for classroom use. This brief excerpt from the survey results already shows that the MINT promotion project is not showing the success that the Ministry of Education had hoped for

What is Design Volition? Implications for Technology Education

Design is a central aspect of technology education and has a prominent position in curricula all over the world, not only in subjects named Design and Technology (and similar) but also in most other technology and engineering subjects, or disciplines. In philosophy, it has been asserted that design volition (axiology) has a strong relationship with and in many ways forms the basis of design as a methodological stance. In this paper, therefore, we investigate the affordances of volition/axiology as an integral philosophical component of technology education, specifically in relation to design methodology. The primary philosophical frameworks used as the foundation for this philosophical analysis are the ones presented by Carl Mitcham in his Thinking through Technology (1994) and Andrew Feenberg’s critical theory of technology. We perform a critical review of relevant literature, in line with a procedure suggested by Grant and Booth (2009). Based on this review, we attempt a clearer definition of the lucid concept of volition/axiology in the literature, as well as explicate relationships and influences between axiology and methodology in which we also review design as societal phenomenon, strong and weak intentionality, determinism, etc. In conclusion, implications for technology education are drawn

Reinventing Secondary School:: An Investigation of a Polytechnic School Model Focused on Industry/Community-driven Design Projects

Higher education and industry leaders seem to continuously call for transforming the way learning occurs within schools to better meet the needs of students, society, and the workforce. Many attempts have been made to address these calls such as increasing integrated STEM programming in schools, providing after-school robotics activities, as well as developing novel school models. One such innovative model, the focus of this study, is a polytechnic high school model developed in collaboration between a public research-intensive university and several industry/community partners. This model was developed to be implemented in urban settings with an emphasis on serving minoritized youth through design project cycles created with local industry/community partners rather than through subject-specific classes. It can be valuable to investigate a school model that has been created to have this design-based learning approach as its central focus. The purpose of this exploratory study was to understand 1) how teachers perceive the influence of the school model on the learning of students from diverse backgrounds and 2) how teachers view their own experiences working within the school model. This study examined pre/post teacher surveys to provide insights into how the teachers believe the school model is working with respect to students\u27 ability to perform within this style of design-based instruction and any challenges faced by the teachers to implement the school model. This information can help to inform those who seek to provide different learning environments for students through restructuring schools around industry/community-focused design projects. This paper will introduce the components of the polytechnic school model, detail the emphasis of the industry/community-driven design cycles, highlight the methodology used, present some preliminary findings, and discuss insights and recommendations for secondary schooling. &nbsp