A DEVELOPING PROJECT: INVESTIGATING FUTURE FORMS OF DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION

It is regularly reported at previous PATT conferences that design and technology (D&T) in England is in decline. Despite initiatives, new curricula and government lobbying, the D&T juggernaut seems to be on the brink of collapse (according to some), with lowering numbers of pupils studying D&T, fewer teachers, less resources, and low status in schools. Pulling the D&T juggernaut back from the brink requires more than one approach and most of the recent ones have been led by national organisations. This paper reports on the first phase of a new project, led by practising teachers, that takes a new approach. In simple terms, the aim of the project is to redesign D&T, not so much the content but the curriculum delivery and framework. We have started by identifying the unresolved issues that are causing curriculum tensions and incoherence in the D&T community. In this paper we are reporting on the first phase of our design project, where we used a Delphi Study to identify the controversial D&T curriculum issues that need resolving before we can design a D&T curriculum. Nineteen teachers completed the first survey. Analysing of the survey data reduced the number of questions to 24. These were circulated to a self-selecting expert group (participants who completed the first survey). A second round of analysis has clarified that there are 18 unresolved questions and contentions issues that need to be debated. The next step is to invite teachers to respond to these issues; these responses will then be shared in a publication, debated, and shaped into a curriculum design specification. Finally, teachers will be invited to share at a future workshop or conference their curriculum design ideas that meet this specification

Mentoring on Early-Career Technology and Engineering Teachers

Many researchers in the field of technology and engineering education (TEE) have identified the shortage of TEE teachers as an existential crisis within the discipline. A major component of this crisis is the retention of early-career TEE teachers. This study sought to investigate the impact of current practices and impacts of mentoring on early-career TEE teachers’ sense of belonging, job satisfaction, and expectations to remain in the teaching profession. Data were collected from early-career technology and engineering teachers via an online survey distributed across the United States of America through the Association for Career and Technical Education, the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association, and state-level CTE directors. Data were analysed regarding the types of mentoring available to early-career TEE teachers, its effectiveness, and the relationship between mentoring and sense of belonging, job satisfaction, and teachers’ intentions to remain in the profession

Timeless, socially relevant engineering knowledge and skills for future technology education

The aim of technology education in primary and secondary school is that students should acquire skills and knowledge that are useful not only today, but also when they are adults. Students’ knowledge and skills need to include aspects of engineering and crafts as well as social implications of technology, which together develops creativity, useful everyday skills, critical thinking, and more. This leads to special challenges for technology teacher education, which has to look forward and focus on future challenges. The training needs to focus on timeless skills and be both about and for the technological future. Exactly which knowledge and skills that are best suited for this endeavour is not in any way clear. The purpose of this paper is to find the timeless and socially relevant engineering methods and skills that could and should be taught in primary and secondary school to increase the likelihood that students are properly prepared for the future. The project has an exploratory approach. Data was collected through focus group interviews with different participant groups: technology teachers in lower and upper secondary school, teacher students aiming to become technology teachers, and teachers working in academic teacher training programmes. The results show that the question about timeless knowledge has rarely been discussed in these groups. They had no clear answers, but ended up mainly in traditional technology education content: writing technical reports, learning strategies for design and product development work, and fundamentals of computer programming. The results suggest that the respondents believed strongly in pupils’ ability to transfer skills and knowledge between domains

Approaches to industrial processes in technology textbooks

The aim of this study is to explore how technology textbooks can provide students with a basis for expressing knowledge about technical solutions within industrial processes. The base and the delimitation for the study is the formulation of the specific content on industrial processes that must be taught to 13 to 15-year-olds in Swedish schools pursuant to the national syllabus. Textbooks constitute an important foundation for teaching, particularly in the subject of technology, in which teachers may find the breadth of content they are expected to teach challenging. The study analyses the sections concerning industrial processes in four different technology textbooks commonly used for students in the age group 13–15. Analysis involved interpreting content in the form of text, images, assignments etc. related to aspects that are expected to characterise students’ descriptions and explanations of technical solutions: understanding of technical solutions purpose and functionality, how components interact as a whole, similarities to other technical solutions and relating them to their own experiences. The results show that these aspects emerge in different ways depending on, among other things, how the area is presented. We found three different ways in which industrial processes are presented in the textbooks: A unique industrial process is described carefully and in detail, Sub-processes and methods are presented systematically and Industrial processes are described as technological systems at a general level. One interpretation is that, as a teacher, you can teach about industrial processes in these different ways and that which one you choose affects to what extent certain aspects of technical solutions are visualised for the students