Teaching Technology for Tomorrow: What Concepts in What Contexts?

Marc J. de VriesDelft University of Technology

The Netherlands

Presenting about technology education in Greece

Outline of my presentation

• Teaching technology is more than teaching some (manual) skills

• That is true both for technology education as part of general education and as vocational education

• The ‘more’ is: knowledge (concepts)• But: does technology has a ‘body of knowledge’ of its

own?• Yes: there are concepts• How to teach: in contexts• Need for educational research to find out what works and

how

Aims of technology education (general and vocational)

• Skills• Manual skills

• important in vocational

education, but also in

general education

• Thinking skills: theoreticalreasoning (cause-effect) and practical reasoning

(means-ends)• Knowledge

• General image of what technology/engineering is• Concepts and principles

• Important in general education, but also in vocational

education• Attitudes

• Positive, but not uncritical• Important both in general and vocational education

Is technology a discipline?

• Old philosophy: it is the application of existing knowledge in natural science

• Somewhat newer: it is the application of a wider range of knowledge, not only from natural sciences, but also from other sciences (human, social, cultural)

• Most recent: it is a domain in which both use of existing knowledge and generation of new knowledge takes place• ‘learning by designing’

Properties of knowledge in engineering/technology

• Part of its knowledge is fundamentally different from knowledge in natural science• Normativity in functional knowledge and knowledge of

standards/norms• Content of knowledge is outcome of (collective) decisions,

not of given data• Non-propositionality of knowing-how, drawings, object

knowledge• Context-dependentness and limited generalizability

• But: what is the disciplinary/conceptual basis? This was the topic of a recent Delphi study• Concepts and contexts

Identifying the body of knowledge for technology education: (1)

• International development of technology education• Transition from a craft-oriented subject to a broader learning

area• Closer relationships with math, science and engineering• Both developments need a sound conceptual basis for this

type of education• Calling in help from outside

• Philosophy of technology• Design methodology• History and sociology of technology• Engineering

Identifying the body of knowledge for technology education: (1)

• Efforts to develop a conceptual framework• UK: many design-dominated flowcharts (but where is the

engineering content?)• France: industry-dominated flowcharts (limited view of

technology)• Germany: systems-dominated schemes (but where is the

process of technology?)• Netherlands, New Zealand and other countries: integration of

approaches (often without explicit set of core concepts)• Many countries still: lack of coherence• USA: Standards for Technological Literacy (very extensive,

but without ‘nucleus of essentials’)• Earlier effort in engineering education: The Man-Made World

(Engineering Concepts Curriculum Project, Polytechnic Institute of

Brooklyn, NY: only a temporary success; too far ahead of its

time?)

Importance of contexts

• Believed earlier on, but rejected now: teach general concepts and learners will be able to apply in any context

• Believed later, but doubted now: learn in one context, generalize and transfer to other contexts

• Recent suggestion: learn in variety of contexts and gradually general concept emerges and can be applied to new contexts• Debate: what is a ‘context’?

Resulting Contexts

Resulting Concepts

Dual Nature of Technical Artifacts

• Physical nature• Non-intentional properties

• Functional nature• Intentional properties

The concept of function

• Proper functions• What the designer had in mind

• Accidental function• What the user has in mind

Need for educational research

• How to connect concepts and contexts• How to set up activities that enable concept learning• Identifying good practices and generalizing those

Example of educational research in teacher education

• Context: Science Education and Communication program Delft University of Technology (teacher education track)

• Researcher: Umit Koycu (secondary school teacher and Ph.D. student at Delft)

• Theme: High School Engineering• Phase 1: identifying what high school pupils think of

engineering• Concept maps• Attitude questionnaire

• Phase 2: using basic concepts from Delphi study, developing and using context-based course material and investigating the effect• Change in concept of engineering and attitude towards it• Learning of engineering concepts

• Phase 3: elaborate consequences for educating teachers