| Education about and through technology.: In Search of More Appropriate Pedagogical Approaches to Technology Education | ||
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The following issues are presented as the general driving themes for the whole research process. The themes are not yet aims or tasks. Rather, they illustrate the framework in which the research process was carried out. Thus, the themes intend to give the reader an overall grasp about the issues that were influential during the research process.
It has been widely agreed that technology teaching should aim to increase knowledge about the technological world created by ourselves. The international Technology Education Association (2000, p. 4) writes: “Students who study technology learn about the technological world that inventors, engineers and other innovators have created”. Lindh (1997, p. 133) emphasizes the importance of children’s understanding about the logic and functional mechanisms of "everyday" technology, and also, the ability to solve technological problems by applying the technological knowledge and skills they have acquired. In short, technology education should reveal the technological world as it is. The fewer “black-box” technologies there are around us, the more familiar and confident we will be with our constructed environment.
It is also important in technology education to make children do technology. According to the International Technology Education Association (2000, p. 5), ”One of the great benefits of learning about technology is also learning to do technology, that is, to carry out in the laboratory-classroom many of the processes that underlie the development of technology in the real world.” Consequently, children should be able to follow, as much as possible, problem solving and thinking typical for technological processes. In short, children should be driven through the processes characteristic to technology.
However, it has to be emphasized that just using technology and introducing the latest equipment to the classroom does not meet the idea of educating children about, nor through technology. Neither does limitation to some specific materials and techniques while excluding other essential parts of the technological reality around us. Children should be given opportunities, regardless of the materials used, to act technologically. They should be supported to use their thinking skills in designing and making things. They should also be given opportunities to participate in innovative problem solving processes in a way that can be considered technological (Harrison 1994).
Moreover, children should be given possibilities to find their “own“ problems to solve and thus experience personally how technology really responds to human needs and wants. This requirement does not seem to be very commonly applied in teaching technology, not even in countries where technology education has quite an agreeable and stable status in the curriculum.
One influential theme driving the research process was an apprehension about the present curriculum contents tending not to be relevant to the technological world in which we live. Especially in the case of handicraft education there seems to be a risk that a gap is being ruptured between the surrounding reality and teaching in schools. (Benjamin 1975, Stenhouse 1976) Actually, Finnish handicraft education has been a target for criticism (see Opetushalllitus 1994a) and there is a growing demand for more technological-oriented education. Both the methods and contents of traditional handicraft education are being criticized as being out of date.
The contents, and also the working methods in different subject areas need to be flexible enough for adjustments according to current demands and altering situations. There has been a special need for this during the past decade, for example, in the teaching of geography. From the viewpoint of technology education, it should be seriously evaluated whether it would be appropriate any more to carry out reproductive work based on the production of old implements and ornaments that can be found mostly in museums? For example, if children make a spinning wheel plate by meticulously copying the instructional model given by the teacher, the teaching does not relate to the technological world in which we live, nor does it truly relate to the nature of subject matter itself. Actually, children may not even learn the necessary manual skills to cope with the reality outside the schools. Problem solving, divergent production and innovation in action are only marginally present, or in the worst case, totally absent. The making of old artifacts could be very well made part of the teaching of the history of traditions.
In the modern era of enormous and accelerating technological development it is essential to ensure that the necessary technological knowledge and skills come, without forgetting the ethical and moral implications, to the possession of future generations to the largest possible extent. In other words, the school curriculum should be fully relevant also from the viewpoint of the surrounding technological reality, preferably even preceding the technological future.
Mathematics and science have been important contributors to the development of technology. Increased knowledge and skills in those domains can contribute to the preparedness to understand and do modern technology. However, understanding and capability of doing technology are not solely dependent on mathematical and scientific knowledge and skills (Allen 1997). In technology, especially mathematics, but also science is seen from a very utilitarian point of view (Adams 1991). They could be seen as indispensable tools to do and accomplish technology. In this way they could achieve meaningfulness and significance. The potential for successful collaborative projects between technology education and teaching of mathematics and science is enormous and already available (for example Lindh 1996).
Currently, in Finland, there is widespread concern about children’s knowledge, skills and motivation in mathematics and science. The LUMA project has been initiated as a response to the problem and aims to enhance teaching and learning in those subjects (http://www.edu.fi/projektit/luma/). These concerns are important also from the viewpoint of modern technology, especially as its development depends to a great extent on skills and knowledge in science and mathematics.
Technology cannot be regarded as an activity characteristic only of engineers or the industrial world, but rather as a typical human endeavor that focuses on the satisfaction of human needs and purposes (de Vries 1997). Actually, both engineering sciences and industry originates their existence from this broad perspective. However, especially when modern technologies are considered as a substance area in general technology education, it would be natural to collaborate with people who are professionally dealing with the subject. They have expertise and, according to my experiences, can substantially contribute to the efforts to develop teaching about and through technology.
Throughout history technology has enabled humans to survive (Hacker & Barden 1988). This is very true even today. For example in Finland, the winter temperature can go down to minus 40 Celsius and it would be impossible to survive without appropriate, and sufficient, heating systems.
But, what Finland also faces is a "modern survival" through technology. This means the ability to compete globally is a matter of national survival. In order for Finland to prosper economically and compete with the rest of the world industrially, the workforce of the future must be able to collaborate as a team, to be familiar with the problem solving processes distinctive to technology, to have basic skills in key areas of modern technology and to have capabilities for innovative and divergent thinking and production. However, it should be pointed out that the issue of “modern survival“ should not be viewed only from the perspective of national interests, but rather from the viewpoint of international collaboration on behalf of global survival as well.
The need for school syllabus revision concerning the nature and value of modern technology has been recently acknowledged and voiced by many influential Finnish institutions, interest groups and businesses. These include the Committee for the Future/The Parliament of Finland, the Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers (TT), the Federation of Finnish Metal, Engineering and Electrotechnical Industries (MET) and the Finnish Academies of Technology (TTA).
In April 2000, TT sent a memorandum to the Ministry of Education emphasizing the importance of technology education nationally and proposed several activities that would promote it in general education. The research project carried out in Jyväskylä University/Department of Teacher Education also deals with the expectations and demands related to teaching technology in schools (Parikka 1998, Rasinen 2000).
All this has to be taken into consideration also in the context of general education. An undeniable truth is that the general education school system did not ‘escape’ the effects of the deep economical recession which Finland went through at the beginning of the last decade of the 20th century. The impact was tangible in many ways; materials and resources were reduced and teachers felt overburdened and exhausted in many ways. Although the times have been better in recent years, and some very successful and internationally competitive industries have developed, we should not be too complacent. Rather, we should work hard to secure our future in the world (see Larson 1993, p. 29). Since the teachers are working with our future (children), they bear a great responsibility. The way that responsibility is understood and interpreted is going to have an effect on every one of us.