1. Teaching Technology for Tomorrow: What Concepts in What Contexts?
Marc J. de Vries
Delft University of Technology
The Netherlands

2. Presenting about technology education in Greece

3. 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

4. Aims of technology education (general and vocational)
Skills
Manual skills
important in vocational
education, but also in
general education
Thinking skills: theoretical
reasoning (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

5. 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’

6. 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

8. 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

9. 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?)

10. 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’?

11. Resulting Contexts

12. Resulting Concepts

14. Dual Nature of Technical Artifacts
Physical nature
Non-intentional properties
Functional nature
Intentional properties

15. The concept of function
Proper functions
What the designer had in mind
Accidental function
What the user has in mind

16. 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

17. 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