Introduction
Technology education in the Swedish preschool
Previous research and scrutiny on how staff teach and perceive technology education
A sociocultural perspective
Method
Sample, data generation and analysis
Results
Technology education concerns technological objects and systems in children’s environment
In addition, he and his colleagues also try to design the preschool environment in a way that makes learning opportunities arise naturally, for instance, by making technological objects that they want the children to learn about readily available. There is a power station at the preschool which generates electricity from solar and wind power. To help the children understand how that works, they provide different artefacts for the children to play with and explore, for instance toy cars with solar panels on.You can see the fascination in the children’s eyes when the refuse collector arrives. […] We are going to start working more around the sorting of waste, we have done that before, and we have a shed where we go to sort the waste. I often ask what do you think will happen to this? Why do we throw this here and not there? These kinds of questions. And then the refuse collector comes to collect everything, and where does it go?
Participant | Profession | Age | Years in the profession | Training in technology education | Characterization of technology education (plot) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oscar | PT | 54 | 28 | A single course day | Technology education concerns technological objects and systems in children’s environment |
Erica | PT | 31 | 2 | 30 ECTS | Technology education concerns technological objects and systems in children’s environment |
Carl | CCA | 26 | 7 | None | Technology education concerns learning to handle technological objects |
Catherine | PT | 54 | 32 | One lecture | Technology education is doing experiments |
Greta | PT | 58 | 24 | None | Technology education involves developing abilities |
Anne | CCA | 39 | 7 | None | Technology education is naturally included in children’s play |
Jessica | PT | 38 | 16 | 7,5 ECTS including math and science | Technology education departs from digital technology |
Technology education concerns technological objects and systems in children’s environment
She views this activity as successful because they managed to integrate different parts of the curriculum into one single activity, not just technology.We walked around and looked at what was beautiful and what was ugly architecture. Of course, the children didn’t think like that, but if you mention the word they might pick it up. So we looked at the houses […]. We looked at the roofs, the constructions, we had iPads with us and that’s also technology, how does that work. The children did the documentation themselves and took photographs.
Technology education concerns learning to handle technological objects
This way of approaching the subject stems from a desire to allow the children themselves to guide the way and to use their interest and curiosity as driving forces to develop their knowledge.Very child-friendly game where you click and an animal appears from the barn and you can hear the noise the animal makes and a voice that says “cow”, for instance. So it’s very easy for them to understand and use.
Technology education is doing experiments
The experiments she describes mostly relate to natural science, as they investigate natural phenomena (Hansson, 2013). When asked to describe a successful technology learning activity, Catherine says:[…] so it’s like, well should we do some technology next week, and then we go to these [points to the experiment books] and look something up that seems interesting and that we have the materials for.
When she was asked about the technological content in that activity, she answered that it was to show the children that even big things, which you might think would sink, can float. Otherwise, her concern seem to be that the children should like the activities and have fun. No other objective is expressed.I’m thinking about when we worked with this… what floated. They [the children] thought it was fun. Because we asked them first, before we dropped [the objects in the water], what do you think, do you think this will float or sink? There were many reactions. They thought it was great fun. And then we did it outside as well. We had outdoor technology and we took things outside, cones and sticks and…yeah, that was fun.
Technology education involves developing abilities
Social skills are more accentuated in construction play as Greta views the construction room as a place for children to collaborate and discover things. Construction play is also regarded as a place for children to develop their ability to fantasise and be creative. Greta says:Some children say “I can’t”, it can be anything,” I can’t pull up my pants” or whatever. But yes, try and you can. It’s like that with everything in preschool, that we don’t step in and help right away but let the children try themselves.
Greta says her role in this is to sit next to the children when they build and ask questions about what they are building, how and why. She means children need to develop their communicative ability to describe and explain and her questions aim at getting them to train this ability.This can be used for that, the children can say when they build with duplo. […] that they themselves figure out what it can be used for […]. That’s what’s so great, that they think in a way that I myself maybe didn´t think about what they built, but they figured something out on their own.
Technology education is naturally included in children’s play
These moments include learning in several subjects. Other than technology, she describes developing children’s mathematical concepts, such as when she talks about children’s towers as being high or large or containing many blocks, and natural science, when she challenges children to think about why the magnets sometimes attract and sometimes repel.If I think about the previous group [older children], where the children’s language was better developed, we could sit and think together about why they [magnets] won’t come together or why a high Lego tower falls if you only build with small narrow blocks, but if you build in double rows, how come it doesn’t fall then? You get more of a discussion going and I think those moments, when it just happens, are really successful, when the children have chosen their own activities.
And we can spur each other on and say look what is happening, what they are doing. They can climb up onto the high step in the courtyard even though they really can’t, because they have worked out that they can get a box to stand on, and that’s technology I think, to be able to work out how to get up there.
This latter quote comes from a statement in which she describes lying on the floor with the children and building with blocks. She illustrates her awareness of the children’s next step in their learning process but does not mention doing anything to encourage their development towards this next step.So far the two-year-olds we have now are building very flat. They build in long rows. So that’s where they are now, not standing them [blocks] up, maybe that’s the next step, to build high but now they are building long and flat.
Technology education departs from digital technology
The children were also involved in documenting the activity by filming it and taking photographs. Overall, Jessica uses digital technology a lot to document, show films, search for information when the children are curious about how some technology works, the television for instance, or continue learning about something they have previously worked with. These are examples of how digital technology is used as a medium for learning. She also talks about using digital technology for creating and constructing things, such as digital games or books. She says:Yes, but how can we do it? Okay that didn’t work, but if we try this tape? And the next day I brought another tape and, well just to discuss it. If we make the straw shorter, will that make it better? To involve them [the children] and let it take time.
To connect it, well if they [the children] have created a story, or written a story, that you have the possibility to film it or create the story in the ipad, that’s really fun.