Children’s developing understanding of technology

The issue of children’s conceptions of technology and technology education is seen as important by technology educators. While there is a solid body of literature that documents groups of children’s understandings of technology and technology education, this is primarily focused on snapshot studies of children aged 11 and above. There is little literature relating to individual children’s changing conceptions over time, or to children younger than 11. This paper documents and discusses the changing understanding of the meaning of the word ‘technology’ of seven children over their first 6 years of primary school (age 5–10). It seeks to explain the source of the children’s understandings of the word ‘technology’ and to suggest some teaching and planning implications for technology educators.