Introduction
These changes suggest that educational goals in technology education have moved beyond the achievement of factual knowledge and skilled performance, and are now more concerned with the development of transferable skills and knowledge. With this paradigm shift, the concept of technological capability has come to the forefront in viewing technology education as part of a broad and balanced curriculum. As the governing body for curriculum and curricular assessment in Ireland, the NCCA have outlined that technological capability is necessary for all aspects of living and working. Although the council acknowledges that many subjects on the curriculum may contribute to the development of technological capability, it is the suite of technology subjects that are viewed as central to its development (NCCA 2004).…students grow in competence, grow in confidence, become more enterprising and are empowered in terms of their ability to control elements of the physical environment. These are important educational outcomes, which contribute significantly to the provision of a broad and balanced curriculum and illustrate why participation in technology education represents a valuable educational experience. (NCCA 2007a, b)
Technological capability
Practice in technology education
Study focus
Methodology
Approach
Design of instrument
Participants
Participant demographic | School demographic | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | Sex | Experience (years) | School type | Gender | ~ Population |
PT01 | Male | 4 | Secondary School | All-boys | 600 |
PT02 | Male | 20 | Secondary School | All-boys | 600 |
PT03 | Male | 17 | Community College | Mixed | 450 |
PT04 | Male | 5 | Community College | Mixed | 1200 |
PT05 | Male | 13 | Community College | Mixed | 1300 |
PT06 | Male | 27 | Community College | Mixed | 1300 |
PT07 | Male | 31 | Secondary School | Mixed | 200 |
PT08 | Male | 8 | Comprehensive School | Mixed | 650 |
PT09 | Male | 22 | Community College | Mixed | 1200 |
PT10 | Male | 24 | Secondary School | Mixed | 250 |
PT11 | Male | 1 | Community College | Mixed | 900 |
PT12 | Male | 10 | Secondary School | Mixed | 600 |
PT13 | Male | 2 | Vocational School | Mixed | 850 |
PT14 | Male | 10 | Secondary School | All-boys | 450 |
PT15 | Male | 18 | Vocational School | Mixed | 500 |
Implementation
Data analysis
Findings
Theme | Frequency |
---|---|
Developing technical competencies
| |
Foundational skills and knowledge base | 15 |
Outcomes based approach—product centred | 12 |
Exposure to design—not engagement | 10 |
Pressures of meeting the requirements of summative assessment
| |
‘Stages’ of the design process governed by assessment matrix | 6 |
Truncation of syllabi | 8 |
Cultural (school) expectations | 5 |
Professional views on capability
| |
Questioning the nature of syllabus content | 2 |
Questioning the nature of the assessment system | 4 |
Focus of learning activities
Distribution | Code | Descriptor |
---|---|---|
34 | Technical competency (− 2) | Exclusively concerned with the development of content knowledge and manipulative craft skills |
16 | Technical competency (− 1) | Predominantly concerned with the development of content knowledge and craft skills, but recognition of problem-solving or design |
2 | Neutral (0) | The focus of the learning activity is unclear or is concerned with elements of both technical competency and holistic development |
13 | Holistic development (+ 1) | Aligned with the concept of technological capability but missing one critical element (e.g. values or problem-solving) |
2 | Holistic development (+ 2) | Aligned with the concept of technological capability and concerned with the development of the student as a whole |
The emphasis placed on the exclusive development of technical competencies did not progressively reduce as students progressed through the years of schooling, as was anticipated (Fig. 1). Rather a series of activities focused on the development of knowledge and skills was implemented, a process described as “moving up in the joint stages” (PT05).The minimum [student achievement] would have to be their jointing techniques … it is great that they are able to make nice stuff and bring that home, but that’s to maintain their interest. The minimum skills … they have to be able to do the joints. (PT09)
Ideally every project should be dealing with problem-solving and the idea of solving the problem is a reward in itself … that isn’t the reality, the reality is that you know, young lads [students] want to have at the end of third year their third-year piece, you know, something that they can bring home, something that they can cherish and so on. I think that that angle seems to work as regards lads [students] completing the project to a good standard. (PT02)
I’d expect that everybody would get it finished to a high standard and working together that’s possible, you know. Everybody would bring it home and it would reflect well on what goes on in the school here. (PT07)
The emphasis placed on an output driven agenda is perhaps best exemplified through many teachers’ reluctance to engage students in authentic design problems. When questioned about this, participants cited students’ inability to “conceive” ideas (PT08), or that students lack the “capability design wise” (PT04), despite no prior engagement with design.To get it finished. To get it finished. Especially at the beginning. I teach in a disadvantaged school and one of our main focuses a lot of the time is getting things finished. Especially with Junior- and Senior-Cycle there’s just so many marks going for getting something done and assembled. (PT14)
Outcome | Distribution | Code | Descriptor |
---|---|---|---|
Psychomotor (Dave 1970) | 12 | Imitation | Observing and copying someone else |
35 | Manipulation | Guided via instruction to perform a skill | |
20 | Precision | Accuracy, proportion and exactness exist in the skill performance without the presence of the original source | |
0 | Articulation | Two or more skills combined, sequenced, and performed consistently | |
0 | Naturalisation | Two or more skills combined, sequenced, and performed consistently and with ease. The performance is automatic with little physical or mental exertion | |
Affective (Krathwohl et al. 1964) | 19 | Receiving | Awareness, willingness to hear, selected attention |
35 | Responding | Active participation on the part of the learners. Attend and react to a particular phenomenon. Learning outcomes may emphasize compliance in responding, willingness to respond, or satisfaction in responding (motivation) | |
11 | Valuing | The worth or value a person attaches to a particular object, phenomenon, or behaviour. This ranges from simple acceptance to the more complex state of commitment. Valuing is based on the internalization of a set of specified values, while clues to these values are expressed in the learner’s overt behaviour and are often identifiable | |
2 | Organising and Conceptualising | Organizes values into priorities by contrasting different values, resolving conflicts between them, and creating a unique value system. The emphasis is on comparing, relating, and synthesizing values | |
0 | Characterised by value or value concept | Has a value system that controls their behaviour? The behaviour is pervasive, consistent, predictable, and most important characteristic of the learner. Instructional objectives are concerned with the student’s general patterns of adjustment (personal, social, emotional) | |
Cognitive (Anderson and Krathwohl 2001) | 8 | Remembering | Recall or retrieve previous learned information |
30 | Understanding | Comprehending the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. State a problem in one’s own words | |
22 | Applying | Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the work place | |
6 | Analysing | Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences | |
1 | Evaluating | Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials | |
0 | Creating | Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure |
Then I’d just tease it out with them, like ‘what would be key considerations with the locker?’. ‘What side of the bed is it going on?’. ‘What way will the door be opening if it’s at that side of the bed?’. The heights obviously will be important … (PT02)
This dialectic between teachers and students occurred typically at the introductory stage of a learning activity.Take an ordinary classroom stool. I will get one kid [student] to sit on one and we get him to put his feet up on another and ask him how they feel. They will all complain because their legs are so high. We get out a measuring tape and we will slowly drop down until we get a comfortable height … There is a little bit of I suppose rationalising to be done, a little bit of work to be done introducing the lesson. They have the option then of either a large single mortise, they have the option of rounding … some of them put a nice kind of a gradual arc on the piece, they do their own thing … again we just create a scenario that ‘we want this’, ‘what’s our solution’ and that’s what we come up with. (PT03)
The pressures of meeting the requirements of summative assessment
This often resulted in a formulaic approach to designing, in that teachers led students through the “steps” (PT05) of the design process. This atomisation of the design process, to align with the model of the design process which is assessed was further corroborated by participant seven, who actualises an alignment between stages of the design process, and sections of the portfolio—as governed by assessment criteria:In October, I give them the layout for the brief. I have a template, I’ve my own template that I use, and I have all the headings because again to be honest with you and I know an awful lot of it … some might say its spoon-feeding them or whatever but you see when it comes to briefs you have your marking scheme … you try and cover a brief as best as best as you can. (PT03)
An interesting theme that emerged from the analysis was the relationship between teachers’ experience in terms of years of teaching, and their focus for student learning (Fig. 2).… we look at the [design] booklets of previous years and we look at the sections that have to be done. We will try and go through the design process and we’ve the five sections to be completed starting off at analysis of design brief. (PT07)
I want them all to enjoy the subject and I want them all to get motivated because that is going to feed into everything. First impressions are important. So that’s the main thing I want them all to get from it, we are going to be going through all the other skills again anyway. The main thing I want them to get is I want them to be happy and I want them to be comfortable and I want them to enjoy making it. (PT13)
This theme also permeated into the nature of tasks engaged with and although recognition was taken of the difficulties in engaging with an open-design task, efforts were made to incorporate this medium of learning:My role is to let the student come out in the project, let what they have done, and even if they haven’t done technology before, they will have experiences in other aspects of their lives that will feed into this so whether it’s music or art or whatever so my role is to give them the help that they need to come out in their project. Whatever they are interested in to come out in their own design and try to feed into that because that’s going to help them in the long days when they don’t feel like doing the project, there’s something that’s a part of them rather than something separate that they are not into. (PT13)
In discussing the focus of learning activities used in higher-secondary education, a very focused narrative pertaining to pressures of meeting the requirements of the assessment system was observed. In the few instances where project-based learning was utilised in the fifth year of schooling, using practical work to support theory was uncovered as a significant theme. Here, model-making activities were used as a support structure to link together different elements of the syllabus. The rationale given for this approach was that past students have found it difficult to conceptualise theoretical aspects of the syllabus and they “need something concrete” (PT01) to aid conceptualisation. This theme was not always pedagogically focused however, as it was established that some teachers’ agendas were assessment framework oriented:…when it comes to their third-year project they realise, ‘what I’m trying to make must fit inside this space’. You’re teaching them the concept of solving their own dimensions and finding their own dimensions rather than you telling them what to do. That project takes a long time, there is a lot of creativity required in it, students do a lot of working out… (PT01)
I push the built construction models as much as I can because they overlap with the syllabus … if that comes up in the exam, which it comes up, it will come up, he’s gotten a big head-start in that topic and the other lads [students] will have to study it. (PT04)
Both participants PT04 and PT09 work in the same school. Describing it as “high achieving” (PT04), the expectations placed on both teachers arose in the interviews, indicating the significant influences that school culture may have on practices:I used to do big furniture projects. I stopped doing them four or five years ago because the students weren’t getting the result. They were spending too long making pieces of furniture that were too costly. They cost them too much in time and in money and they didn’t get the standard that they wanted to get … but when I changed it from that way the results have improved a lot. (PT09)
On a similar note, the benefits of fostering a reductionist approach to teaching were outlined by many teachers, as the predictability of examination questions afforded teachers the opportunity to “taper” (PT02) syllabus content down. This theme also permeated practical coursework assessments:...at the end of the day we are delivering a service. We are expected to make our students excel in the subjects, to get the points to go onto college. (PT09)
In contrast to this, the graphics-based subjects did not afford this opportunity. PT11 depicts the necessity of students to be able to understand and apply graphical principles to unique problems:I had two students last year, two A’s in woodwork, no joints in their pieces. Yet they spent first year and second year hacking through, with me over their shoulder hounding it into them, they learned from that but yet it wasn’t examined. (PT03)
This theme may provide insight on the prevalence of holistic development activities undertaken by teachers in the 24–30 professional life phase (Fig. 2) or insights into the nature of activity within graphics based subjects....thinking for yourself would be the big [focus] … one of the things I would be trying to push with them because they are good kids and like as I say you can cover 101 situations but 102 will come up on the paper and to be able to think too, ‘right we never did this but hang on, I know how to do that and I know how to do that and maybe this might work for this’ and to have the confidence to attack it rather than say ‘we never did that’… (PT11)
Professional views on capability
Doing a day exam … because it has no relevance whatsoever at the moment. I think it’s just totally obsolete and the sooner the syllabus changes the better. (PT08)
Secondly, a common theme emerged where teachers questioned the nature of the activity they engaged with. This appeared to be driven by participants questioning the validity of what they spend their time on, in that they engaged with tasks and activities that align with an agenda that they do not perceive to be of the upmost importance. In particular, the summative written or ‘theory’ examinations appeared to take time away from what teachers’ perceive to be of more importance:… the unfortunate thing with the construction course is that, and this is reflected in the papers, that you can virtually predict you know, five, six, seven of the questions that come up year on year. A lot of the topics that come up are ones that would have been done - traditionally years ago are now redundant and basically don’t need to be taught. So, you would find then that you would have a little bit more time if you pick your topics carefully. (PT02)
March up until the end of the year, unfortunately because of the Junior Certificate the way it is, they have to sit a theory exam, I’m covering constant theory with them. (PT01)
Traditionally, in fifth year, it’s an awful lot of theory. We try to cover the whole course in fifth year apart from two questions – apart from question 8 and question 7 and we do them in sixth year… (PT15)
This trend continued in relation to meeting the requirements of the ‘practical day exam’. In this instance, PT09 rationalises their decision to focus exclusively on a development of practical skills, and move away from project-based learning in higher-secondary education:… in my head, right I have so much to get done, we do this today, we do this tomorrow. I know it’s not ideal but you are facing the exam at the end, and you have to have the topics covered… (PT10)
…you can’t afford to spend the time doing them. Its joints, joints, joints! It sounds very traditional but it’s what gets them the results in the exam, it really is… (PT09)