Technology in Compulsory School – Why? What? How?

Abstract

With this article, we wish to make a contribution to the ongoing debate about the nature of technological literacy, by sharing our views of what goals are important to strive for within technology as a school subject in compulsory school, six to fifteen-year old pupils, as well as our ideas concerning what kinds of knowledge the pupils should be enabled to acquire. The goal is to develop the pupils’ ability to work in projects, to work with problem solving and to make sure that the pupils gain a technological awareness about the technology of their local environment, and to improve their ability to communicate by means of different
presentation techniques. The capabilities the pupils should be able to acquire within the technology subject are tied to a concrete content. We discuss the issue of learning material and what ways of working are proper to projects dealing with problem solving. In this discussion we are using the concept ‘shaping of technology’. In the process of shaping within the technology subject at school, meaning is created, and both theory and practice are interwoven in this process. The shaping process in technology education is similar to design methods of engineers, industrial designers and in particular architects. However, unlike them, pupils will not discover, create or develop useful technical products but will instead gain insight and knowledge about the origin and function of technology and its importance to people, nature and society.