The teacher's guide's way of communicating with the teacher – within the subject of technology

Abstract

The materials and artefacts utilized by teachers and students play a crucial role in education. In a subject like technology, where many teachers feel they do not have sufficient competence, curriculum materials such as textbooks and teacher guides provide important support for teachers.  Teacher guides, in particular, have the potential to support teachers in different ways. The guidance provided in a teacher's guide can be either directive and talk through the teacher, i.e. telling the teacher what to do, or educative and talk to the teacher, i.e. telling the teacher how to do it and why to do it this way, thereby providing the teacher with knowledge to better understand the teaching of the subject. In this study, we analyze a teacher's guide for grades 7-9 to find out what kind of support it provides the teacher. An adapted framework for the design principles of educative curriculum materials was used. The analysis shows that this particular teacher's guide mostly talks through the teacher, giving the teacher directives on how to teach but without explaining why or suggesting other possible ways. The few educative features found are short and not very detailed. The support an educative teacher's guide could provide would give the teacher agency over their teaching and a better possibility to adapt teaching to situations and students. However, we see little of that kind of guidance in the teacher's guide analyzed in this study and conclude by outlining the possible consequences for technology education.