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.