Research Interests:
In the last decade research about technological systems in technology education has attracted increased attention. This research has pinpointed pedagogical challenges in teaching about systems, par ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Teachers and researchers in the field of technology education stress the importance of addressing what is necessary to offer good learning opportunities. This paper focuses on teacher’s professional growth in a teacher-researcher... more
Teachers and researchers in the field of technology education stress the importance of addressing what is necessary to offer good learning opportunities. This paper focuses on teacher’s professional growth in a teacher-researcher collaboration process concerned with planning and teaching technological systems. In modern society, technological systems facilitate the needs humans have relating technical and human components in networks. Understanding systems in everyday life, (e.g. water supply system, various transport systems) requires capabilities to understand the complexity of such systems and their constituent parts without having the possibility to come into contact with the entire system; systems are not tangible in the same way as individual artefacts. In this study we use data from a research project (Klasander, 2010) where two groups of technology teachers plan teaching about technological systems in lower secondary school, convened by a researcher for ten meetings during one and a half years. Using Clarke and Hollingsworth’s (2002) model for professional growth, the analysis identified shifts in teachers’ knowledge and beliefs, professional experimentation and external source of information. This also provided exemplars of how teacher professional knowledge may develop in the area of technological systems.
Research Interests:
Assessment of students’ technological knowledge is a challenge for teachers. This stems not only from the inherent complexity of technological knowledge but also from the short history of technology education and its assessment practices.... more
Assessment of students’ technological knowledge is a challenge for teachers. This stems not only from the inherent complexity of technological knowledge but also from the short history of technology education and its assessment practices. Furthermore, technological systems as a curriculum component is complex, under-developed and under-researched. The aim of this study is to investigate ‘qualities of knowledge’ about technological systems, by constructing and evaluating with students in secondary education a test instrument about water supply and sewerage. The test instrument was distributed to 32 students in a Swedish grade eight class (14–15 year olds), and data analysis was carried out using a qualitative, hermeneutic method. The findings show that the students’ qualities of knowledge regarding the overall structure of the systems was quite advanced,but the systems or the societal context were not elaborated upon with any detail. The purpose of the system could be connected to humans and society, but students did not offer a definition of the overall purpose. The flows that the students described were only of matter (water, wastewater) but not energy or information. The system boundary was also elusive, except for waste coming out of the sewer system and other environmental consequences. Thus,the test instrument “worked” in the sense that it was possible to gauge students’ qualities of knowledge, especially regarding system structure, but the validity might need to be improved with respect to some system aspects
Research Interests:
Problematising the interpretation of "a systems approach" in technology education, the text focuses on two aspects of the system concept that we find relevant to design and technology education.One ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Assessment of students’ technological knowledge is a challenge for teachers. This stems not only from the inherent complexity of technological knowledge but also from the short history of technology education and its assessment practices.... more
Assessment of students’ technological knowledge is a challenge for teachers. This stems not only from the inherent complexity of technological knowledge but also from the short history of technology education and its assessment practices. Furthermore, technological systems as a curriculum component is complex, under-developed and under-researched. The aim of this study is to investigate ‘qualities of knowledge’ about technological systems, by constructing and evaluating with students in secondary education a test instrument about water supply and sewerage. The test instrument was distributed to 32 students in a Swedish grade eight class (14–15 year olds), and data analysis was carried out using a qualitative, hermeneutic method. The findings show that the students’ qualities of knowledge regarding the overall structure of the systems was quite advanced,but the systems or the societal context were not elaborated upon with any detail. The purpose of the system could be connected to humans and society, but students did not offer a definition of the overall purpose. The flows that the students described were only of matter (water, wastewater) but not energy or information. The system boundary was also elusive, except for waste coming out of the sewer system and other environmental consequences. Thus,the test instrument “worked” in the sense that it was possible to gauge students’ qualities of knowledge, especially regarding system structure, but the validity might need to be improved with respect to some system aspects
Research Interests:
In technology education, assessment is challenging and underdeveloped as it is a nascent practice and teachers do not have a well-defined subject tradition to lean on when assessing students. The aim of this study is to explore Swedish... more
In technology education, assessment is challenging and underdeveloped as it is a nascent practice and teachers do not have a well-defined subject tradition to lean on when assessing students. The aim of this study is to explore Swedish secondary technology teachers’ cognitive beliefs about assessing students’ learning of technological systems, in relation to the assessment tools they use. Data for the study were collected through a questionnaire which was completed by 511 Swedish technology teachers in lower secondary education (grades 7–9). The data were analysed statistically in three main steps. Exploratory factor analysis revealed underlying dimensions in teachers’ cognitive beliefs, which was followed by correlation analysis to discern associations between dimensions of cognitive beliefs. Finally, comparisons were made between groups of teachers to discern how teachers’ cognitive beliefs are influenced by their experience and educational background. The results show that additi...
Research Interests:
Assessment of students’ technological knowledge is a challenge for teachers. This stems not only from the inherent complexity of technological knowledge but also from the short history of technology education and its assessment practices.... more
Assessment of students’ technological knowledge is a challenge for teachers. This stems not only from the inherent complexity of technological knowledge but also from the short history of technology education and its assessment practices. Furthermore, technological systems as a curriculum component is complex, under-developed and under-researched. The aim of this study is to investigate ‘qualities of knowledge’ about technological systems, by constructing and evaluating with students in secondary education a test instrument about water supply and sewerage. The test instrument was distributed to 32 students in a Swedish grade eight class (14–15 year olds), and data analysis was carried out using a qualitative, hermeneutic method. The findings show that the students’ qualities of knowledge regarding the overall structure of the systems was quite advanced,but the systems or the societal context were not elaborated upon with any detail. The purpose of the system could be connected to hu...
Research Interests:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2013) defines its views on necessary skills for 21st century citizenship and life-long learning, advocating a generic skill set of ...
Research Interests:
Teachers and researchers in the field of technology education stress the importance of addressing what is necessary to offer good learning opportunities. This paper focuses on teacher’s professional growth in a teacher-researcher... more
Teachers and researchers in the field of technology education stress the importance of addressing what is necessary to offer good learning opportunities. This paper focuses on teacher’s professional growth in a teacher-researcher collaboration process concerned with planning and teaching technological systems. In modern society, technological systems facilitate the needs humans have relating technical and human components in networks. Understanding systems in everyday life, (e.g. water supply system, various transport systems) requires capabilities to understand the complexity of such systems and their constituent parts without having the possibility to come into contact with the entire system; systems are not tangible in the same way as individual artefacts. In this study we use data from a research project (Klasander, 2010) where two groups of technology teachers plan teaching about technological systems in lower secondary school, convened by a researcher for ten meetings during o...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Thomas Ginner har under manga ar arbetat med att beframja en god teknikundervisning i skolan pa olika satt. I samband med hans pensionering ger vi ut denna vanbok med en samling texter skrivna av n ...
Research Interests:
In this study Swedish teachers’ views of the technology subject and technology teaching are examined. Investigations made the last few years show that there are deficiencies in the technology teach ...
Research Interests:
The concept of 21st century skills has several definitions. Sweden, as well as other countries, address 21st century skills under various labels in technology education, especially in terms of comp ...
Research Interests:
In the last decade research about technological systems in technology education has attracted increased attention. This research has pinpointed pedagogical challenges in teaching about systems, par ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Technological systems are interwoven into the very fabric of modern society to such an extent that we often take them for granted and they almost become invisible to us, because much of the infrastructure is hidden in the ground beneath... more
Technological systems are interwoven into the very fabric of modern society to such an extent that we often take them for granted and they almost become invisible to us, because much of the infrastructure is hidden in the ground beneath us or behind walls. Many modern technological systems are also abstract in the sense that they include invisible connections and flows, for example, in cellular phone communications or GPS navigation. These systems also have societal components such as organizations, legislation and operators. Technological systems thus challenge traditional teaching and learning related to artefacts in technology education, since systems are much more difficult to grasp and also have some different characteristics and dynamics compared to single objects. The aim of this chapter is to address this challenge by presenting and discussing the characteristics of technological systems in relation to teaching and learning about systemic aspects of our lifeworld. We suggest four pedagogies to achieve this: interface pedagogy, holistic pedagogy, historical pedagogy and design pedagogy. Furthermore, we propose two ways of delimiting systems through two types of boundaries that are crucial in this regard: the systems horizon and the system border.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Syftet med detta kapitel ar att beskriva nagra svenska larare och lararstudenters uppfattningar om tekniska system som en del av en teknisk allmanbildning, i synnerhet nar det handlar om avgransnin ...
Technology education is regarded as a new school subject in comparison with other subjects within the compulsory school system – both nationally and internationally. As such, the practice of teachi ...
The subject matter of technological systems is central in compulsory school technology education in Sweden. However, technology teachers would need more support in their endeavors to interpret the curriculum as both educational and... more
The subject matter of technological systems is central in compulsory school technology education in Sweden. However, technology teachers would need more support in their endeavors to interpret the curriculum as both educational and philosophical research lack a clear answer to the question of what technological systems are. A better conceptualization of technological systems could also facilitate communication between teachers and students, and even improve learning about systems. The aim of this study is thus to investigate Swedish technology teachers’ conceptions about technological systems. We interviewed 11 technology teachers in compulsory education from various parts of Sweden. The transcripts from the interviews were analyzed with thematic content analysis and resulted in four characteristic system properties. In the teachers’ collective depictions of technological systems, the first two system properties focused on the technological core of the system, closely related to a ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research in the history and sociology of technology in the last decades has shown that technological systems have partly different characteristics and dynamics compared to single objects and artefacts. It is therefore pivotal that... more
Research in the history and sociology of technology in the last decades has shown that technological systems have partly different characteristics and dynamics compared to single objects and artefacts. It is therefore pivotal that technology education incorporates a systems perspective. The Swedish technology curriculum for compulsory school (ages 7-16) has integrated systems content for nearly 20 years. Although studies indicate that pupils can understand systems structure to some extent the more complex aspects are still difficult to grasp. This may be a result of high demands in the curriculum but also the fact that technology teaching is lacking in this regard, because studies show that Swedish compulsory school technology teachers do not have a very developed understanding of technological systems. Although there have been no Swedish studies of systems in relation to teacher education, there is good reason to believe that teachers’ understanding of systems at least partly has t...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Technology education is a new school subject in comparison with other subjects within the Swedish compulsory school system. Research in technology education shows that technology teachers lack experience of and support for assessment in... more
Technology education is a new school subject in comparison with other subjects within the Swedish compulsory school system. Research in technology education shows that technology teachers lack experience of and support for assessment in comparison with the long-term experiences that other teachers use in their subjects. This becomes especially apparent when technology teachers assess students' knowledge in and about technological systems. This study thematically analysed the assessment views of eleven technology teachers in a Swedish context. Through the use of in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews, their elaborated thoughts on assessing knowledge about technological systems within the technology subject (for ages 13–16) were analysed. The aim was to describe the teachers' assessment views in terms of types of knowledge, and essential knowledge in relation to a progression from basic to advanced understanding of technological systems. The results showed three main themes that the interviewed teachers said they consider when performing their assessment of technological systems; understanding (a) a system's structure, (b) its relations outside the system boundary and (c) its historical context and technological change. Each theme included several underlying items that the teachers said they use in a progressive manner when they assess their students' basic, intermediate and advanced level of understanding technological systems. In conclusion, the results suggest that the analysed themes can provide a basis for further discussion about defining a progression for assessing students' understanding about technological systems. However, the findings also need to be examined critically as the interviewed teachers' views on required assessment levels showed an imbalance; few students were said to reach beyond the basic level, but at the same time most assessment items lay on the intermediate and advanced levels.
Research Interests:
Technological systems are included as a component of national technology curricula and standards for primary and secondary education as well as corresponding teacher education around the world. Little is known, however, of how pupils,... more
Technological systems are included as a component of national technology curricula and standards for primary and secondary education as well as corresponding teacher education around the world. Little is known, however, of how pupils, students, and teachers conceive of technological systems. In this article we report on a study investigating Swedish technology student teachers' conceptions of technological systems. The following research question is posed: How do Swedish technology student teachers conceive of technological systems? Data was collected through in-depth qualitative surveys with 26 Swedish technology student teachers. The data was analysed using a hermeneutic method, aided by a theoretical synthesis of established system theories (system signifi-cants). The main results of the study are that the technology student teachers expressed diverse conceptions of technological systems, but that on average almost half of them provided answers that were considered as undefined. The parts of the systems that the students understood were mostly the visible parts, either components, devices, or products such as buttons, power lines, hydroelectric plants, or the interface with the software inside a mobile phone. However, the 'invisible' or abstract aspects of the technological systems, such as flows of information, energy or matter, or control operations were difficult to understand for the majority of the students. The flow of information was particularly challenging in this regard. The students could identify the input and often the output of the systems, that is, what systems or components do, but the processes that take place within the systems were elusive. Comparing between technological systems also proved difficult for many students. The role of humans was considered important but it was mostly humans as users not as actors on a more systemic level, for example, as system owners, innovators, or politicians. This study confirms previous research in that the students had a basic understanding of structure, input and output of a technological system. Thus, the adult students in this study did not seem to have better understanding of technological systems than school pupils and teachers in previous studies, although this is in line with previous investigations on the general system thinking capabilities of children and adults. The most important implication of this study is that students need to be trained in systems thinking, particularly regarding how components work and connect to each other, flows (especially of information), system dependency, and the human role in technological systems.