Age and gender differences between pupils’ preferences in teaching general and compulsory technology education in Croatia

Interests of Croatian primary school pupils about elective Technology Teaching and school activities

“…These last two findings indicate that students still need a certain level of physical and mental maturity to master such content or to make sense to them. Age and gender differences indicate certain regularities that appear in previous research (Suman and Purković, 2018;Purković et al, 2020), which may be significant from the point of view of operationalization of some future elective teaching of technical culture.…”

“…If IT contents are singled out from this share, the share of pupils who would choose an elective content of technical culture is still extremely high, and only about 3% of pupils do not want any elective classes in this subject/area. This finding clearly indicates that these contents and activities should be provided to primary school pupils, especially because 1 hour of teaching per week in the subject of Technical Culture certainly cannot provide an opportunity for further development of competencies in engineering and technology (Purković et al, 2020). The research findings also show that pupils' perceptions of the importance of technical culture have changed significantly during the previous two curricular reforms, i.e.…”

“…This finding definitely indicates the awareness and interest, but also the need of pupils for such activities. In addition, the high share of choice of activities such as working on computers, making objects and products, assembling robots and devices, but also art and music and environmental activities indicate the need to transform learning and teaching in primary education to active, situational and contextual (Purković et al, 2020). It is noticeable that a respectable share of students perceived language activities as important for their own development, which is significant and completes the structure of some future primary education in Croatia.…”

“…However, technology is not just ICT (Information and Communication Technology), because ICT is only a small segment of the whole technology about which students today need deeper knowledge. Therefore, teachers and experts, primarily due to insufficient time for the implementation of meaningful activities in regular classes of Technical Culture (Purković et al, 2020), on two occasions, in 2014 and 2017, developed the curriculum and proposed the introduction of elective classes in Technical Culture. Both attempts failed without explanation from the education authorities and without completing the procedure or holding a public hearing on it.…”

Teachers’ Perception of the Influence of the Teaching Context on Cognitive Achievements in General Technology Education

“…design, production, assembly, testing, etc.) (Purković, Suman and Jelaska, 2020). Due to the limited duration, important elements of the contextual approach are missing, such as pupils' collaborative activities on the realization of their own ideas in a meaningful context.…”