Talet om tekniska system: förväntningar, traditioner och skolverkligheter

Self Cite

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 significants). 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.

Section: Concluding Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Pupils' and Teachers' Conceptions Of Technological Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visible parts, invisible whole: Swedish technology student teachers’ conceptions about technological systems

Hällström

Klasander

2016

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“…The reason for this could be that content is assessed in other ways. It could also indicate that it is commonly omitted when teaching the subject in the participating schools, as was the case in many schools according to Swedish School Inspectorate (Skolinspektionen 2014;Klasander 2010). …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is it called and how does it work: examining content validity and item design of teacher-made tests

Hartell

Strimel

2018

This article examines content validity in teacher made tests in elementary technology education-an interdisciplinary subject mandatory for all pupils in compulsory school in Sweden. The context of teacher-based assessments relies heavily on trust for teachers to cope with demands. Even though the system is challenged and preconditions for teachers' assessment practices are not always adequate to support instruction, much is unknown about teachers' assessment practices. In this explorative study, 30 teacher-designed tests in technology education from 12 elementary schools were scrutinized in regards to content validity and the types of questions used to assess student knowledge supporting technological literacy. The results present the content validity of these tests in its current form, which may call into question the validity in terms of content and ability. Furthermore, the tests indicate how the technology school subject continues to struggle with shifting epistemologies and technologies far removed from pupils' everyday lives, which seem to contradict the aims and purpose of the subject.

“…This separation of Science and Technology within the curriculum was maintained in the last curriculum reform, in 2011. However, in practice in the classroom, "a hegemony of science" has dominated teaching, treating technology as applied science or mainly scientific aspects of technology (Klasander 2010). This persistent form of a boundary that encapsulates Technology within Science is also present in important educational policy texts in Sweden.…”

Section: The Relationship Between Technology and Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…4 At the same time, we can conclude that, for example, the systems perspective is largely missing. Ever since the 1970s, historians and sociologists of technology have studied technology as systems, since technology not only consists of separate objects but also large technological systems with other structures, functions and dynamics than the single objects by themselves (Hughes 1987;Klasander 2010). The so-called Actor Network Theory also illuminates the fact that technology can have the ability to "act" together with human actors in actor-networks, in which these "actants" constitute driving forces in the development of technology together with humans (Latour 1987;Hård and Jamison 2005).…”

Section: Studying School Technology As An Historical Phenomenonmentioning

confidence: 99%

The study of technology as a field of knowledge in general education: historical insights and methodological considerations from a Swedish case study, 1842–2010

Hällström

Hultén

Lövheim

2013

Today, technology education in Sweden is both a high-status and a low-status phenomenon. Positive values such as economic growth, global competitiveness and the sustainability of the welfare state are often coupled with higher engineering education and sometimes even upper secondary education. Negative values, on the other hand, are often associated with primary and lower secondary education in this subject. Within the realm of technology education at such lower levels of schooling in Sweden, different actors have often called for reformed curricula or better teacher training, owing to the allegedly poor state of technology education in schools. Recurring demands for a change in technology education are nothing unique from an historical point of view, however. In fact, the urge to influence teaching and learning in technology is much older than the school subject itself. The aim of this article is to describe and analyse some key patterns in technology education in Swedish elementary and compulsory schools from 1842 to 2010. This study thus deals with how technological content has developed over time in these school forms as well as how different actors in and outside the school have dealt with the broader societal view of what is considered as important knowledge in technology as well as what kind of technology has particular significance. The long period of investigation from 1842 to 2010 as well as a double focus on technology as scattered educational content and a subject called Technology make it possible to identify recurring patterns, which we have divided into three overarching themes: Technological literacy and the democratic potential of technological knowledge, The relationship between school technology and higher forms of technology education and The relationship between technology and science.