This master’s thesis covers the history of computer numerical control (CNC), its applications and types, right through to laser CNC, on which practical examples for primary school teachers will be carried out. CNC technology is not particularly new, but it has recently become more affordable, which presents an ideal opportunity to encourage teachers to modernise technical workshops in primary schools.
We live in the era of Industry 4.0, in which changes occur daily, and it is our responsibility to adapt to them and keep pace with the times. Curricula are being updated; nevertheless, owing to limitations in knowledge, space, training, funding and motivation, CNC technology is still not as present in primary schools as one might wish. Under the revised 2025 curriculum, product design has come to the forefront, while among CNC devices only the 3D printer is included. Some schools have the opportunity to try out another type of machine as well, but such cases are the exception rather than the rule. To this end, a survey was carried out amongst primary and secondary school teachers to assess the current level of adoption of CNC technology in the teaching process, and practical examples of the use of CNC technology in technical education were also prepared.
The empirical part employed a quantitative, cross-sectional and descriptive-comparative approach to investigate the acceptance of CNC technology among teachers of Design and Technology in Slovenian primary and secondary schools. Data were collected by means of an online questionnaire designed according to the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and extended with scales measuring attitude, anxiety and self-efficacy. Because of deviations from the normal distribution, differences between groups were tested using the Mann-Whitney U test together with effect size (rank-biserial correlation).
The results show that teachers hold a predominantly positive attitude towards CNC technology and attribute pedagogical value to it, while expressing moderate willingness to use it in the future and somewhat less favourable assessments of facilitating conditions, social encouragement and their own competence. Primary school teachers reported a significantly more positive attitude than secondary school teachers, whereas for the remaining constructs the differences between school types were not statistically significant. Actual use of the technologies was more frequent and more systematic in secondary schools, particularly with regard to the integration of Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM), while in primary schools 3D printing predominated and other forms of CNC machining largely remained inaccessible or only occasional.
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