Technology as a scientific representation and exploration of all machines, devices,
processes, infrastructure ..., which are a part of the transformation of the natural world
into the world of human desires and needs, is becoming not only important, but a key
factor in modern society.
The challenges of today, such as globalisation, demographic change, food policy, the
environment, natural and human resources, require a higher level of usage, treatment,
understanding, and evaluation of technology from every citizen. Each individual
encounters the challenges of technological literacy education already in kindergarten and
continues throughout primary and secondary education by profiling technological ability
in his studies and later in his professional career.
In this master's thesis the focus was on primary technical education (TE) in those grades
where the subject of engineering and technology (EaT) is independent and thus provides
key knowledge, abilities, skills, and a developing relationship for technological literacy
education. TiT is a compulsory subject that accompanies students from 6th to 8th grade
of primary school (PS). There are 4 areas in the curriculum (C); technical means,
technology, work organisation, and economy. All the areas and contents that students
learn in their elective subjects, which are related to technology, are described.
Teaching contemporary topics is important for a quality education, as the nature of TE
has changed greatly. Above all, it is important that technological literacy (TL) in the
classroom is developed, which is what is needed for living in the technological world.
Researchers find that the perception of technology’s nature is often ingrained and changes
do not happen easily, so content that could be a part of modern TE is researched and the
nature of technology examined. When it comes to technology, studies often show that students are naive and have a lack
of understanding. Their perception focuses only on advanced objects they use on a daily
basis, especially in terms of information and communications technology (ICT).
Furthermore, according to previous research, students' opinions about education and
career choices in the technical field are quite poor. However, understanding technology
as well as students' attitudes towards EaT is part of TL, which represents the goal of TE.
An empirical research is conducted, in which students from 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grades
of arbitrarily selected Slovenian primary schools are included. In this research the
understanding of technology in 8 categories and the attitude of students towards EaT in 6
categories is examined. A comparison between the understanding of technology and the
attitude of students towards EaT is made. The results show an above-average
understanding of all categories of technology's nature. The statistical test between the
sexes does not show statistically significant differences in the understanding of
technology (p > 0.05), however, differences in almost all categories occur among students
of different grades (the effect is moderate in all; 0.04 ≤ r < 0.16). The largest statistically
significant differences (p < 0.05) arise between 6th and 9th grade – ninth-graders
understand technology better than sixth-graders. The exact opposite is when looking at
the attitudes towards EaT. There are no statistically significant differences between
different grades (p > 0.05), but there are differences between the sexes. It is not surprising
that in some categories we find great dissimilarities (the effect between the sexes is r =
0.53 in the opinion that engineering is more suitable for boys), as previous research also
provides results, which show that boys have a better attitude towards EaT.
The analysis of the connection between the understanding of technology's nature and the
attitude towards EaT reveals various strong connections, especially in the category of
awareness of EaT (CTiT)'s consequences. It is presumed that a better understanding of
technology statistically and significantly (p < 0.05) contributes to the awareness and
knowledge of EaT’s consequences. The research revealed and confirmed the influence of
the wider environment on the development of students' attitudes towards EaT, especially
the desire for a professional career in the technical and engineering field is related to the
interest in EaT’s content, including developing awareness and knowledge of EaT’s
consequences. The resulting master's thesis is a good starting point for both curriculum developers and
EaT teachers to incorporate contemporary content related to current EaT concepts and
contexts. Future research could include a comparison of several concepts of
understanding technology as well as a link to the main achievement of EaT-TL.
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