Technology Education in New Zealand

A Guide for Teachers

Wendy Fox-Turnbull, Elizabeth Reinsfield, Alistair Michael Forret

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367418953
• eBook ISBN: 9781000358148
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book aims to develop understanding of technology education in New Zealand. It is New Zealand's story of technology education in the 21st century and will assist teachers and teacher educators in developing technology education programmes. It explores the philosophy of and rationale for technology education and the relevant theory underpinning technology education. The background to recent changes to the technology curriculum are outlined and aspects of Technology in The New Zealand Curriculum are explored, including sections on the technological areas, strands and components of technology. The process of planning a unit of work is explained thoroughly and modelled to assist teachers who are new to teaching technology in New Zealand. The authors take a unique, dual narrative approach to explore two students' journeys through their technology education. This is complemented by teachers' commentary, making explicit links to teacher thinking and theory, and explaining planned student practice. Wholly dedicated to the New Zealand context, this is essential reading for preservice and qualified teachers alike.

1 Introduction

Technology is all around us. It is an integrated part of what it is to be human. In fact, technology separates us from other living species. Building, manipulating and modifying our environment to meet specific needs is an innate human behaviour. You only need to observe a group of very young children in a sandpit or playing with blocks to see that we build and “intervene” in our world as soon as we are physically able. It therefore makes sense that in school we should learn about technology. Technology education in this book refers to the learning area of the curriculum that helps children understand the influences of technology on their past, present and future world as well as developing the capability to skilfully and ethically design, develop and evaluate technologies within authentic contexts.

Technology education is a learning area that deals with the ways people develop their technological environment to enhance their experiences of, and in, the world. The world today is technological; people engage with and use technology from the minute they are born, some even before. It therefore makes sense that students are educated about technology, learn how it is developed, how it influences and impacts on their lives and how to develop it ethically and sustainably. For students to be happy and to flourish in a technological world, it is important that they become technological literate.

The term technological literacy, sometimes known as technacy, is defined in a number of different ways, but essentially means to acquire a level of literacy that is needed to understand and operate within today's technological world. Not only do people need to read and write (language literacy), engage with and use numbers (numeracy or number literacy), they also need to be able to engage with, critique and develop technology (technological literacy/technacy). Knowledge in technology is often difficult to define, but includes not only “knowing that” but also “knowing how.” Early philosophers of technology often identified knowledge deployed in the development of artefacts as being borrowed from science, but we now know that technology is a body of knowledge in its own right and that people who use technology have knowledge and understanding that differs from that of technology developers. These knowledge categories are particularly relevant to technological knowledge; “those who do” and “those who use” technology.

Technology education is not to be confused with educational technology, which involves children using technology as a learning tool. Table 1.1 summarises the key ideas differentiating technology education and educational technology. It is important to understand these before we begin to think about teaching technology.

Table 1.1 Differentiating technology education and educational technology

Technology education Students learn …	Educational technology Teachers and students learn …
the impacts of technology on their and others' lives and the environment	educational technologies are tools to facilitate learning
the influences of technology on humans and the environment	that different pedagogical approaches can be deployed
to critique existing technology to inform future practice	to use technology to enhance teaching and learning
to plan and undertake technological practice	that educational technologies facilitate different ways of doing and thinking
to design ethical and authentic technological outcomes	that educational technology does not include designing and developing these tools only using them for learning
to develop the above outcomes	technologies influence ways of learning
to evaluate designed outcomes using stakeholder feedback and developed attributes and specifications	to evaluate technologies used to enhance teaching and learning
to develop technological literacy	that educational technologies include distance learning as well as enhanced face-to-face learning

Technology education explicitly deals with the technological processes of investigating, designing, making and appraising technological solutions for identified problems or recognised opportunities within any given social and cultural context. Programmes of learning in technology use authentic learning contexts and models for inquiry-based learning, facilitating the integration of numerous curriculum areas. Technology is interdisciplinary and requires student technologists to work in an integrated manner. This symbiotic relationship with a number of other curriculum areas means that through technological practice, students will deploy knowledge from a range of other disciplines in meaningful contexts thus enhancing understanding of technology and other curriculum areas. Technology education has been a part of the New Zealand curriculum (NZC) since the publication of New Zealand Ministry of Education's (MoE) The New Zealand Curriculum Framework published in 1993. Technology was included for the first time in this publication as one of the then eight curriculum areas. A draft technology curriculum followed in 1995 with Technology in the New Zealand Curriculum published in 1997. This was the first time technology in any form was a part of the primary (Years 1–6) curriculum in New Zealand, although compulsory implementation was delayed due to industrial action by the Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) with formal gazetting of the curriculum occurring in 1999.

At the time of implementation, the MoE offered a number of professional learning and development (PLD) contracts to assist teacher professional development. This occurred at a time when other curriculum areas were also undergoing changes and the programmes offered were “opt” in programmes so not all teachers received professional development in technology. In primary schools, technology was a completely new subject; however, in intermediate schools the specialist “manual” (woodwork, metalwork, food and textiles teachers) became “technology” teachers overnight with little or no training or no concept of technology. Many did not understand the philosophical understandings of technology and how it differed from previous technical skill-based programmes. The issue of a lack of understanding of technology in primary and intermediate schools continues today for many teachers of technology and gives rise to the need for this book.

To exacerbate this issue, since its introduction the technology curriculum has undergone two other significant changes, the first following the Ministry of Education Curriculum Stocktake resulting in the publication of The New Zealand Curriculum in 2007. The second occurring in 2017 giving digital technologies a stronger presence within the technology curriculum. The book explores these changes and curriculum development in later chapters. A special feature of the book is the culminating section presented as a narrative. A narrative approach explores technology through the eyes of two students, one male and one female as they journey through their technology education schooling. Written in the first person it gives the students' perspective on their learning experiences and assessment of technology education. Running parallel to this narrative is a narrative of the various technology teachers the students encounter during their schooling. It makes explicit links to teacher thinking, curriculum, research theory, and explains what their students are required to do and why? Planning, implementation, evaluation and assessment of technology education learning are included in the teachers' narratives. The aim of the narrative is to develop an engaging text for student teachers and practicing teachers alike.

Rationale and aim

Teacher knowledge in technology has two distinct categories: technological content knowledge (TCK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Both categories play an important role in teachers' ability to teach technology effectively and students' attitudes and achievement in technology. We are concerned that student teachers of technology and teachers new to New Zealand often have limited or narrow understanding of technology that influences their ability and confidence to teach technology.

This book aims to develop understanding of technology education in New Zealand. It is New Zealand's story of technology education from the late 20th century into the 21st century. It informs primary and secondary student teachers, teachers, school and technology education programmes and senior management teams, and is informed by and organised through the Pre-service Technology Teacher Education Resource (PTTER) framework, developed by ­initial teacher education (ITE) educators from the six universities in New Zealand that have ITE programmes and subsequently published in the International Journal of Technology and Design Education (Forret et al., 2011).

The PTTER framework consists of four cornerstones recommended for framing technology teacher education programmes. These include sections of the philosophy of technology, a rationale for its inclusion in the curriculum, the nature of the technology curriculum in New Zealand and guidelines for its implementation in both primary and secondary classrooms. The aims and principles of The New Zealand Curriculum published by the New Zealand MoE in 2007 and the updated Technology in the New Zealand Curriculum statement published in 2017 also by the MoE underpin this book (MoE, 2017b).

During the last 12 years, technology in the NZC has undergone two significant changes. Additional changes to senior secondary assessment have added complexity. The 2007 iteration added two new strands for learning (Technological Knowledge and the Nature of Technology) and saw the introduction of new achievement objectives for all strands. After the implementation of the 2007 NZC, there was a significant review of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) framework, to align senior secondary school assessment with the newly introduced achievement objectives. Because of the review of unit and achievement standards, there was a considerable change in practice in assessment for teachers of secondary school technology from 2011 to 2013.

As alluded to above, the NZC has very recently undergone other significant changes, including a rewritten curriculum statement, the addition of the two new technological areas – computational thinking and designing and developing digital outcomes – and a reformation of the previous technological areas. The purpose of this 2017 change is to strengthen the place of digital technologies in the curriculum.

At the beginning of 2019, national standards were removed from primary schools. This too affects technology as it provides opportunity for primary teachers to lessen their focus on achievement in reading, writing and mathematics, to focus on teaching a broad and balanced curriculum of all eight learning areas, including technology education and other subjects such as science, health and social studies. New Zealand has had national standards for nine years. Many existing teachers have not taught technology or have forgotten how to plan and implement quality learning to address this area of the curriculum.

Future changes are also predicted, with a further review underway to align senior secondary school practices with contemporary and innovative approaches to learning and still further revision of the senior secondary achievement standards. The above MoE actions and policy changes have also impacted teacher education. As student teachers come to grips with new ideas about technology, they find that the curriculum requirements are very different to their precious ideas and experiences. During professional experiences in schools, student teachers should be given the opportunity to observe and implement quality practice. Student teachers need to understand technology and how to implement it successfully. Current teachers need to become familiar with recent modifications to the technology curriculum, including implementation of digital technologies. Given that schools' engagement with the recent changes is variable, the latter cannot be assured. This book therefore supports student teachers and teachers to connect recent relevant theory with practice. The last textbook published for technology teacher education in the New Zealand context was edited by Janet Burns in 1997. Technology in the NZC has several unique features compared to other countries. This book covers a number of these unique features that are not necessarily covered in more generic books related to technology education. Pre-service student teachers: Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary sectors, teachers in New Zealand new to teaching technology, foreign teachers of technology employed to teach technology in New Zealand, international and national researchers of technology education will find this book of value.

Structure of the book

This book has four further sections based on the four cornerstones of the PTTER framework (Forret et al., 2011). These cornerstones are deemed necessa...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures and tables
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Underpinning philosophy and perspectives of technology in New Zealand
• 3 Rationale for and nature of technology education in New Zealand
• 4 Implementing the technology curriculum in New Zealand
• 5 Classroom narrative
• 6 Epilogue
• Index