Design and Technology Education (LJMU)
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Timeless, socially relevant engineering knowledge and skills for future education
Full text linkWhat pupils learn in school should ideally be useful throughout their whole lives. It should help them in further studies, in working life, and when acting as responsible citizens in democratic society. This is challenging for all subjects, including technology. Technology develops fast. It is most likely that wheels, wedges, and inclined planes will be used in the future, but it is difficult to know which programming languages, sources of energy, and materials that will be relevant a few decades from now. This article describe how these problems are handled in international curricula and standards, and by Swedish teachers, teacher students, and teacher educators. In curricula they are seldom addressed explicitly, but handled by giving deliberately vague descriptions of what students are to learn. The interviewed teachers, teacher educators, and teacher students were unused to think about future-compliant or timeless knowledge. When prompted to do so during the interviews, they found it easier to describe timeless skills than timeless factual knowledge. Prominent among their suggestions were abilities related to engineering design processes, technical problem solving strategies, fundamentals of computer programming, and engineering mechanics
Teachers’ Scaffolding Strategies in Relation to Enacted Verbal Reasoning in the Design Process
Full text linkLearning to reason in the design process is enclosed in the process of learning to design. Hence, in this study, we explore teacher-student interactions with the aim of describing teachers’ support strategies in relation to enacted reasoning in the design process in secondary school technology education in Sweden. The study deploys social cultural theory as a lens, with a focus on scaffolding means and intentions of the teacher. Relevant reasoning in the design process is theoretically framed as means-end reasoning and cause-effect reasoning. Empirical data was collected through three classroom observations with three different Swedish secondary school technology teachers, with subsequent interviews with the teachers using stimulated recall. During the observations the students were engage in different design processes. The data was analysed using thematic analysis, where themes as strategies were constructed for each reasoning type from patterns of meaning in teachers’ scaffolding means and intentions. For each reasoning type, teachers employed strategies of decreasing control and increasing control. However, the enactment of these strategies differed in scaffolding intentions and means in relation to what reasoning was verbally enacted. Our findings indicate that teacher-student interactions within the design process in technology education classrooms hold significant meaning and value. This has implications for both teaching and learning in the field
Development of a new framework of Technology and Engineering Education by the Japan Society of Technology Education
Full text linkIt is considered important to clarify the role of technology and engineering education for evolving STEM/STEAM education in each country. However, in Japan, unlike in other countries, the focus on STEAM education began after 2018, so the relevance of STEAM education to technology and engineering education has not yet been fully discussed. Therefore, the Japan Society of Technology Education (JSTE) tried to develop a new framework of technology and engineering education for promoting STEAM education in Japan prior to the revision of the National Curriculum. First, we conducted a survey on 1,656 Japanese junior high school students about the status of ‘Technology’ learning. As a result, it was shown that Japanese students have a positive attitude of ‘Technology’ classes. However, there is a lack of learning activities related exploring technology, and design problem-solving is not adequately linked to abilities for technological innovation and governance. From this, we developed a new framework focused on enhancing exploratory activities and problem-solving related to engineering. The framework included the Triple-Loop Model as the engineering design process, the connections between physical and cyber technologies within that scope, and the learning model of STEAM education that centred on the engineering design process with various connections among all subject areas. Lastly, we conducted a survey to evaluate the new framework on JSTE members (four-point scale, agreement rating). As a result, many received mean value of 3.00 or higher, showing that the participants agreed with the proposals. However, the concept of the term ‘Engineering’ (2.78) had a mean value of less than 3.00 and a larger SD than the others. Therefore, in the last version the concept of the term ‘Engineering’ was revised, and the framework was completed
Applying a design approach to robotics in education
Full text linkThe integration of robots into classroom settings has a long-established presence in both general and vocational education. With the developments in Industry 4.0, the importance of robotics in schools has also increased, which has become clear through various funding programmes. Especially in general education, there is often a focus on utilising robots as a tool to provide learners with an interactive learning experience centred around feedback. This approach effectively connects theoretical concepts from the curriculum to practical real-world applications through the utilisation of robots. However, the emphasis often overlooks the robots themselves and their design elements. It is important to note that the possibility for learners to design robots for self-set goals is often limited by this traditional approach. This article introduces a methodological approach that promotes a design-oriented perspective within robotics in education. In addition to outlining the methodology, the article also presents initial examples on the implementation of this design-oriented approach in training future technology teachers
Collage as a Reflective Tool: Teachers’ Perspectives on Forests and Urban Environments
Full text linkThe study aims at professional development directed towards finding new pathways in education for and in sustainable development. In this study, we consider how primary teachers from two schools in Gothenburg, Sweden, experience the forest and the urban area as potential learning environments. This study focuses on teachers’ perceptions (understanding) and experiences (emotional) of two places, the urban area, and the forest. To make visible teachers\u27 relationships with the urban area and the forest, we use collage inquiry as a research method to stimulate teachers’ reflection, conversation and writing about the forest and urban area. Primary teachers from three schools in Sweden participated in the study and made collages The collage inquiry brought out their emotions, perspectives, and curiosity about the forest and the urban area described in three themes; temporarily situated, place dependent and emotionally connected. Knowledge of teachers\u27 perceptions and experiences ensures opportunities to deepen the ability to teach technology beyond the classroom. To bridge between biology and technology and compare ecological and technological systems constitutes a possible basis for continued work and development of teaching for sustainable development
Defining and Evaluating Argumentation Quality in the Context of Design Thinking: Using High School Students’ Design Critiques from Foundational Engineering Courses
Full text linkThis research investigates students’ argumentation quality in engineering design thinking. We implemented Learning by Evaluating (LbE) using Adaptive Comparative Judgment (ACJ), where students assess pairs of items to determine the superior one. In ACJ, students provided rationales for their critiques, explaining their selections. Fifteen students participated in an LbE exercise before starting their backpack design projects, critically evaluating multiple backpack designs and producing 145 comments. Writing comments required students to discern and justify the superior design, fostering informed judgment and articulation of their reasoning. The study used the Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning (CER) framework, adapted for engineering design thinking, to analyse these critiques. The framework emphasized three aspects: Empathy (understanding user needs), Ideation (deriving design inspiration), and Insight (gaining valuable understanding from evaluated designs). We employed both deductive and inductive content analysis to evaluate the argumentation quality in students’ critiques. High-quality argumentation was identified based on six codes: user-focused empathy, design inspirations, logical rationalizations, multi-criteria evaluations, aesthetic considerations, and cultural awareness. Poor-quality argumentation lacked these elements and was characterized by vagueness, uncertainty, brevity, inappropriateness, irrelevance, gender bias, and cultural stereotyping. By identifying critical elements of effective argumentation and common challenges students may face, this study aims to enhance argumentation skills in engineering design thinking at the secondary education level. These insights are intended to help educators prepare students for insightful and successful argumentation in engineering design projects
Glocal Design and Technology education: sharing disparate local insight that informs and enriches global understanding and inspiration.
Full text linkHow Electronics Knowledge Relates to Industrial Design Education
Full text linkThis study has two purposes: To clarify how industrial design relates to electronics knowledge and to determine whether industrial design education is sufficient for teaching it. As digital product design is frequently focused on the design of virtual interfaces until recently, less attention was paid to the design of physical interactions and electronic interfaces. There is increasing interest in electronics education in industrial design, yet electronics is still a bottleneck for many industrial designers. What electronics knowledge industrial designers should have and whether they know it is debatable. Therefore, the study presents a literature review and thematically analyzed interviews to determine its scope. Then, a survey is planned based on the concepts which interviewees remark on. The survey aims to determine whether senior-grade and fresh-graduate industrial designers use correct reasoning in design cases based on electronics. Findings remark that two-thirds of the participants failed in the critical electronics domains and their reasoning scores are distributed equally depending on whether they took electronics courses. Therefore, it is discussed that there is a need for developing a common understanding of the role of electronics in design education. And it is recommended that the approach may focus more on a hands-on terminology education
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Design and Technology Education (LJMU)BLResearchDay (LJMU)Journal of Living Labs (LJMU)Journal of Natural Products Discovery (L...Journal of Social Media for Learning (LJ...Student Law Journal (LJMU)PRISM (LJMU)Public Health Institute Journal (LJMU)SPARK (LJMU)Student Experience Proceedings (LJMU)Transformation in Education (LJMU)Innovations in Practice (LJMU)Links to Health and Social Care (LJMU)
Design and Technology Education (LJMU)BLResearchDay (LJMU)Journal of Living Labs (LJMU)Journal of Natural Products Discovery (L...Journal of Social Media for Learning (LJ...Student Law Journal (LJMU)PRISM (LJMU)Public Health Institute Journal (LJMU)SPARK (LJMU)Student Experience Proceedings (LJMU)Transformation in Education (LJMU)Innovations in Practice (LJMU)Links to Health and Social Care (LJMU)Access Repository Dashboard
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