CONCEPT AND ATTITUDE FORMATION AS A GOAL
IN TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION
Marc J. DE VRIES
1. GOALS IN THE TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION
In many countries the origin of technology education lies in some type of craft-oriented subject (see McCormick 1991). In such a subject the main goal was to teach pupils a set of handicraft skills. They learnt how to use tools and how to handle traditional materials, like woods and metals. The skills were seen as useful for a further vocational technical education of as a part of the general cultural baggage that people need to have.
One step towards technology education as we know it nowadays is the inte-gration of more cognitive aspects into the subject. Pupils should not only acquire handicraft skills, but also some knowledge of how the tools they use work and what causes the properties of the materials they work with. Also the working principle of other types of equipment and appliances became part of the curriculum.
The next step was caused by the awareness of the need to help pupils make value judgement about technology. This awareness grew when social concern about the negative effects of technological developments increased. Thus the formation of critical-positive attitudes towards technology were seen as a goal in technology education.
Finally, curriculum developers started realising that what we do in techno-logy creates a certain concept of technotechno-logy in the pupils' minds. It is im-portant to know what kind of concept this is in order to make sure that we present a realistic image of technology in our lessons. It is with this image that pupils make choice with respect to further schooling and careers.
Today discussions on goals in technology education focus more on skills and knowledge than on attitudes and concepts. And yet, these are important goals, that need to be taken into account when building up or revising curri-cula. Two questions rise in this respect :
1. what is the pupils' attitude towards and the concept of technology before they enter the technology education programme;
2. how does their attitude and concept change when they go through the technology education programme.
These questions were the basis of the research programme Pupils' Attitude
Towards Technology (abbr. PATT), that was initiated at the Eindhoven
Uni-versity of Technology in 1985. They still are studied worldwide and discus-sed in a series of international conferences, together with other issues concerning the development of technology education. In Eindhoven a tech-nology teacher training programme was developed, in which the answers to these questions were used extensively.
2. RESEARCH INTO PUPILL'ATTITUDES TOWARDS AND CONCEPTS OF TECHNOLOGY
For the development of technology education curricula it is useful to know with what attitudes towards and concept of technology pupils enter our classroom. It helps us to identify what misunderstandings need to be abolis-hed or where the concept of technology pupils have needs to be adapted. To start research into pupils' attitudes towards and concepts of technology a number of pupils were interviewed to see how they responded to questions like: "What comes into your mind when I mention the word 'technology'?" and "Do you think technology is a good or a bad thing?" Soon it became evident that such questions are not simple to answer for pupils of about 12 years old. Nevertheless it was possible to select a group of statements they made about technology that could be used as the basis for 78 Likert items, that together formed the first PATT-questionnaire. This instrument was used for a further study among about 2,500 pupils in second classes of se-condary general schools in the Netherlands. At the time the study was car-ried out, 1985, pupils at such schools did not have any technology educa-tion.
The main outcome of this study was, that pupils appeared to have a limited and biased concept of technology: they only saw technology as a large set of appliances (in particular computers and other electrical equipment, and transport means were mentioned). From the examples they mentioned it was evident that they mostly thought of modern and complicated equip-ment. Simple objects were not often considered to be the outcome of tech-nological developments. With respect to their attitudes, it can be said, that pupils in general were very positive (almost in a naive way) about techno-logy and interested in it.
Girls and boys differed significantly both in their attitude and in their concept. Girls had a less positive attitude towards technology, except for their expectation that girls could, as well as boys, be involved in technolo-gy. At the same time, the girls' concept of technology was even more limi-ted to the product aspects of technology than the boys' concept. Further-more, it was found, that concept and attitude were correlated: a more limi-ted concept went together with a less positive attitude. In the case of the girls this meant, that they were less interested in technology, because tech-nology for them had to do more with things than with people. This corres-ponds to similar studies in physics, where it was found that boys are more interested in objects and girls in the human and social aspects of the subject. Later the same study was done among second class pupils in vocational schools (before they had entered technology education). Similar results were found for that group.
Results of this study were presented at some international conferences and several researchers were interested to replicate the study in their own coun-try. Thus the research got an international dimension that made it even more interesting, because it would allow international comparisons.
A first step towards this international research was the pilot testing of the instrument for the other countries. It was highly questionable if an instru-ment that had been developed for the situation in the Netherlands, would yield valid and reliable results for entirely different situations, like in Eas-tern European and developing countries. The results of small scale field tests (among about 200 pupils per country) showed that it was possible to construct an instrument that could be used in various countries worldwide. This instrument was established at the first international PATT-conference, that had a true workshop character. The outcome of the discussion was a questionnaire that consists of two parts: an attitude and a concept part (also see De Klerk Wolters a.o. 1990).
In the attitude part six scales were included: A1. interest in technology;
A2. gender aspects of technology; A3. relevance of technology; A4. difficulty of technology; A5. careers in technology; A6. technology at school.
The concept part was developed on the basis of an extensive literature study into the main characteristics of technology. These characteristics were identified to be:
- technology as a human activity;
- matter, energy and information as what is processed in technology; - the interaction between science and technology;
- technology as a process of designing, making and using products; - the interaction between technology and society.
From these five characteristics of technology four concept scales were deri-ved:
C1. humans in technology (this includes the role of society); C2. matter, energy and information as the pillars of technology; C3. science and technology
C4. skills in technology (designing, making and using).
For each of the attitude and concept scales a number of Likert items was selected. In cases where the situations in a countries made this necessary, some items were adapted or replaced by other items.
The attitude and concept scales in many cases were combined with an open ended question, in which pupils could write their own description or defini-tion of technology. Another addidefini-tional instrument is a list if objects and ac-tivities of which pupils can indicate to what extent they think they belong to technology. These objects and activities were selected in such a way that both modern and ancient, both complicate and simple, both electrical and non-electrical (e.g. mechanical and biological) issues were represented. In the introductory part of the questionnaire, pupils were asked to give some information on their personal background, like their age, sex, class, and the profession of their parents.
This instrument was used for research studies in about 20 countries worl-dwide. Tables 1-3 in the Appendix show the number of pupils in the various samples and the average scale scores on the attitude and concept scores. The attitude scores range from 1 to 5 and a lower scores means a more positive attitude. concept scores range from 0 to 1 and a higher score means a better recognition of the characteristic of technology.
It was striking to see that the outcomes in many countries were similar to the results of the original Dutch study. On the other hand, some countries showed results that differed from the general overall pattern. In countries were technology education is a major element in schooling, starting at the primary level, pupils seemed to have a somewhat broader concept of tech-nology, in which not only products, but also processes were present. In countries, where technology was yet in a state of early development, pupils tended to have very high expectations of it. Differences between boys and girls reappeared in every study and always in the same sense: girls had a narrower concept of and a less positive attitude towards technology.
3. APPROACHES TO TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION AND THEIR EFFECTS CONCEPTS AND ATTITUDES
The international PATT conferences brought together researchers from va-rious countries to discuss outcomes of PATT studies. But also relationships with other aspects of technology education became part of the agenda. This resulted in the presentation of a variety of approaches to technology educa-tion. The approaches that can be seen worldwide together for a spectrum, that can be described by identifying a limited number of 'wavelengths' that
help us to compare one's own approach to that of others. In a certain way all these 'wavelengths' are caricatures: as such they do not exist, but all existing approaches have more or less elements of these 'wavelengths'.
Each of these approaches enhance a certain concept of technology in the pupils' mind and result in a certain attitude towards technology. Many times these effects are not made explicit and therefore undesired effects are not recognised. It is useful to study the various approaches and to see what concept of and attitude towards technology they stimulate.
Eight different approaches can be identified. Each of them will be described briefly here (also see De Vries 1993).
In the first place we still see a craft oriented approach, that in many coun-tries was the origin of other types of technology education. We have already seen that in such an approach the main goal is the teaching and learning of handicraft skills. Pupils get technical drawings from which they make a workpiece. Usually, they do not reflect on the why and how of this drawing, but accept it just as it was presented to them. Knowledge does not play an important role in this approach, because the knowledge has already been used in the design process of which the drawing was the result. Social as-pects of technology do not have a place in this approach.
A second approach is the industrial production oriented approach. This ap-proach was the paradigm in Eastern European countries in the period before the dramatic political changes took place. In that period the main aim of education was regarded to be: preparing pupils for their future contribution to industrial production. All forms of education were pervaded with the 'polytechnical principle'. Technology education always started at the prima-ry level and was a major part of the whole curriculum. Pupils learnt how production in industry took place: they exercised work preparation and the use of tools and materials. In fact, this approach was not so much different from the craft oriented approach, except for the fact, that work preparation and the role of industry as the basis for a socialistic society was explained. Thirdly, we can identify an applied science approach. In this approach, technology is seen as the result of the application of scientific knowledge. This approach often dominates technology education when it is integrated in science education. Examples of technological products are used either as an introduction to learning scientific knowledge or as a application of such knowledge. The difficult process of transforming abstract scientific kno-wledge into practical knokno-wledge, that can be used in designing, is not shown explicitly.
The fourth possible approach is the high tech approach. In fact this ap-proach corresponds to the 'natural' concept of technology that pupils appea-red to have. Here the focus is on modern, advanced, complicated types of technological products. Pupils learn how to use these types of equipment, in many cases without understanding them. They may build models of fully automated production processes without really having grasped the basic
principles underlying such processes. This approach enhances their idea that technology in only there to be used as it is and that in many cases it is too difficult to understand. The process that leads to such types of technological products is hidden, as in the previous approaches.
In the fifth place we see a technological concepts approach. This approach is strongly analytical in nature. Pupils learn to describe technological sys-tems in terms of matter, energy and information flows. They can identify the main system, its boundaries and structure with interrelated subsystems. In many cases this analysis deals with existing products and is not applied to the design of new products.
A sixth approach is the design approach. In this approach the main goal is to stimulate the pupils' creativity by giving them rather open-ended design problems. Especially in the British tradition we see such an approach, that can even be read from the name of the subject: Design and Technology. Often the emphasis is so much on the process, that the content (technologi-cal laws and principles) does not have much influence of the design pro-cess. This has the danger of resulting in products of a rather low level of sophistication.
The seventh approach can be called the key competencies approach and is stimulated strongly by industry. Here the goals are directed towards stimu-lating skills like creativity, cooperativeness, innovative thinking, and func-tioning in teams. Industry nowadays realises the vital importance of such qualities for their future workforce. Technology education is seen as a school subject where such qualities can be acquired.
The eighth approach is the STS approach. STS is the acronym for Science, Technology and Society. This approach i an extension of the applied science approach in that it recognises the important relationship between science and technology and technology and society. In practice this ap-proach still does not make the design process explicit, but it looks at the ef-fects of technological developments ( as applications of scientific kno-wledge) on society and vice versa. Pupils will for example do small studies into people's ideas about science and technological developments.
It is evident that each of these approaches will have different effects on the pupils' attitudes towards and concepts of technology. Looking at the five characteristics mentioned earlier we see the following:
- the role of humans in technology is almost entirely absent in the pupils 'natural' concept of technology. This characteristic of technology is only made explicit in the design, the key competencies and the STS approach; - the use of matter, energy and information usually is limited to matter in the pupils' original concept of technology. The energy component is made explicit if the applied science approach and both energy and information are made explicit in the technological concepts approach;
- the relationship between science and technology is very unclear for pupils when they enter technology education and it is explicated most prominently in the applied science and the STS approach, although one-sided in both cases: the influence of technology on science seldomly is dealt with;
- the process of designing, making and using is not recognised by the pupils originally. It becomes most clear in the design and key competencies proach. The making process in isolation is present in the craft oriented ap-proach;
- the relationship between technology and society does not play a vital part in the pupils' original concept of technology. It is emphasised especially in the industrial production and the STS approach, and often also in the key competencies approach.
As the attitude towards technology is causally related to the concept of technology, it can be expected that the approach that has the broadest scope will also yield the most balanced attitude towards technology.
4. AN EXEMPLE OF A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH : THE PATT PROGRAM
As state earlier, in practice most curricula show a combination of the ap-proaches described above. In fact it seems to be favourable to combine the strong points of the various approaches and avoid the weak points. Here international cooperation and exchange of ideas and information is most valuable. As the PATT conferences were conducted in Eindhoven, the Pe-dagogical Technological College (Dutch abbrev. PTH), located at the same campus as the Eindhoven University of Technology, was able to develop a programme for the training of technology teachers, based on the informa-tion that was brought together at the PATT conferences. In addiinforma-tion to that several countries were visited to see the practice of technology education in schools.
The basis for the Eindhoven approach is the schematic representation of technology, shown in figure 1 (also see De Vries 1990).
Technology is seen as a process of designing, making and using. This pro-cess is triggered by human needs. Human norms and values determine to what extent and how people will use technological solutions to fulfil their needs. Scientific knowledge forms a third input to the design process. Desi-gning comprises: transforming vaguely stated needs into a sharp technolo-gical problem statement (usually in the form of a list of requirements). Se-veral variants are developed and tested for compatibility with the require-ments. Then a variant is chosen and further elaborated. Then the solution is produced, whereby matter, energy and information are transformed into (other forms of matter, energy and information:) a product and waste. The product is then sold and used. Often the products in this phase needs main-tenance and repair. The using phase brings as to society again, where norms and values play a role in the way we use technological products.
designing making using use NATURE CULTURE society norms/values norms/values needs/desires nat./techn./requirements waste design product material energy information wasle
Figure 1. Schematic representation of technology
The teacher training programme that is based on this concept, contains a number of parts that deal with the process as a whole and others that focus on specific aspects of it. The subject Philosophy of technology gives an in-troduction to the scheme. The educational module 'Technology in perspec-tive' is used for this purpose. The subject Technological principles contains a number of principles that are used in technological design processes (e.g. the systems concept, the relationships between form, material and treat-ment, basic technological functions, categories of treatments, transforma-tion of matter, energy and informatransforma-tion). This subject was introduced be-cause design methodological research (see Cross 1984 and De Vries a.o. 1993) has shown, that design can only take place when the designer has a combination of process knowledge (what steps to take in the design pro-cess) and domain specific knowledge (knowledge of technological concepts and principles). In the four projects students go through the scheme in a practical way. In the first project they identify a need that can be fulfilled by means of a technical solution. Then they look at relevant values, scientific knowledge and come up with some solutions that match the list of require-ments they have stated. Then an optimal solution is chosen, elaborated and made. Finally students think about the use of it (e.g. what should be in its manual) and its social consequences. In the second project they go through the scheme in the opposite direction: they analyze an existing product, and reason back from materials, forms and treatments to the functions that were identified in the design process and the needs and values that initiated the product. The third project focuses on the environmental aspects of the scheme, and the fourth project has as its main purpose the development of a didactical object (e.g. a device for demonstrating the elements of a system). Subjects, that focus on specific elements of the scheme are: materials, prac-tical work (by hand, machine and automated), sketching/drawing/CAD, en-vironmental science, physics, electricity and electronics, control technolo-gy.
5. PATT AS A PLATFORM FOR INTERNATIONAL DISCUSSIONS ON TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION
For the development of programmes that combine the strong elements of the various approaches to technology education, international cooperation is indispensable. Different countries have put different emphases in their tech-nology education programmes. To avoid too strong biases it is healthy to look at other programmes abroad. International conferences give an oppor-tunity for exchange of ideas and information. The PATT conferences, that originally were aimed at sharing outcomes of PATT studies, now serve as an international discussion platform for technology education.
The first PATT conference was held in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, in 1986. This conference had a workshop character and was aimed at discus-sing the possibility of revidiscus-sing the original Dutch PATT questionnaire and to construct an instrument for international use. After this conference the instrument was standardized and used for further PATT studies. There were different types of studies: new small scale pilot studies, small scale research studies, large scale research studies. At the second PATT conference, that was held in 1987, again in Eindhoven, first results of new studies were pre-sented and discussed. But at that conference the scope of the conferences was broadened to other aspects of the development of technology educa-tion: curriculum development, teacher education, government policy, other educational research in technology education, etc. The next conference, PATT-3, held in 1988, was the first PATT-conference that was given a main theme: Frameworks for technology education. Already then the sub-themes that would be the structure for the following PATT conference be-came clear: technology education curriculum development (for both se-condary and primary education), PATT research and related pupil-oriented educational research, the gender issue in technology education, teacher edu-cation for technology. In 1989 the PATT-4 was held with as its main theme: Teacher education for technology education. The main theme of PATT-5, held in 1991, was: Technology education and industry. The year 1990 was skipped, because it had been decided to switch to a bi-annual frequency for international Eindhoven PATT conferences and use the years in between to organise more regional or national PATT conferences. Such conferences have been held in Poland en Kenya in 1990 and in USA and (the Eastern part of) Germany (this conference was not strictly organised as a PATT conference, but PATT was involved in the organisation. To enable more flexible fund-raising and organisation, the PATT-Foundation was initiated in 1990. PATT-6 is held in 1993 and has as its main theme: Technology education and the environment.
By now the PATT conferences are not the only series of international conferences on technology education. But several of the other series were the result of contacts that were laid via the PATT conferences. PATT confe-rences still have the rather unique focus on pupil-oriented research as part of the broader aspects of technology education development. A second
spe-cific PATT characteristic is the worldwide scope of PATT conferences: participants come from all continents: America, Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe. The number of participants is kept limited: usually about 40 to 50 people. This allows a format that yield ample opportunity for discussion. Paper presentations are short and aimed at providing an introduction for de-bates. This format has shown to be useful for a small scale conference and makes it a very effective meeting. Each conference is documented in a re-port, that is published and used to offer other colleagues the opportunity of reading all contributions to the conference as well as discussion outcomes. A quarterly newsletter is sent to all PATT contacts to keep in touch and re-port ongoing PATT research and other developments in technology educa-tion (e.g. other conferences, publicaeduca-tions, etc.). The Technology-Educaeduca-tion- Technology-Education-Newsletter (abbrev. TECH-ED-NEWS) also informs about future plans for PATT conferences.
Even though the number of international conferences on technology educa-tion increases rapidly, PATT still has a place of its own because of its for-mat, focus and worldwide character. New contacts are welcomed and will certainly gain from participation.
REFERENCES
CROSS, N. (ed.) (1984), Developments in design methodology, Chichester, John Wiley & Sons.
DE KLERK WOLTERS, F., MOTTIER, I., RAAT, J.H. and DE VRIES, M.J.(eds.) (1989), Teacher Education for School Technology, Report PAT-4 conference, Eindhoven, Pedagogical Technological College. DE KLERK WOLTERS, F., MOTTIER, I., RAAT, J.H. and DE VRIES,
M.J.(eds.) (1989), Assessing students' attitudes towards technology, In D. Layton (ed.) Innovations in science and technology education, Vol. 3, Paris, UNESCO.
McCORMICK, R. (1991), The evolution of current practice in technology
education, In M. Hacker, A. Gordon and M.J. de Vries (eds.),
Integra-ting advanced technologies into technology education, NATO ASI Se-ries, Vol. F-78. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, Springer Verlag.
MOTTIER, I., RAAT, J.H. and DE VRIES, M.J.(eds.) (1991), Technology
Education and Industry, Report PATT-5 conference. Eindhoven,
PATT-Foundation.
RAAT, J.H. and DE VRIES, M.J.(eds.) (1986), What do boys and girls
think about technology? Eindhoven, University of Technology.
RAAT, J.H., DE KLERK WOLTERS, F., COENEN-VAN DEN BERGH, R. and DE VRIES, M.J.(eds.) (1987), Report PAT-conference 1987, Eindhoven, University of Technology.
RAAT, J.H., DE KLERK WOLTERS, F., COENEN-VAN DEN BERGH, R. and DE VRIES, M.J.(eds.) (1988) Basic principles of school
tech-nology, Report PATT-3 conference, Eindhoven, University of
Tech-nology.
DE VRIES, M.J. (1990), Technology in Perspective, Eindhoven, PTH/OPEN TECH.
DE VRIES, M.J. (1991), The role of technology as an integrating
disci-pline, In M. Hacker, A. Gordon and M.J. de Vries (eds.) Integrating
advanced technologies into technology education, NATO ASI Series, Vol. F-78. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, Springer Verlag.
DE VRIES, M.J. (1993), Approaches to technology education and the role
of advanced technologies: an international orientation, In A. Gordon
(ed.) Advanced Educational Technology in Technology Education, NATO ASI Series. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York.
DE VRIES, M.J.,CROSS, N. and GRANT, D.P. (eds) (1991), Design
Me-thodology and Relationships with Science, NATO ASI Series,
Dor-drecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers.Cross, N. (ed.) 1984. Develop-ments in design methodology. Chichester, John Wiley & Sons.
APPENDIX
girls (n) boys (n) Total (n)
Poland (1) - - 321 Poland (2) 370 308 678 Kenya - - 244 U.K. - - 173 India 276 349 625 Italy 281 285 566 Nigeria 200 103 303 Australia 111 101 212 France 122 112 234 Denmark 73 79 152 Mexico 98 115 215 The Nederland(1) 1042 1427 2469 Belgium 97 93 190 The Nederland(2) 1021 1029 2050 The Nederland(3) 697 560 1257 U.S.A. 6256 4013 10349
Table 1 : Number of pupils in the samples
Inte-rest RolePatn. Consequence Diffic. Curric. Career
B 2.3 2.6 2.4 - 2.4 2.6 U.K. G 2.9 2.0 2.6 - 2.7 3.2 B 2.3 2.3 2.5 2.7 2.6 2.7 France G 2.7 1.8 2.6 2.6 2.9 3.1 B 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.8 2.6 2.5 Denmark G 2.7 1.8 2.7 2.8 2.8 2.8 B 2.3 2.8 2.3 2.8 - -Belguim G 2.7 2.2 2.5 2.4 - -The B 2.3 2.5 2.3 2.3 - -Nederland(1) G 3.0 2.2 2.6 2.2 - -B 2.4 3.0 2.3 3.0 2.8 2.8 Poland G 2.7 2.8 2.1 3.0 2.8 3.1 The B 2.3 2.0 2.3 2.3 2.1 2.0 Nederland(2) G 3.0 1.6 2.4 2.4 2.6 2.6 The B 2.4 3.1 2.2 2.9 2.9 2.4 Nederland(3) G 2.1 1.9 2.5 2.9 3.1 3.1 B 2.5 2.3 2.0 2.7 - -U.S.A. G 3.0 1.7 2.1 2.4 -
Tech. &
Society SciencesTech. & Tech. &Skills Tech. &Pillars Totalscore
B .48 .34 .80 .49 .53 Belgium G .40 .32 .88 .42 .51 The B .50 .48 .75 .57 .57 Nederland(1) G .36 .33 .65 .45 .45 B .49 .39 .59 .60 .51 France G .42 .34 .59 .49 .46 B .46 .46 .76 .46 .54 Denmark G .40 .43 .73 .35 .48 Italy B+G .34 .36 .47 .55 .43 Poland (1) B+G .63 .65 .56 .48 .58 B .66 .60 .60 .61 .62 Poland (2) G .61 .69 .68 .55 .63 Nigeria B+G .43 .56 .51 .39 .47 B - - - - .60 India G - - - - .61 The B .62 .75 .72 .70 .70 Nederland(2) G .52 .71 .71 .63 .63 The B .40 - .70 - .55 Nederland(3) G .29 - .63 - .46 B - - - - .50 U.S.A. G - - - - .47
