An Evaluation of Curriculum Materials for Teaching Technology as a Design Process

This paper describes the evaluation of three curriculum models to Teach technology in an education system where there have been no clear guide-lines to teachers about how the introduction of technology might be achieved. The three modules, which are concerned with animal cage construction, toys and the bicycle, present technology as a design process involving problem identification and analysis, generation and evaluation of alternative solutions, planning and construction of models, trialling, modification and evaluation. The curriculum evaluation was designed to determine whether or not teachers can teach technology as a design process, a technique which is not usually part of their preservice education; not: whether technology can be taught where there are limited resources available; and whether or not the approach taken was gender inclusive. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to gather data in the evaluation. The results indicated teachers found the materials successful for leaching technology using the design process, that the resources required are compatible with those available, and that the materials are gender-inclusive. Pupils' knowledge of technology and their general attitude to technology became more positive. Most importantly, the success of the materials suggests that they could be used as a general model for teachers to develop curriculum materials using a technological problem-solving approach to science-related issues.