Teachers' teaching practice plays a key role in the learning process of pupils, and for teaching to be successful, teachers must have knowledge in many different fields. This obviously also applies to teaching the subject technology. However, lower secondary school technology education in Sweden has reportedly been described in terms of teaching not following the curriculum along with widespread uncertainty among teachers regarding how to design their teaching practices. To address this national challenge, we need to understand the existing technology teaching practice. The purpose of this study is therefore to explore the considerations experienced technology teachers make. The study is based on interviews with technology teachers who work in lower secondary school (13-15-year-old pupils). The collected data consist of teacher's statements regarding their own expertise and teaching practice. To visualize the described teaching practice we have analysed collected data through the lens of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The results show both similarities and differences in the teachers' descriptions. Speaking in terms of PCK, the purpose and teaching focus expressed by the respondents, framed within the category 'Orientations to teach technology', vary considerably. However, regarding 'instructional strategies', the consensus among those experienced teachers is striking. Experienced technology teachers' teaching practices are proven to provide valuable information about the subject's potential, and the findings offer a basis for the future development of the subject of technology as well as future teacher education and professional development courses.
This study examines primary school students’ perception of functionality in their spontaneous programminglanguage for controlling a simple robot. Classroom activities were designed in order to create opportunitiesfor the students (year 1 and year 4) to discuss and develop together with their teachers a sharedprogramming language for controlling a simple robot. The students spontaneously used (a) natural language,(b) images or (c) symbols when they created their programming language. The findings show thatthe students primarily perceived a code’s functionality as a question of readability, rather than how wellit fit the purpose of controlling the robot. Possible consequences of the findings for teaching in technologyeducation are discussed.
På en kompletterande pedagogisk utbildning (KPU), ett program för blivande lärare, har en seminarieserie kring språkutvecklande arbetssätt genomförts för lärarutbildarna. Syftet med seminarieserien var i första hand att ge lärarutbildarna nya insikter i och ökad förståelse för lärarstudenternas situation när det gäller det akademiska språket och skrivandet. Syftet var också att förändra kursernas upplägg för att öka lärarstudenternas möjlighet att utveckla sitt skrivande och öka deras känsla av inkludering inom programmet. I texten beskrivs genomförandet av seminarierna samt införandet av en integrerad språkstrimma. De preliminära resultat som i nuläget kan uttolkas visar att förändringarna medverkar till att underlätta språkutvecklingen för studenterna.
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