Technology in the elementary school: Blind variation and selective retention

Abstract

Teaching technology without reference to the human need which calls for it, not only gives students the wrong idea about the nature of technology, it also hides the importance of the testing of artifacts for operation in the relevant environment. The research reported in this paper began with the trialing of stories designed to show the social need which triggered new invention, in the appropriate period of history, through the eyes of contemporary children of our pupils' age. The pupils were asked to design their working models through drawings, to construct them, and then to test and evaluate them. The model used to understand the interplay between the ideas in the minds of pupils, and the selection process which decided on their worthiness, is one drawn from evolutionary epistemology. Data shows that some elementary school children do recognise the mental nature of the design activity as the combination of parts of remembered mechanisms, and the grounds for selection as fimess for the job in the chosen environment. This approach goes some way towards distinguishing aspects of technological education from scientific education, including the high value accorded to creativity and personal invention in technology. Technology in the British Elementary SchoolThis research arose out of the teaching and informal evaluation of a new course in Design and Technology (D&T) taught to British elementary school pupils. Since its introduction 1989, the first ever National D&T Curriculum in England and Wales has been a compulsory subject through education from age 5 to 16 (now 14), and may be continued in an optional mode until 18. There had been an attempt during the 1980s on the part of the secondary science teaching force to hi-jack technology so that science-and-technology could become one subject. However this did not work. In secondary schools there was a well entrenched craft teaching force, who changed their name to Craft, Design, Technology (CDT) and succeeded in defending their territory, both metaphorically and literally (the latter including well equipped workshops).In elementary schools CDT, and the workshop tradition, did not exist. Instead what Technology there was had mostly been involved in the making of decorative objects (like totem poles, or masks) or flimsy toys sometimes including cardboard puppets which could be operated by pulling a string. The latter were considered very "technological" because they had moving parts, and all were welcomed by Head teachers, especially for open days when they made colourful displays on the school walls which caught parents' attention and admiration. The new D&T project being taught in the present action research project was partly designed to remedy this misappropriation of technology by the decorative arts which was unfortunate for two reasons.The first of these was that it obscured the human need aspect of the technological artefact being produced. Young children who are asked "What is Technology?" give different answers depending, to a large extent, on their s...

ASERA: brief histor(y/ies)

“…As Vygotsky (1997) argued ''it is easier to assimilate a thousand new facts in any field than to assimilate a new point of view of a few already known facts'' (p. 1). Napper (1976); ; Fisher (1979) Biddulph and Osborne, 1984;Solomon (1998) Novak (2005; Tytler and Peterson (2005) Kikas (2006) Studies which focus specifically on the first year of school Hayes and Symington (1984); Walsh, Lyncg, Jones, and Kerrison (1984) Walsh and Lynch (1985); Symington and Hayes (1987) Hayes and Symington (1988) Hayes and Symington (1989) Segal and Cosgrove (1994) Tytler (1993) Special Issue (Vol 33 Issue 4, December 2003) 1 paper Studies which specifically focus on early childhood science education Bearlin (1990); Kirkwood, (1990) Coulson (1991);Fleer (1991); Fleer and Beasley (1991); Appleton (1992); Coulson (1992); Fleer (1992); Jordan (1992) Fleer and Hardy (1993); Segal and Cosgrove (1993); Fleer and Hardy (1994);Fleer, Sukroo and Faucett (1994) Tytler (1992); Fleer (1996) Fleer (1997) Hadzigeorgiou (2002) Special Issue (vol 33 Issue 4, December 2003) 6 paper…”

The evolution of Wright’s (1932) adaptive field to contemporary interpretations and uses of fitness landscapes in the social sciences

“…through public protests (Sword, 2007). Other authors use fitness landscapes to further an argument, for example that public learning programs about technology taught at schools should focus on the coevolution between technology and creativity (Solomon, 1998) or that communicative planning theories are sometimes misguided (Neuman, 2000). A small number of authors aim for theory development; they attempt to adapt Kauffman (1993;1995b) to this domain and consider how fitness landscapes need to be operationalized.…”

Implicaciones de las relaciones ciencia-tecnología en la educación científica

“…A fin de ahondar en las ideas anteriores, los alumnos pueden buscar información sobre la evolución de algunos de los productos tecnológicos del listado confeccionado, prestando especial atención a las necesidades y deseos que cada nueva etapa de su desarrollo ha contribuido a satisfacer, a sus antecedentes, a su influencia positiva y negativa en el ambiente, en la sociedad, en el modo de vida de las personas, y, en general, en la cultura. El énfasis sobre tales cuestiones ayudaría a esclarecer la naturaleza de la tecnología (Solomon, 1998). Gran interés tiene en este sentido recorrer la evolución, por ejemplo, de la computadora digital electrónica (Valdés y Valdés, 1994a).…”