The Formation of Children's Technological Concepts: A Study of What It Means To Do Technology from a Child's Perspective.

Abstract

Constructivist theory epitomizes learning as an active, continuous process whereby learners take information from their environment and construct personal interpretations and meanings based upon prior knowledge and experience (Kozulin, 1998). In a socio-cultural interpretation, learning is understood to take part in a personalized social context. Thus, the acquisition of skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values are a process of enculturation, especially when the learner participates in authentic and context dependent activity (McCormick, Murphy, Hennessy, & Davidson, 1996; Koulaidis & Tsatsaroni, 1996). It follows that individual construction of technological knowledge occurs predominantly in socially interactive settings, which are shared with the members of the learning community, essentially through the meanings of context dependent language and actions (Gergen, 1995; Wertsch, 1991; Vygotsky, 1986). Within the educational context, there are certain important considerations that need to be kept in mind when seeking to apply such a socio-cultural perspective to design and technology teaching. For example, technological problem solving, through a focus upon a solution, should relate to each child’s real life environment, allowing the child to make appropriate and meaningful connections from it. Importantly, the children should actually be encouraged to identify technological problems, even deficient features in their everyday environment, as well as being given opportunities to apply the technological knowledge and skills which they have acquired in subsequent problem solving (Schwarz, 1996; Lehto, 1998; Adams, 1991). In addition to the perspective above, the children should be given opportunities to act according to the technological processes required to solve the problems they face. Technological process can be claimed to have some certain and specific features which should be taken into account, regardless of the materials used (Sparkes, 1993). Children need to be educated as much in technology as through it (Twyford, 2000a). _____________________________