The development of teachers' beliefs and practices as they introduce technology education in their primary school classrooms

Education systems around the world are recognising the importance of a technology education that emphasises technology as a process as well as a product, and its role in life, personally, socially, and economically. Issues emanating from recent empirical research studies into the implementation of technology by primary school teachers relate to teachers' lack of familiarity and explicit knowledge about technology and technology education, and their limited or narrow views of technology as a phenomenon. The purpose of the study reported in this thesis was to investigate areas of significance that related to the understanding of technology and technology education identified by three teachers introducing the key learning area of technology in their primary classrooms for the first time. For these teachers in Queensland, Australia, the formal introduction of technology will occur during 2001 when they receive the state's new technology syllabus which is in production at present. The syllabus is being written within the framework of the national document, A Statement on Technology for Australian Schools (Curriculum Corporation, 1994a). As the three teachers who participated in the study implemented units of work in technology, they faced challenges to their knowledge about technology, their technological process knowledge and to their practical classroom organisation and planning for the teaching and learning of technology. The study showed that these teachers spent time establishing their own understandings about technology and technology education. In discussions and reflections upon interactions in their classrooms, they discovered and developed a language to begin talking about this introduction to their curriculum. They were challenged in different ways as they were influenced by their past experiences and the views they held about teaching, learning and education in _general. Implications from the study for professional development include the need to acknowledge the critical role played by teachers' prior knowledge and beliefs in their learning and developing understanding about technology education. A model for professional development is presented to emphasise that it is through reflective, theoretical and practical activities within the classroom and school context that teachers can gain from professional development experiences in technology