A study on the technological literacy of elementary and junior high school students in?Taiwan

[[abstract]]The purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of technological literacy of Elementary and Junior High School students in Taiwan. A stratified random and cluster sampling method was employed in this study. A total of 3066 ninth graders from 44 Junior High Schools and 3420 sixth graders from 60 Elementary Schools have completed the technological literacy test developed by the researchers. The results show that : (1) These Taiwanese Junior High and Elementary students are fairly technologically literate especially in communication technology. The students are more literate in basic technology principles or theories than in practical and applicable knowledge. (2) At the Elementary level, female students scored higher than male students. But at the Junior High school level, male students scored higher than female students especially in terms of the application of technological knowledge. (3) The Junior High School students are very technologically literate in the fundamental section, but not in the advanced section. (4) Mass media, including newspapers, magazines, TV and radio, were evaluated as the most important sources of knowledge of technology for these Junior High School students.