Teaching of design and techonology in the COVID-19 era

Distance teaching is a special form of teaching in which the pupil and the teacher are spatially separated, and communication between them is carried out using a variety of information and communication technologies (ICT). Students and teachers must be well prepared for this form of teaching. In the master's thesis, we presented the course and teaching of design and technology during covid-19 or in emergency situations. We have made an overview of already existing research and also carried out our own. design and technology is a compulsory school subject that is included as an independent subject in 6th, 7th and 8th grade. It is fundamentally different from other subjects, as it involves a lot of practical work in which students produce a variety of products with the help of machines, tools and accessories. Each grade is based on a different material; in the 6th grade, students learn about paper and wood, in the 7th artificial substance and in the 8th metal. In addition to all of the above, they also encounter electricity, gears and motors.In the theoretical part, we first presented the course of regular work, teaching, grading, verification and content of the subject of design and technology. After that, we presented teaching in emergency situations in Slovenia and also in foreign countries. In doing so, we have concentrated on neighbouring and larger countries. Differences and similarities between teaching in regular situations and teaching in non-regular situations are also reported. In the empirical part, we investigated how the teaching, grading and verification of learning material in the design and technology class in the conditions of covid-19 took place. A quantitative study using the causal non-experimental method was conducted. The mode of sampling was purpose-made, as primary school teachers of techniques and technologies for the 6th, 7th and 8th grade who taught or are currently teaching remotely were essential; the sample consisted of 121 teachers. The questionnaire we used was designed by us. The analysis of the results identified the following important findings: a) the most common method for presenting various topics in design and technology is the demonstration method (samples, procedures, processes, videos); b) the most common use of ICT covered Moodle and Zoom; c) teachers spent a lot of time preparing for classes, they perceived a medium difficulty of use and all perceived motivation in students; č) they most frequently evaluated physical product in the grading; d) the credibility of the grading shows the perception in the oral assessment of knowledge, while other methods were assessed below the mean value; e) the most frequently used method of grading in means and methods of grading was through photography; f) for the grading, the descriptive criterion was used; g) teachers most often verbally encouraged pupils to work remotely; h) teachers most cooperated with teachers of technology and technology through Zoom/Teams/Webex, and the main subject of the exchange was experience and examples of good practice; i) the best acquired competence of pupils in distance education is the use of ICT according to the assessment of teachers; j) teachers most focus on understanding the taxonomic goals of distance education; k) poorly responsive pupils are motivated by conducting an interview with them; l) the amount of work for distance learning is the biggest in preparation, and in all cases it is above average; m) the difficulty of teaching by grade does not differ significantly. Based on the findings of the research, we have also provided a number of guidelines for effective teaching of the contents of the design and technology (D&T), targeted use of ICT, product evaluation, encouraging pupils and the participation of teachers of this subject. The research also provides a deeper insight into the nature of D&T as well as into the development and optimization of the effectiveness of didactics technique for more dynamic teaching, better teaching of learning material, more structured, objective and valid assessment of knowledge and for more successful and better cooperation of teachers.Future research may aim at a more targeted study of the individual age composition of pupils, especially from a socio-economic point of view