Understanding and Attitudes of Primary SchoolStudents towards Engineering and Technology

Tehnologija kot znanstveni prikaz in obravnava vseh strojev, naprav, procesov, infrastrukture ..., ki sodelujejo pri pretvorbi naravnega sveta v svet človekovih želja in potreb, postaja ne zgolj pomemben, pač pa ključen dejavnik sodobne družbe. Izzivi današnjega časa, kot so globalizacija, demografske spremembe, prehrambena politika, okolje, naravni in človeški viri, zahtevajo od vsakega državljana višji nivo uporabe, ravnanja, razumevanja in vrednotenja tehnologije. Vsak posameznik se sreča z izzivi tehnološkega opismenjevanja že v vrtcu in nadaljuje preko osnovnošolskega ter srednješolskega izobraževanja s profiliranjem tehnološke zmožnosti na fakultetnem študiju in kasneje v poklicni karieri. V magistrskem delu smo se osredotočili na osnovnošolsko tehniško izobraževanje (TI), in sicer v razredih, kjer je predmet tehnika in tehnologija (TiT) kot samostojen predmet ter s tem podaja tudi ključna znanja, zmožnosti, veščine, razvijanje odnosa za tehnološko opismenjevanje. TiT je obvezen predmet, ki učence spremlja od 6. do 8. razreda osnovne šole (OŠ). V učnem načrtu (UN) najdemo 4 področjatehnična sredstva, tehnologija, organizacija dela in ekonomika. Opišemo tudi vsa področja in vsebine, ki jih učenci spoznajo pri izbirnih predmetih vezanih na tehnologijo. Za kakovostno izobraževanje je pomembno poučevanje sodobnih tem, saj se je narava TI zelo spremenila. Predvsem je pomembno, da pri pouku razvijamo tehnološko pismenost (TP), kar ljudje potrebujejo za življenje v tehnološkem svetu. Raziskovalci ugotavljajo, da je dojemanje narave tehnologije pogosto zakoreninjeno in se spremembe ne zgodijo zlahka, zato raziščemo vsebine, ki bi lahko bile del sodobnega TI in preučimo naravo tehnologije. Študije pogosto kažejo naivno in pomanjkljivo razumevanje tehnologije s strani učencev. Njihovo razumevanje se dotika le naprednih predmetov, ki jih uporabljajo vsakodnevno, ciljno gledano predvsem na informacijsko-komunikacijsko tehnologijo (IKT). Prav tako so po dosedanjih raziskavah mnenja učencev o izobraževanju in o izbiri poklicne poti na tehniškem področju precej slaba. Je pa razumevanje tehnologije kot tudi odnos učencev do TiT del TP, kar je cilj TI. Izvedemo empirično raziskavo, v katero vključimo učence 6., 7., 8. in 9. razreda poljubno izbranih slovenskih OŠ. V raziskavi preučujemo razumevanje tehnologije na 8 kategorijah in odnos učencev do TiT na 6 kategorijah. Naredimo tudi primerjavo med razumevanjem tehnologije in odnosom učencev do TiT. Rezultati pokažejo nadpovprečno razumevanje vseh kategorij narave tehnologije. Statistični test med spoloma ne pokaže statistično pomembnih razlik v razumevanju tehnologije (p > 0,05), se pa razlike na skoraj vseh kategorijah pojavijo med učenci različnih razredov (učinek je pri vseh zmeren0,04 ≤ r < 0,16). Največje statistično pomembne razlike (p < 0,05) se pojavijo med 6. in 9. razredom – devetošolci bolj razumejo tehnologijo kot šestošolci. Ravno obratno je pri odnosu do TiT. Tam se med različnimi razredi statistično pomembne razlike ne pojavijo (p > 0,05), imamo pa razlike med spoloma. Ni presenetljivo, da imamo pri nekaterih kategorijah te razlike zelo velike (učinek je r = 0,53 pri mnenju, da je tehnika bolj primerna za fante), saj tudi iz prejšnih raziskav dobimo rezultate, ki kažejo na boljši odnos do TiT s strani fantov. Analiza povezanosti med razumevanjem narave tehnologije in odnosa od TiT nam razkrije različno močne povezave, še posebno s kategorijo zavedanje posledic TiT (KTiT). Sklepamo, da boljše razumevanje tehnologije statistično pomembno (p < 0,05) pripomore k zavedanju in poznavanju posledic TiT. Raziskava je razkrila in potrdila tudi vpliv širšega okolja na razvijanje odnosa učencev do TiT, še posebno je želja po poklicni karieri na tehniškem in inženirskem področju povezana z zanimanjem za vsebine TiT vključno z razvijanjem zavedanja in znanja posledic TiT. Nastalo magistrsko delo je dobro izhodišče tako za razvijalce učnih načrtov kot tudi učitelje TiT, da v svoje delo vključijo sodobne vsebine povezane s trenutno aktualnimi koncepti in konteksti TiT. Bodoče raziskave bi lahko zajemale primerjavo več konceptov razumevanja tehnologije kot tudi povezavo z glavnim dosežkom TiT-TP.Technology as a scientific representation and exploration of all machines, devices, processes, infrastructure ..., which are a part of the transformation of the natural world into the world of human desires and needs, is becoming not only important, but a key factor in modern society. The challenges of today, such as globalisation, demographic change, food policy, the environment, natural and human resources, require a higher level of usage, treatment, understanding, and evaluation of technology from every citizen. Each individual encounters the challenges of technological literacy education already in kindergarten and continues throughout primary and secondary education by profiling technological ability in his studies and later in his professional career. In this master\u27s thesis the focus was on primary technical education (TE) in those grades where the subject of engineering and technology (EaT) is independent and thus provides key knowledge, abilities, skills, and a developing relationship for technological literacy education. TiT is a compulsory subject that accompanies students from 6th to 8th grade of primary school (PS). There are 4 areas in the curriculum (C)technical means, technology, work organisation, and economy. All the areas and contents that students learn in their elective subjects, which are related to technology, are described. Teaching contemporary topics is important for a quality education, as the nature of TE has changed greatly. Above all, it is important that technological literacy (TL) in the classroom is developed, which is what is needed for living in the technological world. Researchers find that the perception of technology’s nature is often ingrained and changes do not happen easily, so content that could be a part of modern TE is researched and the nature of technology examined. When it comes to technology, studies often show that students are naive and have a lack of understanding. Their perception focuses only on advanced objects they use on a daily basis, especially in terms of information and communications technology (ICT). Furthermore, according to previous research, students\u27 opinions about education and career choices in the technical field are quite poor. However, understanding technology as well as students\u27 attitudes towards EaT is part of TL, which represents the goal of TE. An empirical research is conducted, in which students from 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grades of arbitrarily selected Slovenian primary schools are included. In this research the understanding of technology in 8 categories and the attitude of students towards EaT in 6 categories is examined. A comparison between the understanding of technology and the attitude of students towards EaT is made. The results show an above-average understanding of all categories of technology\u27s nature. The statistical test between the sexes does not show statistically significant differences in the understanding of technology (p > 0.05), however, differences in almost all categories occur among students of different grades (the effect is moderate in all0.04 ≤ r < 0.16). The largest statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) arise between 6th and 9th grade – ninth-graders understand technology better than sixth-graders. The exact opposite is when looking at the attitudes towards EaT. There are no statistically significant differences between different grades (p > 0.05), but there are differences between the sexes. It is not surprising that in some categories we find great dissimilarities (the effect between the sexes is r = 0.53 in the opinion that engineering is more suitable for boys), as previous research also provides results, which show that boys have a better attitude towards EaT. The analysis of the connection between the understanding of technology\u27s nature and the attitude towards EaT reveals various strong connections, especially in the category of awareness of EaT (CTiT)\u27s consequences. It is presumed that a better understanding of technology statistically and significantly (p < 0.05) contributes to the awareness and knowledge of EaT’s consequences. The research revealed and confirmed the influence of the wider environment on the development of students\u27 attitudes towards EaT, especially the desire for a professional career in the technical and engineering field is related to the interest in EaT’s content, including developing awareness and knowledge of EaT’s consequences. The resulting master\u27s thesis is a good starting point for both curriculum developers and EaT teachers to incorporate contemporary content related to current EaT concepts and contexts. Future research could include a comparison of several concepts of understanding technology as well as a link to the main achievement of EaT-TL