Reflection on technology in education

Reflection has become a buzzword in the educational profession. Its meaning, however, frequently remains vague. In this paper the meaning of reflection for technology education is elaborated on three levels. The first is a philosophical and educational level. The idea of Bildung, conceived as the formation of an autonomous personality, becomes a central category for instruction about technology. The second level is the realm of curriculum development and teachers' planning. The reference to Bildung implies that technology education should be based on technological key problems that apply to all members of society. On the third level, the meaning of reflection will be elaborated in the context of a qualitative research approach on teacher thinking in technology education. It resorts to the categories of the curriculum model and is illustrated by a case study on teacher planning in computer education.Dr K.-H. Hansen is a researcher at the Institute for Science Education (IPN) in Kiel. After some years of experience as a technician he studied sociology and graduated in education. He has published in computer education with an emphasis on pedagogical, historical, and social aspects. His research work comprises qualitative and quantitative studies of the educational uses of computers. His current research interests are the conceptual role of technology in integrated science and in STS education.     

Teachers learning about technology and technology education: Insights from a professional development experience

The introduction of technology education in primary and secondary schools during the past 10–15 years around the world has presented a number of difficulties for teachers, primarily related to their coming to understand the phenomenon of technology and to conceptualise the technology learning area in line with national frameworks. This paper reports on a professional development experience that aimed to assist a small group of primary school teachers to develop their understandings of technology and technology education. A theoretical model framed a series of professional development interactions between the researchers and the experienced teachers who were new to teaching technology. Data sources included teacher interviews, video recordings of the activities, teacher made models, and extracts from their reflective journals. The study presented some insights into how professional development experiences for teachers new to technology could be organised and implemented to best support their developing technology practices and understandings.     

Finding the connection between research and design: the knowledge development of STEM teachers in a professional learning community

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Research and design activities are becoming more important in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and D&T...     

Technicians, clients, and professional authority: structured interactions and identity formation in technical work

This ethnographic study of technicians in action supplements a structural analysis of technical labour by delineating the distinct occupational identities of different technicians through their framed interactions with their clients and professionals with whom they work. We suggest that educational reform predicated on a structural conception of technicians will fail to redress the impending technical skill shortages.     

A professional services firm's competence development

The conceptualization of a firm's competence development has undergone some developments, as seen from the extant literature. However, studies or explanations of a firm's competence development over time seem to concentrate on firms that manufacture physical goods. The literature is devoid of studies on the competence development of professional services firms (PSFs). With two in-depth case studies, this paper seeks to shed light on factors that impinge on PSFs' competence development over time. An important finding of this study is that all the two PSFs' competence development over time has been influenced, in large measure, by their close and regular interaction with their respective immediate customers as well as with some significant third parties in their network of exchange relationships, where the actors mutually adapt to each other and also learn from each other. Evidences in all the two cases show that each of the firms has won and kept important customers that give them the most and frequent assignments per year, thanks to the factors that have affected their competence to meet customers' demand over time.     

Recognizing and fostering creativity in technological design education

The importance of creativity in technological design education is now clearly recognized, both in everyday understanding and also in formal curriculum guidelines. Design offers special opportunities for creativity because of the “openness” of problems (ill-defined problems, the existence of a variety of pathways to the solution, the absence of pre-specified “correct” solutions). However, teachers are still confronted by the question of how to specify which designs are creative and why, how to identify where the creative strengths of designs lie so that students can build on these, and what advice to give on how to change designs to make them more creative. There are also still open questions concerning design pedagogy. A “functional” model of creativity offers guidelines for making plain to students what they are expected to achieve with their designs and for diagnosing the creativity of the designs they offer. These yield, in turn, guidelines for design pedagogy.     

Motivation for creativity in architectural design and engineering design students: implications for design education

The investigation reported here dealt with the study of motivation for creativity. The goals were to assess motivation for creativity in architectural design and engineering design students based on the Cognitive Orientation theory which defines motivation as a function of a set of belief types, themes, and groupings identified as relevant for the development of creativity. Differences between the two groups of students were expected in some of the scores of the belief types, themes, and groupings. Participants were 112 students (52 from architecture, and 60 from engineering) who were administered the questionnaire of the Cognitive Orientation of Creativity. Significant differences in numerous motivational contents were observed between the groups of students. Major characteristics of the architectural design students were an emphasis on the inner world, inner-directedness, and a development of the self, and of the engineering design students being receptive to the environment, and demanding from oneself despite potential difficulties. The findings provide insights for intervention programs targeted at improving architectural and engineering design education.     

PLM education in production design and engineering by e-Learning

These days more attention is being paid to Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) using a technique for managing total product planning, design, manufacturing, sales, and disposal. We researched business processes and education curriculum of the PLM system in manufacturing businesses. We designed the curriculum of PLM education and developed part of a lesson. Most importantly, e-Learning is shown to be an effective tool for achieving educational objectives. We found that not only knowledge and theory but also practical education methods using case studies in an e-Learning environment are necessary for human resources to develop effective PLM.     

Architectural design education: in varietate unitas

A fascinating and rich landscape of personal views and approaches can be seen in architectural design and in architectural design education. This variation may be confusing for students. This paper focuses on the question: is the framework of generic elements that we developed for explicating the design process helpful to compare the differences in architectural design approaches? The results of interviewing a variety of 15 architectural, urban and landscape designers show all kinds of personal approaches that have a set of five underlying generic elements in common. Therefore, the framework may be helpful for teachers and students to describe these personal approaches and may help students in understanding differences and similarities and in finding out what their own personal approach may be.     

B2B service brand identity: Scale development and validation

Several brand identity frameworks have been published in the B2C and the B2B brand marketing literature. A reliable, valid and parsimonious service brand identity scale that empirically establishes the construct's dimensionality in a B2B market has yet to be developed. This paper reports the findings of a study conducted amongst 421 senior executives working in the UK IT Service sector to develop and validate a B2B Service Brand Identity Scale. Following established scale development procedures support is provided for a B2B Service Brand Identity Scale comprising five dimensions; employee and client focus, visual identity, brand personality, consistent communications and human resource initiatives. Concluding remarks discuss theoretical and managerial implications with limitations and directions for future research.     

DEPTH2: developing professional knowledge in D&T secondary initial teacher education

There are various aspects to teachers’ professional knowledge, some such as subject knowledge are more easy to articulate than others, for example knowing how to construct a scheme of work. Student teachers need to be able to understand the various aspects of teachers’ professional knowledge in order to be able to help themselves reflect on and develop these various aspects. This research builds on earlier work conducted with design and technology colleagues in a number of different countries and teacher training institutions (see Banks et al., International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 14, 141–157, 2004). Leach and Banks, together with other colleagues, developed a visual tool for discussing the aspects of professional knowledge that student teachers are required to develop and this formed the basis of this research (Leach and Banks, Investigating the developing ‘Teacher Professional Knowledge’ of student teachers, 1996). The research was carried out with a cohort of 1-year Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students on a conventional face-to-face programme. There were 11 in the group with six male and five female and the majority were aged under 25; this is atypical of this course both for gender and age, but this constituted the 2004–2005 intake. There were three data collection points: September 2004, on their first day of their course; January 2005 following their first school placement and June 2005 at the end of the course. The findings indicate the students’ development across the PGCE course in each of the areas relating to knowledge of subject, pedagogy and school. In each area there is a growth in their knowledge and a development in the complexity of their understanding. The students’ knowledge developed from a generalised understanding to a more specific and sophisticated one. It is hoped to be able to continue this research during the induction year of each successful student.     

Practical modelling and hypothesis testing in primary design and technology education

This article explores relationships between designing and making in the work of children within the age range 5–11 when engaged in practical modelling tasks. The notion of the model is explored from the perspective of concrete representations. It is suggested that concrete models may be used as hypotheses from which to test ideas about the nature of the world. From this perspective, models may be seen to provide crucial platforms for learning. A wide range of sources has informed the article, and these embrace ideas on Hypothesis Theory drawn from linguistic research, as well as historical sources which trace the evolution and development of stimuli for model-making activity. A creative basis for modelling is explored such that a conclusion is reached in which design is seen as an expression of the modelling of possibilities.     

Problem-solving in technology education as an approach to education for sustainable development

This paper explores the issue of how students might learn about sustainability in technology––education classrooms and the relevance of problem-solving in that learning. One of the emerging issues in technology education research is the nature of problem-solving specified in curriculum documents and the kinds of learning activities undertaken by students in technology education classrooms. In parallel with our developing understanding of the characteristics of good technology education programs is the inclusion in recent curriculum documents of the concept of sustainability or sustainable development. However, as yet there is little information about how technology students think about sustainability and how they might best learn about it. This is of particular interest because in technology education, sustainability is often described in curriculum documents as an issue that is intended to be integrated within design projects and activities, rather than being the topic of a classroom lesson as might happen in a subject such as environmental studies. This paper explores current understanding of the issue generally and within technology education. It concludes that the design, problem-solving approach that is common to technology education classrooms provides many affordances to students engaging meaningfully with ideas of sustainability and of developing strong understandings of its scope and significance.     

Reconceptualizing professional service firm innovation capability: Scale development

Building on capability theory, this paper presents a reconceptualization of the innovation capability construct within a knowledge-intensive service context, specifically, professional service firms (PSFs). Employing a rigorous multi-stage scale development process we interviewed 37 participants and surveyed 463 respondents across a wide range of PSFs including lawyers, accountants, consulting engineers and management consultants. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses highlight the multi-dimensional nature of innovation capability within this context. Three dimensions were identified: client-focused, marketing-focused, and technology-focused innovation capability. We provide evidence of face validity, content validity, convergent and discriminant validity, nomological validity and reliability of our scale. Our scale offers a new way to measure innovation capability within PSFs and highlights the need to move beyond the narrow manufacturing mind-set focus of prior innovation research. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Comparative study of industrial design undergraduate education in China and USA

Industrial design (ID) undergraduate education in China is seen as a new rapidly growing discipline over the past 40 years. China’s ID education is not well known in the West due to several barriers: language, the Great Firewall of China which blocks out most of the Western websites and a 12-h time difference. All Chinese ID curriculum and program information are available in Mandarin. The Ministry of Education administers all Chinese design education as well as ID scholarships and faculty exchange grants and its website and documents require translation. The Great Firewall of China blocks 90% of Western websites including Google making it difficult for Western Scholars to access accurate information about the size and shape of the Chinese ID education landscape. China has a historical relationship between the ID schools in China and the United States. Chinese students are studying or alumni of every American ID program. China and USA share similar program types, dual-track admissions for art and design streams, and academic calendars. In this paper, a model was developed to clarify the features of ID undergraduate education in China and USA, and a survey of eight ID schools was processed. Four aspects were comparatively discussed: (1) types of ID education, (2) ranking, evaluation, and certification of ID schools and programs, (3) curriculum, credits, course features, and yearly schedules of schools, (4) influences coming from the culture and globalization process. Based on the analysis, the similarities and differences in ID undergraduate education between the two countries are discussed. Results show the dual-track modes in China and USA are different. It is mainly reflected in the management and enrollment, curriculum organization, and cultural environment. Implications for the localization, openness, and globalization to ID education are finally discussed together with several directions for future development. The findings are valuable to USA and Chinese ID departments and faculty, researchers, staff and visiting scholars. It is also useful for university administrative units such as registrars, admissions, international offices and exchanges to understand each other.

     

Open design: an actual topic in architectural education

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Architecture is never fixed: buildings and (urban) spaces change as their use(r)s and contexts change over time. Even when architectural...     

Concepts of creativity in design based learning in STEM education

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Creativity is deemed as an integral part of twentyfirst century skills and is emphasized in science education curricula in Turkey as well...     

The role of space in interdisciplinary collaboration in design education

The growing interest in the collaborative design education for innovation has mainly been concerned with students and learning outcomes. We know less about the collaboration between the tutors who teach interdisciplinary design courses. Addressing this gap, this article explores the effect of space on the interdisciplinary collaboration between faculty members from the fields of industrial design, architecture, engineering and business administration, who come together to design and conduct an extra-curricular educational activity, Interdisciplinary Design Studio (IDS) at METU. The empirical basis of this study comes from the interviews with the faculty members and the participant observation notes generated during the IDS meetings. The findings show that the effect of space on collaboration becomes evident over three issues, (1) the participation of tutors, (2) the commonality of their expectations from a design project, and (3) the interaction not only between students and tutors, but also among tutors as an interdisciplinary team.     

A model of creative design process for fostering creativity of students in design education

Creativity, which is concerned with problem solving, is essential if we are to generate new solutions to the massive and complex problems in the unknown future. Our next generation needs an educational platform where they can be taught to possess creativity. Design education is such a way to foster students’ creativity. Therefore, it is essential to understand the creative design process and its routine in order to show how students can generate creative output and how teachers can guide students in the design process. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to investigate the creative design process as it is employed in producing creative designs, and further recommend how students can practise and learn to be creative based on the model process developed in this paper. The model is expected to provide a guideline for teachers to facilitate students along the creative thinking process.