The Evolution of Knowledge Objects at the Primary School: A Study of the Material Concept as it is Taught in France

Institutional relations to knowledge objects at the primary school are time-fluctuant and therefore closely linked to the development of institutions. Building up the concept of material implies several sciences and technologies in overlapping epistemological fields. The questions of transposition and appropriation associated to the concept at primary school are a true challenge for the technology educator. This article shows the different connections between the French education and concept formation about materials at the primary school.     

Preservice Primary Teachers' Thinking About Technology and Technology Education

It is apparent from previous research that primary school teachers have very limited or narrow perceptions of design and technology and such views may affect adversely their ability and confidence to teach the key learning area of design and technology in the classroom. Therefore, it is the task of technology teacher educators to provide experiences that will broaden preservice teachers' perceptions of technology and technology education. This paper reports an investigation, using an interpretive research methodology, of preservice primary teachers' prior perceptions of design and technology and changes in their perceptions of design and technology as a result of their engagement in independent technology projects. Students enrolled in a one-year postgraduate teacher education program were the participants in the study and the methods of data collection included the use of survey instruments, interviews, field notes and students' reflective journals. The results indicate that the independent projects broadened and deepened the students' understandings of technology as a process. The implications of the approach for the design of technology education courses for preservice and inservice teachers are discussed.     

Enhancing Practicing Primary School Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Technology

This paper describes the frameworks and cognitive tools that have been developed to enhance practising teachers' pedagogical content knowledge in primary school technology education. The frameworks evolved from our research that firstly examined existing teaching practices, secondly enhanced formative interactions and thirdly enhanced summative assessment strategies. The evidence gained over the three years demonstrated how the effective use of frameworks could be utilised to enhance teacher pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). How we see learning is of prime importance in examining the development of teacher pedagogical content knowledge. A sociocultural view of learning is taken where human mental processes are situated within their historical, cultural and institutional setting. In the research project we strongly emphasised the need for teachers to build a knowledge base for teaching technology. Critical aspects identified as enhancing PCK included: negotiated intervention, planning frameworks, reflection on case studies, workshops and support in classrooms, appropriate resources, teacher agreement meetings, portfolios of student work and summative profiles. The increased PCK resulted in: enhanced teacher knowledge about technology including the nature of technology, areas of technology and specific technological knowledge, changed pedagogical approaches, enhanced teacher student interaction, refinement of appropriate learning outcomes, critical decision making, improved teacher confidence, and enhanced student learning. Seven characteristics or features of pedagogical content knowledge that we believe are important for effective teaching and learning in technology are presented. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Comparisons and Contrasts Between Elementary/Primary ’School Situated Design’ and ’Workplace Design’ in Canada and England

There is a lack of evidence that examines, together, the triad of how teachers in elementary/primary schools are translating curriculum requirements for teaching design, within technology frameworks, in their classrooms, how their students then proceed with design, and how ’school situated design’ relates to ’workplace design’. This paper explores the relationships between designerly thinking and behaviours situated in classrooms and in the workplace, beliefs about how designing is learned in schools and in the ’real world’, and children’s, teachers’ and designers’ understanding of design. These are be illustrated by extracts from interviews with teachers, children and designers and evidence of designing in classrooms and in the workplace. Similarities and differences between evidence from ’school situated design’ and ’workplace design’ and from Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) are discussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Factors that Influence Children's Developing Perceptions of Technology

Two instruments designed to ascertain children's conceptions of ‘technology’ were given to 315 English children in Years 2–6. A subset of 81 children and their teachers were interviewed. Responses to the same instruments were collected from 745 Western Australian children in the same year groups. Subsequently their teachers and 164 Australian children were interviewed. The Australian and English children had a similar range of concepts to explain technology, but the frequency of concepts varied. The results suggest that the stages of developing an inclusive concept of technology are mainly chronological, but the rates vary with individuals depending on a number of inter-related factors including home and school influence, ability, gender and opportunity to discuss ideas. Examination of these factors suggests there is a need for specific curriculum provision in technology based on adequate in- service training of teachers, which should also clarify the differences between science and technology. Children also need to be enabled to clarify their ideas through focused activities. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Planning a Master’s Level Curriculum According to Career Space Recommendations Using Concept Mapping Techniques

Nowadays the European Universities are worried about how to adapt higher education to the new European Higher Education Area, as proposed in the Bologna Magna Charta Universitatum of 1998, and signed by 32 European Education Ministers. One of the key points in this higher education reform was the introduction of new Master’s level curricula. These Masters will look for the professional specialization and they will have to be adapted to the specific skills demanded by the society. This paper presents the results from a cooperation project – funded by the AECI (International Cooperation Spanish Agency) and developed between the University of Seville (Spain) and the Catholic University of Asuncion (Paraguay) – by about the planning of a new master’s level curriculum in digital signal processing (DSP) area, taking into account the Bologna principles and the conclusions obtained by the Career Space Consortium. A scientific method from social science, known as concept mapping techniques, was used to perform this planning. Basically, the idea of concept mapping consists of compiling the opinion from actors belonging to different environments (lecturers, researchers, workers, businessmen, etc.) related to DSP applications. The compiled data were statistically computed to cluster the opinions of the different agents. The result will be a master’s level curricula adapted to the environment requirements and the social settings.     

Recognising Uniqueness in the Technology Key Learning Area: The Search for Meaning

The purpose of this study was to investigate areas of significance which were related to the understanding of technology and technology education, identified by teachers introducing the key learning area, technology, into their primary school classrooms for the first time. Working from Australia's national document on technology education, A Statement on Technology for Australian Schools (Curriculum Corporation, 1994), two teachers wrestled with how to fit this new curriculum area into their current classroom programs, their understandings of technology as a phenomenon and with their beliefs about teaching and learning in general. The study showed that the teachers made sense of technology education as it related to, from their perspectives, ideas about and aspects of primary school classrooms with which they felt comfortable. Implications for professional development include the need to acknowledge and value the prior experiences and understandings of primary teachers. The challenge for teachers in implementing technology education is gaining a conceptualisation of the learning area, which in some respects, is very like other more familiar learning areas in the primary curriculum, but in many other respects, unique. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

现代纺织技术专业产业用纺织品方向办学特色的研究

现代纺织技术是盐城工业职业技术学院纺织工程系的省级重点专业,而产业用纺织品方向作为学院现代纺织技术专业的特色方向,在办学特色、教学效果、办学价值上都取得了很大的成绩。     

Developing the Teaching of Food Technology in Primary Schools in England through Curriculum Development and Initial Teacher Education

This paper investigates developments in the teaching of food technology introduced as an element of design & technology in the 1990 National Curriculum for Technology in the English primary curriculum for children aged five to eleven years. It reviews briefly the situation for food teaching before 1990 and identifies a number of relevant issues. This is followed by an overview of developments in food technology in primary schools between 1992 and 2001, highlighting the need for primary teachers and trainee teachers on initial teacher education courses to develop an understanding of how to teach food technology in their schools. The development of teaching materials through the Nuffield Approach to food technology in primary schools is outlined together with a case study of the use of the materials in initial teacher education at the University of Surrey Roehampton. The paper describes the uptake of Nuffield Primary food technology materials as measured by down loads from the Nuffield Primary Design & Technology web site. Alongside this, there are reflections of primary trainee teachers on the impact of using the Nuffield food technology materials on their classroom practice during school experience. It concludes with a discussion of the key issues arising from the paper and suggestions for future research. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

School quality as a catalyst for bidding wars and new housing development

We provide new evidence of the demand for better schools as manifested in bidding wars and changes to the built environment. Using repeat sales before and after a redistricting, we exploit shocks to school quality arising from the continuous, unexpected redistricting of school attendance boundaries in Atlanta. We find that houses redistricted to higher (lower) quality schools are more (less) likely to be involved in a market-driven bidding war. Similarly, undeveloped, redistricted parcels that receive a positive (negative) school quality shock are more (less) likely to be developed. School quality shocks also have a causal effect on house prices and time-on-market.     

Shaping Concepts of Technology: What Concepts and How to Shape Them

Philosophy of technology is a discipline that has much to offer for technology education. Insights into the real nature of technology and its relationship with science and society can help technology educators to build a subject that helps pupils get a good concept of technology and to learn to understand and use concepts in technology. Here the way science educators have gained from the philosophy of science, for example in the idea of the way pupils learn concepts by reconstructing pre-concepts that they picked up from daily-life experiences. Research has shown that the learning of concepts and the learning of process skills have to be connected.     

Pragmatism, Pedagogy and Philosophy A Model of Thought and Action in Action in Primary Technology and Science Teacher Education

This article reports on one outcome from a three-year study with pre-service primary teachers at Goldsmiths' College, University of London. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the influence of participants' prior educational experience and beliefs about the relationship between design & technology (D&T) and science on their lesson planning for these subjects during school placements. Data from the study support a three-domain model of pre-service teachers' thinking and action. When operating within the pragmatic domain, participants are primarily concerned with survival in the classroom, resulting in short-term planning which may contradict their epistemological and curricular beliefs. In the pedagogical domain, the focus shifts from the pre-service teacher themselves and their immediate survival to the learning potential of the activities they plan. There is evidence that some participants have progressed to operating within a philosophical domain, leading to clasroom practice which reflects and re-conceptualises pre-service teachers' core beliefs about the nature of, and relationship between, D&T and science. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Essential Features of Technology and Technology Education: A Conceptual Framework for the Development of OBE (Outcomes Based Education) Related Programmes in Technology Education

It appears that programme development in technology education is emerging from an atheoretical perspective. This could be attributed to the absence/neglect of conceptual frameworks (philosophical underpinning) in the development of programmes in technology education. This article explores the role of the content dimension of the 'essential features' of technology and technology education in OBE (Outcomes Based Education) related programme development. An instructional programme was developed using criteria derived from the essential features of technology and technology education. In order to gauge learners' experience, in relation to these essential features, a qualitative case study involving 20 learners was undertaken at a College of Education. Engagement with theprogramme proved to be an empowering experience for the learners who had hitherto not had the opportunity to experience a formal programme in technology education. Although it could not be proved conclusively that cognitive development had occurred, positive inter-dependence,shared responsibility, social skills and enhanced learning were evident. The study has shown that criteria derived from the 'essential features' of technology and technology education could serve as a reliable yardstick to measure the extent of learning in relation to these essential features     

NAFTA as a Means of Raising Rivals' Costs

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was designed to reduce tariff rates between Mexico, Canada and the U.S.A. over a period of ten years. However, lower tariff rates are only available to firms that comply with complicated and costly NAFTA filing regulations. Such regulations raise costs of small firms relative to large firms in a domestic industry which engages in trade between NAFTA countries. This implication of NAFTA regulations can lead to increased concentration in domestic industries, an hypothesis which can be tested as the transition period comes to an end. Finally, our model suggests an explanation for why the levels of trade from the U.S.A. to Mexico have been lower than general expectations.     

以质量求生存 靠质量闯市场 视超越为目标 凭实力创辉煌

全面、系统地阐述了长庆石油勘探局的质量管理工作，即：建立和完善质量管理规章制度；作宣贯和质量体系认证；加强施工过程质量控制；实施产品质量的网络动态管理；实施品牌战略；实行用户质量回访质量。并就如何进一步开展质量管理工作进行了探讨。     

以高新技术强化使用质量是提高产品可靠性的有效途径

用实例说明生产厂家重视生产质量，并通过努力可使产品的制造质量达到相当高的水准，但是在使用质量方面存在着的影响产品可靠性的巨大空间却尚未引起充分的认识．在分析了当前普遍采用的定期维修体制的成18及存在弊端的基础上．提出应用状态监测与故障诊断(CMFD)技术的最新研究成果，可以实现从定期维修向状态维修的转变，并探讨了基于柴油机CMFD技术研究成果的实用策略。     

资格与行动标度下的农产品安全空间及涉农供应链的损害

农产品（食品）安全问题的产生是与市场上具有特定资格的主体的特定行为相联系的。资格来源于行动,又对行动结果具有表证作用。文章首先构造一个由资格与行为维度共同定义的农产品（食品）安全空间,即AQS空间。它被＂X灰色地带＂贯穿,由＂放心区＂、＂良心区＂、＂牌坊区＂和＂黑心区＂组成。而任何一条涉农供应链都可以视为处于若干个存在关联的AQS空间不同特征区间中的若干个节点的集合。进而,分析了全局性的因素对涉农供应链（ARSC）的损害性映射,研究认为,这些因素将可能生成一系列导致初始输入损害性逆转（或使AQS基因畸变）的关系、因素或规则,并最终决定损害的结果。     

Wi-Fi as a Commercial Service: New Technology and Policy Implications

While Wi-Fi has enjoyed explosive growth and deployment for use in residential homes, the rollout of commercial Wi-Fi service has been more limited. Part of the holdback on large-scale commercial deployment has been the strategic concern that the commons model to spectrum management lacks the incentives for service providers to invest due to the limited ability to manage interference in the unlicensed band. Today, however, this situation appears to have changed. To explain the new confidence by service providers in commercial Wi-Fi, the activities of the Wi-Fi Alliance and IEEE 802.11 standards body are analyzed to show how these groups essentially replicate many, but not all, of the functions traditionally employed by an effective band manager that is optimizing efficiency on a licensed spectrum block more typically associated with the deployment of commercial services. Consequently, with the Wi-Fi ecosystem functioning as an effective spectrum manager, it is concluded that the service provider investment in Public Wi-Fi networks is rational and the risk posed by saturation or overuse has been reduced to an acceptable level. The strategic implications of this finding on the Wi-Fi platform are the examined. How the requirements from service providers are already significantly influencing the evolution of the Wi-Fi standard is discussed, and an attempt is made to address the risks and liabilities associated with the unlicensed spectrum management model. Thus, service providers increasingly need functionality in Wi-Fi technology to manage interference, and monitor and improve network performance. The current ideas under discussion are elaborated for the next version of Wi-Fi to support both commercial Wi-Fi requirements, which address the interference concerns, but only up to a point, as the unlicensed model intrinsically leaves some risk to participants of spectrum saturation through overuse.     

NAFTA as a Means of Raising Rivals' Costs: A Comment

The purpose of this comment is toclarify and extend a recent paper entitled NAFTA as a Means of Raising Rivals Costs. The paper indicates that the complexity of complying with the rules of NAFTA may lead to a decrease in competition in the domestic market. The comment shows that thecomplexity of NAFTA is related to the rules of origin which are a part of virtually any free-tradeagreement. Since rules of origin are a necessary part of virtually any trade agreement, the conclusions of the paper are not restricted to NAFTA but can be generalized to a large part of international trade.