Communities of practice as a tool for continuing professional development of technology teachers’ professional knowledge

With the introduction of a new school curriculum in South Africa in 1998, Technology as a school subject was introduced for the first time. Implementation by the National Department of Education took place over a very short time frame allowing very little time for adequate training of technology teachers by the provincial departments of education. Teachers were expected to implement technology in schools without being adequately trained. They needed to develop their professional knowledge which comprises school knowledge, subject knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. This could mainly be done through continuing professional teacher development (CPTD). To address the lack of CPTD opportunities and to develop these teachers’ professional knowledge, the Unit for Technology Education at a university in South Africa established a Community of Practice (CoP) as a strategy to develop teachers’ professional knowledge in Civil Technology. However, after a number of CoP workshops, and although these CoPs have been designed to serve as a tool for CPTD, we do not know to what extent it succeeds in developing teachers’ professional knowledge. The purpose of this article is to determine to what extent the CoP succeeded in developing teachers’ professional knowledge. A qualitative study was conducted. Data were collected through the observation of the teachers during the CoPs, open-ended questionnaires and field notes taken during workshop discussions. The main findings were that the teachers gained discipline knowledge and acquired instructional methodology (pedagogy) from which learners may benefit. The presentation and organisation of the CoP influenced the learning of the teachers.     

Technical and vocational teaching and training in Gabon: how future teachers build their vocational identity?

The professionalism of teachers is based on three levels of expertise: mastering academic knowledge, mastering the teaching of this knowledge and mastering the role played by teachers in schools. For each of these levels, each student during the teacher training courses has his own understanding. This understanding influences their perception of the job of teacher and thus their attitude towards their training. Efficiency of this training could be evaluated through the evolution of this understanding. The experimental part of this study will involve looking at this evolution with students from the ENSET in Libreville at the beginning of the training course, the end of the first cycle and the end of the second cycle. Data collected shows that training does not really produce the desired results for a university vocational teacher training course for technology education.     

Middle-school teachers’ understanding and teaching of the engineering design process: a look at subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge

This paper reports on research investigating six middle school teachers without engineering degrees as they taught an engineering unit on the engineering design process. Videotaped classroom sessions and teacher interviews were analyzed to understand the subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge the teachers used and developed as they introduced the eight steps of the engineering design process (from content standards for the state of Massachusetts, USA). The teachers demonstrated wide-ranging knowledge of the engineering design process, and this paper describes two of the steps the teachers showed a more sophisticated understanding—constructing a prototype and redesigning. Examples from the teachers illustrate strengths that can be built upon as well as some areas for further development.     

Enhancing teachers’ technological pedagogical knowledge and practices: a professional development model for technology teachers in Malawi

This paper reports on a professional development that was designed and implemented in an attempt to broaden teachers’ knowledge of the nature of technology and also enhance their technological pedagogical practices. The professional development was organised in four phases with each phase providing themes for reflection and teacher learning in subsequent phases. On-going support, reflection and feedback underpinned the professional development processes to enhance teachers’ prospects of putting aside old traditions and culture to implement new practices in their classrooms. The teachers collaboratively explored new concepts through readings of selected scholarly papers, making presentations of their views generated from the readings and engaging with peers in discussing learning, curriculum issues and concepts related to the nature of technology and technology education. A qualitative analysis of the teachers’ journey through the phases of the professional development showed the teachers’ enhanced knowledge of technology and technology education. However, their classroom practices showed technological pedagogical techniques that reflected their traditional strategies for teaching technical subjects. It is argued that although the teachers’ conceptualisation of learning in technology was still fragile at this point, attempts to shift teachers’ beliefs and practices require deep theoretical grounding and transferring that into technological practices. A professional development built on existing ideas and context helps expand the teachers’ views about the nature of technology and technology education.     

Identifying the gaps of fourth year degree pre-service teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in teaching engineering graphics and design

Engineering Graphics and Design is a technological subject which is offered in the Bachelor of Education degree from third to fourth year of the degree course. Fourth year pre-service teachers find EGD difficult to teach because of various reasons. Therefore the aim of the paper was to investigate fourth year pre-service teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge gaps in teaching EGD during their teaching practice. The study was conducted using a qualitative approach and eight pre-service teachers were purposefully selected to take part in the study. Findings of the paper found that pre-service teachers found teaching practice very short to do all the teaching tasks that is required of them. Some pre-service teachers did not have drawing models to make learning concrete to their learners. Assessment was done partially just to impress the university tutors and to conform to the schools’ rule and not to evaluate the learners’ understandings and their teaching.     

Inclusive design in the Key Stage 3 classroom: an investigation of teachers’ understanding and implementation of user-centred design principles in design and technology

This paper starts out with a discussion of the importance of user-centred design, outlining its history and current embodiment in national and international standards and considers its particular relevance in addressing the needs of ageing populations. The paper moves on to examine how the premise of user-centred design has been taken up in education and focuses on the specific example of user-centred approaches as part of the Design and Technology requirement of the English National Curriculum, taught in England’s schools since 1989. The initial stage of the Designing our Tomorrow project presented in this paper was an investigation of the extent to which user-centred design was integrated in current teaching practice. Analysing baseline data collected from teachers and pupils at two state secondary schools the project team found that many of the tasks teachers planned for pupils did not provide opportunities to identify users’ needs when solving design problems. Finally, the paper presents a discussion of the project’s implications for pupils’ learning and understanding of Design and Technology.     

Criteria for continuing professional development of technology teachers’ professional knowledge: a theoretical perspective

Continuing professional teacher development (CPTD) is generally accepted as an indispensable tool for the professional development of technology teachers. The current theoretical framework for CPTD comprises a variety of models. However, criteria underpinning these models are not explicit. If, in turn, the criteria were explicit, it could serve as part of the pre-determined criteria for the evaluation of the quality of CPTD programmes. The quality of higher education is important to its stakeholders and the assurance thereof should be a continuous process. The aim of this article is to determine criteria for evaluating CPTD programmes through an analysis of CPTD models in different educational settings. The article takes the form of a literature study to determine which CPTD models exist and which aspects of such models are most suitable for facilitating development of technology teachers’ professional knowledge. A significant finding of this study is eight criteria for evaluating CPTD programmes.     

Epistemic habits: primary school teachers’ development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in a design-based research project

Generalist primary school teachers often have little or no training in school subjects such as science and technology. Not surprisingly, several studies show that they often experience difficulties when teaching these subjects, in fact some primary teachers even avoid teaching them. The over all aim of this study is to contribute to new theoretical and methodological tools for the study of how teachers develop knowledge for teaching, i.e. pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). And based on this, elaborate on implications for the professional development of primary school teachers. The teachers in the study participated in a design-based research project concerning technology education in Grade 1. We were especially interested in whether the teachers displayed any habits that contributed to the development of their personal PCK. We found three significant patterns in how the teachers, together with the researcher, developed knowledge of how to teach a specific topic in technology. We argue that these patterns tell us something about the teachers’ epistemic habits in relation to the teaching of technology. The existence of these habits could help to explain how teachers with little or no experience of teaching a subject can develop relevant PCK.     

Display rule perceptions and job performance in a Chinese retail firm: The moderating role of employees’ affect at work

This study investigates the relationship between emotional display rule perceptions and job performance. Building on theories of emotional labor and ego-depletion, we cast employees’ positive and negative affective states at work as crucial moderators. Results obtained in a sample of 245 frontline service employees and their 63 immediate supervisors from a retail firm in China demonstrate that display rule perceptions were positively related with task and contextual performance among employees experiencing little positive affective states at work, but not among employees experiencing highly positive affect. Moreover, display rule perceptions were positively associated with one aspect of contextual performance (voluntary learning) among employees with little negative affect, whereas highly negative affect buffered this linkage. Taken together, this study highlights performance consequences of employees’ display rule perceptions and uncovers key boundary conditions for these relationships.     

Perceptions of the students’ learning and evaluation process in an e-learning course in Food Preservation Technology: a study case in a Food Consumption MSc

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Food Preservation Technology is a main module within a course integrated in a Master of Science program in Food Consumption at...     

Women’s agricultural work and nutrition in South Asia: From pathways to a cross-disciplinary,grounded analytical framework

In this systematic review, we aim to examine the impact of women’s work in agriculture on maternal and child nutrition in South Asia. Building on previous reviews supported under the Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA) consortium, and recent published literature, we include findings from new LANSA research. While mapping literature onto the gender-nutrition pathways linking agriculture to nutrition (Kadiyala et al., 2014), we also point to conceptual and methodological directions for further exploration emerging from our work. Key amongst these are a focus on seasonality, poverty, and gender relations, moving beyond both an exclusive focus on women as a unified and homogenous group, and agriculture as an unchanging and common set of activities and production processes. Our analysis suggests the need for a more contextualised approach, and for a richer cross-disciplinary framework for effectively addressing the ways in which women’s work mediates agriculture’s role in improving child and maternal nutrition in South Asia.     

You are an astroneer: the effects of robotics camps on secondary school students’ perceptions and attitudes towards STEM

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration are thought to be the core skills that will enable students to be...     

Implementing an exemplar-based approach in an interaction design subject: enhancing students’ awareness of the need to be creative

In higher education effective teaching includes making learning goals and standards clear to students. In architecture and design education in particular, goals and standards around assessment are often not well articulated. There is good evidence that when teachers engage students before an assessment in marking exemplars, and explain why the exemplars received the grades they did, students’ performance in their written assessment is consequently enhanced. However some teachers are concerned that exemplars may discourage students from being creative; this concern is particularly important in design education. In this small-scale mixed methods study we explore interaction design students’ perceptions of the effect of an exemplar-based teaching approach on their work in a design task. Our quantitative and qualitative results show that students developed their understanding of task criteria and standards; far from discouraging their creativity, most students perceived that their experience of the approach enhanced their awareness of the need to produce an original design. The exemplar-based approach used in this study complements the studio-based teaching approach in design education, and helps to make clear the design goals and standards that teachers expect their students to strive for.     

Consumers’ willingness-to-pay for food safety labels in an emerging market: The case of fresh produce in Thailand

Food safety systems in emerging markets are currently facing a transformation period, becoming more stringent because of an increasing demand for safer food. Consequently, policy makers need to find strategies to increase food safety while giving the industry time to improve their performance. In Thailand, policy makers have adopted the strategy of upgrading food safety standards gradually. Government and private food safety brands and labels were introduced onto the market but little is known whether Thai consumers have preferences for them or not. This study is aimed at evaluating Thai consumers’ preferences for food safety labels and brands on fresh produce, using a surveyed based on discrete-choice experiments. A sample of 350 Thai consumers was surveyed in Bangkok and Nonthaburi in 2013. Quota sampling according to the shopping outlets and convenience sampling methods were adopted. Two hundred respondents were recruited at fresh-food markets and 150 respondents were recruited at supermarkets. We found that consumers are willing-to-pay more for both government led food safety label and private brands, but that there is high heterogeneity in their preferences. The high degree of social desirability for food safety labels confirms that food safety labelling policy should be supported. However, the provision of information and credibility are vital in order to mitigate the risk of consumer deception by self-claimed labels.     

STEM education in the twenty-first century: learning at work—an exploration of design and technology teacher perceptions and practices

Teachers’ knowledge of STEM education, their understanding, and pedagogical application of that knowledge is intrinsically linked to the subsequent effectiveness of STEM delivery within their own practice; where a teacher’s knowledge and understanding is deficient, the potential for pupil learning is ineffective and limited. Set within the context of secondary age phase education in England and Wales (11–16 years old), this paper explores how teachers working within the field of design and technology education acquire new knowledge in STEM; how understanding is developed and subsequently embedded within their practice to support the creation of a diverse STEM-literate society. The purpose being to determine mechanisms by which knowledge acquisition occurs, to reconnoitre potential implications for education and learning at work, including consideration of the role which new technologies play in the development of STEM knowledge within and across contributory STEM subject disciplines. Underpinned by an interpretivist ontology, work presented here builds upon the premise that design and technology is an interdisciplinary educational construct and not viewed as being of equal status to other STEM disciplines including maths and science. Drawing upon the philosophical field of symbolic interactionism and constructivist grounded theory, work embraces an abductive methodology where participants are encouraged to relate design and technology within the context of STEM education. Emergent findings are discussed in relation to their potential to support teachers’ educational development for the advancement of STEM literacy, and help secure design and technology’s place as a subject of value within a twenty-first Century curriculum.     

The frustrations of digital fabrication: an auto/ethnographic exploration of ‘3D Making’ in school

Following initial educational enthusiasms for ‘Making’ technologies and the ‘Maker Movement’, increasing numbers of students are now using digital fabrication programs and equipment in school. Given the current lack of empirical research exploring the realities of Making as a school activity, this paper presents an in-depth auto/ethnographic account of 3D printing—currently, one of the most popular Maker technologies in schools. Investigating the case of an 8 week Year 9 design project, this paper seeks to broaden understandings of how 3D printing technologies and practices are shaping “what counts” as learning within contemporary school settings. In particular, this research focuses on the experiences of Making within a school context; what is learned through these experiences; and how the process of Making in school feels. This paper highlights three key issues that have been marginalised to date in discussions of Making in schools: (1) lack of pragmatic engagement, (2) affective labour of failing; and (3) mediated alienation.     

Effects of perceptions on LMX and work performance: Effects of supervisors’ perception of subordinates’ emotional intelligence and subordinates’ perception of trust in the supervisor on LMX and, consequently, performance

There are few studies on how the perception of supervisors by their subordinates contributes to high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX). We thus propose that the trust perception of supervisors by their subordinates can help explain the development of high-quality LMX. Furthermore, the trust perception may interact with supervisor-rated emotional intelligence to influence the quality of LMX, and, consequently, work performance. Using a longitudinal study on a sample of 285 supervisor-subordinate dyads from a manufacturing firm in China, we found that (1) supervisor-rated emotional intelligence of subordinates (Time 1) positively predicts the quality of LMX (Time 2); (2) this relationship is stronger when subordinates highly trust their supervisors (Time 1); (3) LMX (Time 2) positively predicts work performance (Time 3); and (4) LMX (Time 2) fully mediates the interactive effect of emotional intelligence (Time 1) and trust in the supervisor (Time 1) on work performance (Time 3).