Technology Education to Engineering: A Good Move?.

Abstract

Recent curriculum changes in the educational system of Australia have resulted in allowing optional Engineering course work to count for university entrance for students choosing to apply to a university. In other educational systems, Engineering is playing an increasingly important role, either as a stand-alone subject or as part of an integrated approach to Science, Mathematics, and Technology. These developments raise questions about the relationship between Engineering and Technology education, some of which are explored in this article. Introduction Curriculum agendas that include a proposed link between Technology and other curriculum areas rarely seem to favor Technology. When Science and Technology are offered in primary schools, science is prioritized, and consequently technology is not delivered well (Williams, 2001). This is a function of both primary school facilities and primary teacher training. Science and Technology offerings in secondary schools tend to be quite academic rather than practical (Williams, 1996). Numerous Science, Technology, and Mathematics (STM, SMT, or TSM) projects that have been developed around the world produce interestingly integrated curriculum ideas and projects, but these have rarely translated into embedded state or national curriculum approaches. This is partly because the school and curriculum emphasis on Science, Technology, and Mathematics is not equivalent across these areas. Even the earliest integrated approaches involving these subjects promoted reform in Science and Mathematics (LaPorte & Sanders, 1993) rather than the goals of Technology. Recently, Engineering, has been brought into the mix as a number of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) projects have been developed, most significantly, in terms of numbers and influence, both in the United Kingdom and the United States. Again, the agenda for this type of amalgamation is not being driven by a desire to progress the goals of technology education; rather, it is being driven by a desire to improve Science and Mathematics education in order to increase the flow of STEM people into the workforce and to improve STEM literacy in the population (Barlex, 2008). Despite the idea that Mathematics and Science education can be improved by combining them with Engineering and Technology this has not been proved, and the concept of STEM literacy is a bit befuddling and ill defined. Much has been written about the synergistic relationships among Science, Mathematics, and Technology, particularly between Science and Technology. A succinct summary of these relationships has been provided by Kimbell and Perry (1991): Science provides explanations of how the world works, mathematics gives us numbers and procedures through which to explore it, and languages enable us to communicate within it. But uniquely, design & technology empowers us to change the made world. (p. 3) Allied with the STEM approach is a Technology education revisionary movement toward adding Engineering in schools, particularly in U.S. schools. Technology educators who promote this approach do so out of the frustration that has come from the absence of general recognition of Technology education after many years of advocacy, and they propose it as an adjustment to the focus of Technology education (Gattie & Wicklein, 2007). The fact that William Wulf, the President of the National Academy of Engineering wrote the foreword for the “Standards for Technological Literacy” (International Technology Education Association, 2000) is heralded as a significant benediction (Lewis, 2005) to the shift from Technology education to Engineering (Rogers, 2006). The rationales are various and dubious, but they are similar to those presented for the STEM agenda: • Increase interest, improve competence, and demonstrate the usefulness of mathematics and science (Gattie & Wicklein, 2007). • Improve technological literacy (Rogers, 2005), which promotes economic advancement (Douglas, Iversen, & Kalyandurg, 2004). T h e J o u rn a l o f Te c h n o lo g y S tu d ie s Technology Education to Engineering: A Good Move?