Strand A: Technological Knowledge and Understanding

Students' technological experiences should reflect the interlinking nature of the strands: technological knowledge and understanding; technological capability; technology and society. When involved in any technological activity, students should adapt and apply knowledge, strategies, and skills from a variety of sources. Within a range of technological areas and contexts, students should develop an understanding of: the use and operation of technologies; technological principles and systems; the nature of technological practice; strategies for the communication, promotion, and evaluation of technological ideas and outcomes.

Technological problem solving is often assisted by the analysis of successful applications. When involved in observing, examining, and experiencing applications of technology, both in their immediate environment and in other settings, students are both developing and employing knowledge from a range of sources.

Students will explore how and why technologies are used and how they operate. They will also recognise the principles that underlie technological developments, such as modification, adaptation, user-friendliness, fail-safe features, flexibility of use, reliability, fitness for purpose, efficiency, ergonomics, aesthetics, and optimisation. They will see that many technological solutions arise from incremental changes to existing technologies.

They will identify and understand the components of technological systems, as part of developing technological knowledge. For example, students will learn about inputs, processes, outputs, feedback, sequence, interconnectivity, and how these are affected by a range of factors.

Different methods and codes of practice have arisen in different technological areas, for instance, in food processing, in engineering, in crafts, or in architecture. Students will investigate the distinctive features, as well as the common principles, of how technologists work in a number of fields.

Knowing about the strategies used for the communication, promotion, and evaluation of technological ideas is also important in understanding technology. Students will explore these strategies in order to develop a critical understanding of their purposes and influences. Such understandings help students to incorporate aspects such as explanatory instructions, advertising, packaging, and marketing in their own technological practice.

Technological Knowledge and Understanding: Level 1

Achievement Objectives Within a range of technological areas and contexts, students should: ask questions and offer ideas about the use and operation of everyday technologies, such as at the supermarket; a. ask questions and share ideas about modifications in familiar technologies, such as paper making; b. ask questions and share ideas about familiar technological systems, such as inputs, outputs; share ideas about how a particular group of people carry out technological activities, such as builders; check-out operators; share ideas about some ways in which familiar technological developments are communicated, such as new food products.

Technological Knowledge and Understanding: Level 2

Achievement Objectives Within a range of technological areas and contexts, students should: explore and discuss the use and operation of technologies in everyday use; a. identify and discuss ideas about modifications and adaptations in familiar technologies, such as wheeled vehicles; b. identify, and depict ideas about components of technological systems, such as connections; sequence; describe how particular groups of people carry out technological activities, such as dentists; identify and discuss ways in which a specific technology is communicated and promoted, such as motor cars.

Technological Knowledge and Understanding: Level 3

Achievement Objectives Within a range of technological areas and contexts, students should: investigate and describe the use and operation of technologies in an everyday setting, such as a petrol station; a. compare significant features of some technologies, such as safety features, user-friendliness; b. explore and describe how components are linked in a technological system; compare how different groups of people carry out technological activities, such as home cooking compared with a fast-food outlet; identify and compare the ways particular technological developments are communicated and promoted to specific groups, such as information on packaging.

Technological Knowledge and Understanding: Level 4

Achievement Objectives Within a range of technological areas and contexts, students should: investigate and explain the use and operation of a range of technologies in everyday use, such as in communications; a. identify underlying technological principles, such as reliability; practicality; b. investigate several technological systems and explain the relationship between inputs, processes, and outputs; explain why people within specific technological areas carry out activities in particular ways, such as preparing a hangi; planning a local facility; identify strategies used to communicate and promote a technological idea or development, such as instruction manuals; explanatory leaflets.

Technological Knowledge and Understanding: Level 5

Achievement Objectives Within a range of technological areas and contexts, students should: investigate and discuss the relationship between the use and operation of technologies; a. explain underlying technological principles, such as efficiency; b. investigate and report on the factors involved in the control of technological systems, such as feedback; monitoring; investigate a specific technological area to identify features of technological practice, such as health and safety practices in food technology; a design process involved in the construction industry; compare strategies for the communication of different types of technological innovation, such as computer systems for different groups of users.

Technological Knowledge and Understanding: Level 6

Achievement Objectives Within a range of technological areas and contexts, students should: identify and discuss in detail the relationship between the use and operation of a range of technologies; a. explore and explain technological principles, such as ergonomics; b. investigate and describe how systems work together as part of a larger system; identify, compare, and explain distinctive aspects of different technological practices, such as use of different knowledge bases; investigate and review strategies for the communication, promotion, and evaluation of technological outcomes, with reference to users, such as environmental protection; consumer appeal and response.

Technological Knowledge and Understanding: Level 7

Achievement Objectives Within a range of technological areas and contexts, students should: investigate and explain the features of a range of technologies and describe the relationship between their use, function, and operation; a. analyse a range of technologies and explain underlying principles, such as optimisation; b. analyse the structure, organisation and control of systems; experience and report on a particular community of technological practice, such as a case study of a biotechnological development or a town planning revision; analyse different strategies and constraints on the communication, promotion, and evaluation of technological ideas and outcomes, such as a patent application; packaging standards.

Technological Knowledge and Understanding: Level 8

Achievement Objectives Within a range of technological areas and contexts, students should: analyse and appraise the relationship between the use, function and operation of specific technologies; a. explore and analyse underlying technological principles, such as modularisation, adaptation; b. examine and appraise complex systems in terms of interconnectivity within and between systems, such as control; feedback; stability; experience, analyse, compare, and appraise the nature of practice in different technological communities, such as architecture; electrical engineering; pharmaceuticals; critically analyse and evaluate the strategies used and constraints which apply in the communication, promotion, and evaluation of a specific technological innovation in relation to particular groups of users, such as ethical or statutory requirements; trade practices.