| Technology Education
Technology education is a planned process designed to develop students' competence and confidence in understanding and using existing technologies and in creating solutions to technological problems. It contributes to the intellectual and practical development of students, as individuals and as informed members of a technological society.
- Educationally, students are motivated to participate in purposeful activities, enabling them to apply and integrate their knowledge and skills from many learning areas in real and practical ways. Technology education offers authentic opportunities for community interactions, and for linking school experiences with the wider world of enterprise and the community. It fosters intellectual and practical abilities through its open-ended, problem-solving approach, and links theory with practice.
- Personally, students become more aware of their responsibilities within their families and society. They gain confidence in their ability to contribute to informed decision making about technological development. Students learn to make decisions, take calculated risks, evaluate their own choices, and develop ways of addressing real problems. All students are able to participate successfully, individually, and in groups in technological activities at their own levels of ability.
- Culturally, students become aware of the diversity of valid ways in which different groups of people respond to technology and to innovation, and appreciate the impacts that technological changes have on different peoples. They develop understanding of the beliefs, values, and traditions of other people and how these influence technological development.
- Environmentally, students explore the impact of technology on the world around them and learn how to investigate options. They experience decision making in relation to authentic problems, and are able to take informed roles in debate on technological change. They can appraise the appropriateness of technological solutions to environmental problems.
- Economically, students learn to be creative and innovative in generating ideas, and to co-operate in working to translate their ideas into action. They gain skills, knowledge, and competencies that equip them to undertake many activities and to contribute to New Zealand's social and economic development. They have opportunities for interactions with business and industry that help them to understand and adapt to a rapidly changing world and to take a confident part in shaping the future.
|
