Social design produces strategic, systematic solutions or new cultures as a response to the complexity of social changes and, in consequence, designers who are used to the traditional way of ideation may not be well prepared for the requirements of social design. This paper identified the characteristics of the concept generation of industrial…

Research on students' perceptions and understanding of technology has shown that students have a narrow view of technology: for example, technology is often manifested in students' descriptions as artefacts or objects. This study investigates the ways in which students' understanding of how technology is manifested expands during a series of…

Design processes can be decomposed into several steps, including information acquisition and application. Retrieving prior knowledge and experience is an important method of acquiring design information, thus designers' precedents retrieval styles reflect their design thinking. The obvious difference between industrial (ID) and mechanical design…

Primary school children frequently use digital devices, which can be infected by computer viruses. In this mixed methods paper with two studies (N = 278 + 114), we examined 8-year-olds' preconceptions about computer viruses and protection against them; how to teach these children about said topics using three different, 30-min-long,…

This study aimed to develop and validate, based on the Evidence Centered Design approach, a generic tool to diagnose primary education pupils' prior knowledge of technological systems in primary school classrooms. Two technological devices, namely the Buzz Wire device and the Stairs Marble Track, were selected to investigate whether theoretical…

In Sweden, as in many other countries, programming has been added to the curriculum in recent years. This paper explores how and under what conditions programming is transformed into teaching in technology education. Teachers in grade 7-9 were interviewed about what and how they teach about programming in the context of technology education, and…

Post-graduate teacher recruitment schemes are designed to fulfil ongoing teaching shortages. However, despite the emphasis of technology integration in educational contexts, little research has examined the knowledge, skills and attitudes post-graduate pre-service teachers bring to teaching from a technology perspective. This paper presents…

The Maori Whakatauki (significant saying) for Technology Education: Kaua e rangiruatia te hapai o te hoe; E kore to tatou waka e u ki uta. Don't paddle out of unison; Our canoe will never reach the shore. Quality initial teacher education (ITE) builds on student prior knowledge. Students bring a wealth of life and career knowledge and skills to…