Pixel International Conferences

Teaching pre-service preschool teachers in technology is a challenge. Technology is a fairly new subject in school, students lack experiences and are not aware of the aim of the subject. In addition technology is not a subject belonging only to the science subject but also include the consequences of different technological choices for the individual, society and the environment. The curriculum for pre-school in Sweden emphasize development of children´s knowledge in science and technology. They should develop their ability to identify technology in everyday life, explore how simple technology works and develop their interest in science and technology. The education of pre-service teachers involves visualization of their own unconscious tacit knowledge and experiences to be used in the teaching of technology in preschool. Courses should be developed in the way that the experiences should be deepened and visualized. It is also important to provide the teacher with tools to develop knowledge in a similar way as together with children in preschool.

The course here presented, was going on during a three weeks period with 55 pre-service teacher students. They worked in groups with three different exercises, in construction of a sailing boat, preparing a Rube Goldberg machine and creating a jumping jack toy. At the end of the course the students wrote a summary with description of the process and a critical reflection of the three constructions exercises. They also wrote an examination task on the identification of technology in everyday life where they should describe three tools based on silhouette pictures, how it is used, how it is constructed and a reflection of the own experience of the tool. The written exams where analysed by using the quality markers 4R’s of Doll and compared with their marks on the course. Our results show that many students could describe the processes of construction during the three exercises with high quality showing several perspectives of understanding, e.g., the advantage of group activity, their own development of understanding and how to teach children in preschool.

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