Modernisation of the school DT curriculum with special reference to disruptive technologies; a case study of trainee teachers’ responses

摘要

New and emerging technologies are a feature of the design & technology National Curriculum (for pupils aged 5-13 years) in England and the proposed new GCSE design & technology course (for pupils aged 14-16 years). These features are part of the modernisation of design & technology that is taking place in England. This paper reports a small case study of an ‘understanding new and emerging technologies’ activity in which trainee design & technology teachers at a university in England were required to research particular disruptive technologies (Barlex, Givens & Steeg 2015), develop presentations about these technologies to the other trainees undertaking the activity who then had to summarise their understanding of each disruptive technology in a short piece of writing (around 600 words) dealing with both the nature of the technology and its potential to be disruptive. In addition they had to justify its inclusion and suggest how it might be taught. The paper will describe the responses of the trainees, consider the extent to which they found this work challenging and comment on the way in which an understanding of such technologies might be taught to secondary school pupils as part of a modernised design & technology curriculum which develops the essential 21st century skill of technological perspective.