Jo Beresford, Tracey Lissington & Brad Bridges. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO TALK ABOUT TODAY? A short story about Technology. Technology Teachers – what.

 Jo Beresford, Tracey Lissington & Brad Bridges

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO TALK ABOUT TODAY? A short story about

Technology. Technology Teachers – what is

happening. Technology Curriculum - what

it is, what the issues are, teachers concerns and implementation.

In the beginning, there was no technology... just woodwork, metalwork and home economics, and life was simple!

These subjects were not considered "serious" subjects by most teachers... they were for students with little academic ability and were meant to prepare students for work in the trades…

Then, the Government decided that offering technology as a school subject would be a good idea.This would help in providing the new economy with much needed qualified people…

They (the government) tried to lift the profile of the subject and developed a brand new Curriculum.However, most of the teachers were still teaching woodwork, metalwork and cooking...

...Ever since, there has  been a gap between what was desired to be taught and what was actually taught.  

And it  has proven even more difficult to hire new teachers to teach the new curriculum…

Now let’s get a bit more serious...

“At the beginning of the 2009 school year the number of vacancies in secondary schools sat at 149. The number of Technology vacancies was 14.4% (down from 17.4% the previous year).”

NZPTA Parent and School: Partners in Education, Term 2, 2009

The Ministry of Education has offered a range of scholarships and incentives to encourage people to teach in sectors where there are teacher shortages.

2008 - Career changer scholarship introduced.

This scholarship is going to continue in 2010.

Technology Time-bomb“A crisis is building in the teaching of technology subjects, with technology teachers becoming harder and harder to recruit.”

The Listener - June 9-15 2007 Vol 208 No 3500

We think that the shortage of technology teachers and implementation of the new technology curriculum are interlinked:

• Lack of training.

• The Technology Curriculum.

• New breed of teachers required.

Reasons for the shortage of technology teachers:

• Relatively new subject area.

• The tight labour market.

• Time required to train new

Teachers.

The Government has introduced a number of initiatives to increase the supply of teachers:

• Futureintech.

• Growth and Innovation Framework (GIF).

• Beacon Practice.

• Techlink.

• TeachNZ.

Despite all that is being done, with the number of teachers retiring in the next few years the problem may get worst.

Secondary Principals Association president Peter Gall believed the shortage had forced a small number of schools to cease offering a technology subject.  (NZ Herald, August 11th, 2009).

“David Hodge has gone to extraordinary lengths to fill teaching vacancies at his Auckland secondary school. The Rangitoto College principal flew more than 18,500km for a whirlwind recruitment session in Britain, completing 26 interviews in eight days in five cities in England and Scotland.

Hodge said the school usually recruited local teachers, but in subjects such as technology and physics there were not enough to meet demand.”NZ Herald - Sunday Sep 28, 2008By Anna Rushworth

Desperate Measures!

• When there is a shortage like this one can do one of two things:o Reduce demand oro Increase supply through:

Recycling Career Changers New Entrants Adding to the pool

So what is the buzz with the new technology curriculum?

Well...

It aims for students to develop a broad Technological Literacy.

This means that they will be equipped to participate in society as informed citizens and they will have access to technology-related careers.  Let’s have a look at our technology curriculum wiki site.

• We use practical and intellectual resources in an activity and we use cognitive and physical manipulative skills (Jones, 1997).

• Technology curriculum has three strands:o Technological Knowledgeo Technological Practiceo Nature of Technology

1.The process the student goes through and the outcome achieved are both important in terms of assessing performance (Jones, 1997), (Kimbell, 1994), (Prime, 1998).

2.All technology teaching should involve a technology activity or application, which requires thinking, collaborative and doing skills (Kimbell, 1994), (Kimbell, 1997).

3.We should not teach any of the three technology strands in isolation, we need to teach them in an interrelated manner (Jones, 1997), (Prime, 1998).

• Teachers find it difficult to make sense of the curriculum. 

• Some teachers not happy with the shift away from the “doing” part of what they are used to.

• Some of reverting back to teaching trades and not technology.

• Incumbent Technology Teachers were hired to teach a “craft” or a practical skill not “technology”.

• Older teachers are opting to leave.

• Teachers not happy with pending changes to NCEA.

• Students rebelling against the amount of paperwork and writing required.

• Lack of understanding of the Technology concepts.

• Difficulty with planning and delivering units of work .

• Limited knowledge base.• Limited to no professional development.• Technology just one subject they teach.• Few exemplars available.• Students expectations of technology.

• Plan for change.• Start young. • Preparation and resources. • Teachers professionalism and

judgment.• Technology Clusters. • Technology Resource Teachers.

1. http://www.tki.org.nz/r/technology/curriculum/rsnz/01cbshortcourses1_e.php 2. Jones, A. (1997). Technology Education in the New Zealand Curriculum. In J. (. Burns,

Technology in the New Zealand Curriculum - Perspectives on Practice (pp. 47-59). Palmerston North, NZ: The Dunmore Press.

3. Kimbell, R. (1994). Assessment of design and technology from Teaching technology Banks, F. (Ed.). London and New York: Routledge: The Open University.

4. Kimbell, R. (1994). Assessment of design and technology. In F. (. Banks, Teaching Technology (pp. 161-172). London and New York: Routledge.

5. Kimbell, R. (1997). International Reflections. In International trends in curriculum and assessment (pp. 227-241). Buckingham: Open University Press.

6. Ministry of Education, (1995). Technology in the New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education.

7. Ministry of Education, (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum for English-medium teaching and learning in years 1 - 13. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education, New Zealand.

8. NZPTA (Term 2, 2009) Parents and School: Partners in Education (pp. 5) Christchurch, New Zealand: Waterford Press Ltd

9. Schools battle to recruit teachers for tech subjects (August 11, 2008), New Zealand Herald10. Technology: Theory without practice? (2006) PPTA: Wellington11. Technology Scholarships (n.d.) Retrieved October 15 2009, from TeachNZ:

http://www.teachnz.govt.nz/technology-scholarships12.  Technology Teacher: Job Outlook (n.d.) Retrieved October 15 2009, from Career

Services: http://www.careers.govt.nz/default.aspx?id0=61103&id1=J8018913. Worldwide Hunt for good teachers (September 27, 2008) New Zealand Herald