Technology in The New Zealand Curriculum
This resource provides information about the technology learning area.
About this resource
This resource provides an overview of technology in The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. It gives information about the 2017 revision and includes a diagram of the revised technology learning area structure, showing the strands and technological areas.
Technology in the NZC
The technology learning area
Technology was first introduced as a learning area in 1995. It was revised in 2017.
Download the Revised technology learning area (pdf) from The New Zealand Curriculum.
Three strands provide the organising structure:
- Unpacking the curriculum: Technological practice
- Unpacking the curriculum: Technological Knowledge
- Unpacking the curriculum: Nature of technology
Technology is an intervention by design. To intervene by design, students have to experience learning across all three strands so that they become designers of successful, fit-for-purpose outcomes.
The strands are the starting point for all teaching and learning in technology. None of the strands are optional, but sometimes particular strands may be emphasised at different times or in different years.
Five technological areas provide contexts for learning:
- designing and developing materials outcomes
- designing and developing processed outcomes
- design and visual communication
- computational thinking for digital technologies
- designing and developing digital outcomes.
In year 1–10, all students must be given learning opportunities in all five areas.
Your school technology curriculum should provide rich contexts for learning, including authentic cultural contexts and those that draw on the wider curriculum.
Revised technology learning area structure
The diagram below shows how the three strands provide the organising structure for achievement objectives used in three of the technological areas. The achievement objectives underpin progress outcomes for the other two technological areas.
Revised technology learning area
The Ministry of Education revised the technology learning area in The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. It now includes two new technological areas:
The goal of this change is to ensure that all learners know about digital technologies and understand the decisions people make when they use and create them. It's important that students have opportunities to be innovative designers and creators of digital solutions, moving beyond solely being users and consumers of digital technologies. We want them to be able to critically assess the impact of existing and new technologies on society and the environment.
While schools were expected to incorporate the revised learning area into their curriculum in 2020, we expect that change and implementation processes are continuing to develop.
The goal is to have students experience a rich curriculum that engages and challenges them, is forward-looking, and is inclusive, and as a part of that, they know how to use and create digital technologies.