Unpacking the curriculum - Nature of technology
An overview of the nature of technology curriculum strand
About this resource
The technology learning area in The New Zealand Curriculum includes a strand called “nature of technology”.
Nature of Technology
The nature of technology strand within the Technology learning area of The New Zealand Curriculum guides teachers to develop learning activities that support students to question why the world around them is the way it is.
Students develop an understanding of technology as a discipline and how it differs from other disciplines. They learn to critique the impact of technology on societies and the environment and to explore how developments and outcomes are valued by different people in different times. As they do so, they come to appreciate the socially-embedded nature of technology and become increasingly able to engage with current and historical issues and to explore future scenarios.
Through this strand, students have opportunities to increase their understanding of the complex moral and ethical aspects that surround technology and technological developments. They ask big questions such as, “If it can be done, should it be done?” They have opportunities to examine how previous technological outcomes were designed and produced, the impact of that design intervention on people, the environment, and culture.
Within this strand, teachers develop learning activities that support students to make informed predictions from an ethical and moral position about future technological design decisions.
Contexts for learning tasks should be as authentic as possible. When choosing and implementing learning tasks, consider how you can integrate and embed te ao Māori and mātauranga Māori, for example, by connecting with local iwi and hapū and understanding opportunities for reciprocal collaborations. Growing teacher knowledge and understanding of tikanga Māori and mātauranga Māori is a really important first step in this.
Components within the nature of technology strand
The nature of technology strand is comprised of two components: Characteristics of technology and Characteristics of technological outcomes. Learning programmes should support students in making links between the components and strands.
Characteristics of technology
Technology is defined as “purposeful intervention by design”, and technological practice as the activity through which technological outcomes are created and have an impact on the world. By considering the characteristics of technology, students come to understand technology as a unique form of human activity; they ponder how technology alters actions and thinking without people's awareness that this is happening. They also think about what people do in response to a desire, need, or opportunity.
The key is understanding that this human activity intends to be purposeful and productive – to improve and do good – to extend human sensory perception and physical ability. In this way, human design, creative, and critical thinking activities serve as a means of extending the “natural” functioning of the human body. For example, microscopes and telescopes extend our sense of sight. Horse-driven wagons, cars, planes, and spacecraft extend our ability to transport ourselves.
In other words, technological outcomes are designed to enhance the capabilities of people and expand human possibilities. They change the world in ways that have positive and/or negative impacts.
Technology uses and produces technological knowledge. Technological communities endorse technological knowledge as valid when it is shown to support the successful development of technological outcomes. All technology exists within a historical context, influenced by and influencing society and culture.
Technological practice is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary, relying more than ever on collaboration between the technology community and people from other disciplines.
Students explore the human activity of “intervening by design”, the essence and intent of technology education.
Further information:
- See Materials that come with this resource to download Characteristics of technology: Key ideas (.doc)
- Unpacking the curriculum - Characteristics of technology indicators of progression.
Characteristics of technological outcomes
Technological outcomes are products and systems developed by means of technological practice for a specific purpose. A technological outcome:
- is evaluated in terms of its fitness for purpose
- can be described in terms of its physical and functional natures
- must be interpreted in relation to the social and historical context in which it was developed and used.
An outcome’s proper function is its intended and/or socially accepted purpose. Alternative functions are successful functions that have been discovered or developed by users. Outcomes that do not successfully fulfil their intended functions are malfunctions.
Students learn:
- how outcomes are products and/ or systems
- that outcomes are designed for a purpose
- that outcomes have both physical and functional natures (how they look and what they do).
Students analyse current and past outcomes so that they can:
- learn from the design decisions made and their impacts on the outcome
- learn about intended and unintended functions and uses
- understand concepts of malfunction and failure.
Further information:
- See Materials that come with this resource to download Characteristics of technological outcomes: Key ideas (.doc).
- Unpacking the curriculum: - Characteristics of technology indicators of progression