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The recent introduction of technology education course in science classes, for all Quebec students in high schools, was strongly linked to the recent educational reform. Science teachers were to assume all Introduction to Technology workload. The application of the reform occurred even though most science teachers were not trained in giving technology education. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to present the survey's findings of the implementation of teaching Engineering Design Processes with the new reform. Firstly, we shall elaborate on the specific circumstance of technology education in Quebec. Secondly, we will analyze how teachers understand and teach design process. Based on the various results of the survey, we will discuss the impact of teaching the design process on learning and recommend helpful avenues for technology education teachers.
Keywords: Engineering design process, Technology education and technological knowledge.
Introduction
First of all, this article is the continuation of my article published in 2014, entitled Teaching and learning Engineering Design Process in Quebec's High Schools (El Fadil, 2014).
Lately, the Government of Quebec has implemented the new secondary curriculum called the Reform. The five-year secondary school program is divided into two cycles. Cycle one is covered the first two years, and its main focus is on basic subjects. As of the third year (first year in the second cycle), the timetable leaves room for elective courses. In cycle two, students can pursue a general education while using electives to explore various avenues before going on to college studies, or they can take vocational training if they want to find employment in a particular field (Gouvernement du Québec, 2006).
The freshest change concerning the Technology Education program in this recent reform is that the new curriculum creates a single discipline, called Science and Technology, by integrating five scientific fields (astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, physics) and Technology Education program. The curriculum of the new discipline is organized in this way because it is often necessary to refer to subject matter and methods from several fields at once to solve problems or form opinions about major scientific and technological issues.
The end or the purposiveness, in the De Landsheere (1992) meaning, of that reform is to help students gradually develop their scientific and technological literacy and to understand...