Design: The Only Methodology

of Technology?

P. John Williams

The Nature of Technology

Technology, and certainly technology education, can be characterized as

more of an activity than a discrete body of content (McCormick, 1996). Technological

knowledge can be divided into procedural knowledge which relates to

the activity, and conceptual knowledge which relates to the body of content

(Hennessey & McCormick, 1994). There is probably more international

agreement among technology educators about the activity of technology than

about the content of technology. This is a helpful separation to make when

designing curriculum and discussing teaching, but it is not a separation which

should be evident to the students. Students should perceive technology as a

thoroughly integrated activity, not one which can be separated into content and

process, or theory and practice. Some curriculum documents separate these two

areas of knowledge. An example is the two attainment targets in the UK

technology curriculum of Design and Make. In others, the differentiation is less

such as the Content Standards of the Technology for all Americans Project

(ITEA, 1998).

While the traditional focus of technology education has been on activity,

i.e., on doing and making things, this has represented a narrow interpretation of

procedural knowledge. This focus has not been accompanied by an emphasis on

all aspects of procedural knowledge, but has typically been concerned with those

procedures most closely aligned with the development of manipulative skills and

how to use tools effectively and safely, for example.

A relatively recent realization has been that there are many significant

cognitive skills which are important for students to develop, and which are

suitable to be developed in the unique context of technology education. The

term unique is appropriate because there is no other curriculum area in which

students have as significant an opportunity to think and reflect and develop

ideas, and then to test their ideas in a practical context. The development of

these cognitive skills occurs through the procedural knowledge of technology

education.