Technological literacy is the goal of technology education and in order to attain this goal, students need to be able "to use, manage and understand technology" (ITEA, 2000/2002/2007). Students need to have positive attitudes towards technology and can engage in their technological world. Technological Literacy is an ever-increasing requirement in this 21st Century for students in order for people to engage in their technological world it may well be that we need students to be technologically literate so that we can address these up-and-coming issues. In teaching technology education at the primary level, it is essential to develop valid assessments that gauge student's attitudes about technology so that the results inform policy makers, educators, and curriculum writers to improve the schools' curriculum and advance the teaching of technology education. The purpose of this study was the validation of a modified version of the PATT-USA instrument called the Pupils' Attitudes Towards Technology – Grade 4 (PATT-G4) for use with 4th grade students to assess their attitudes and concepts toward contemporary technology. A literature review reviewing the theoretical frameworks for technology education, the educational shift towards technological literacy as well as best practices for measuring student attitudes and instrument development was conducted. This study was a non-experimental descriptive cross-sectional survey research design which included several statistical tests that were similarly used for the original PATT-USA instrument. Results from the data analysis indicated that students who were enrolled in a technology education program had more positive attitudes towards technology and technological concepts. Furthermore, both boys and girls had very strong attitudes towards the importance of technology. The conclusions and implications suggest that the PATT-G4 instrument should be administered to a larger sample size and different fourth grade populations. / Doctor of Philosophy / Technological literacy is the goal of technology education and in order to attain this goal, students need to be able "to use, manage and understand technology" (ITEA, 2000/2002/2007). Students need to have positive attitudes towards technology and can engage in their technological world. Technological Literacy is an ever-increasing requirement in this 21st Century for students in order for people to engage in their technological world it may well be that we need students to be technologically literate so that we can address these up-and-coming issues. In teaching technology education at the primary level, it is essential to develop valid assessments that gauge student's attitudes about technology so that the results inform policy makers, educators, and curriculum writers to improve the schools' curriculum and advance the teaching of technology education. The purpose of this study was the validation of a modified version of the PATT-USA instrument called the Pupils' Attitudes Towards Technology – Grade 4 (PATT-G4) for use with 4th grade students to assess their attitudes and concepts toward contemporary technology. The initial administration of this instrument was given to a sample of fourth grade students from three sub-urban elementary schools from a northeastern state. Findings indicated that students who were enrolled in a technology education program had more positive attitudes towards technology and technological concepts. Furthermore, both boys and girls had very strong attitudes towards the importance of technology. The conclusions and implications suggest that the PATT-G4 instrument should be administered to a larger sample size and different fourth grade populations.

O presente trabalho visa descrever o fenômeno da educação a distância e investigar as atitudes dos alunos militares para com a modalidade de EAD no Sistema de Ensino do Comando do Exército Brasileiro, particularmente, no âmbito do Departamento de Educação e Cultura do Exército (DECEx), responsável pela formação dos oficiais combatentes. Compreender as atitudes dos alunos para com essa modalidade de ensino, contribui para o planejamento e implementação de efetiva política de formação da Instituição. Para isso, toma-se como eixo norteador o processo de modernização da Instituição com seus desdobramentos formativos, de forma a traduzir a incorporação da educação a distância como um movimento crescente do Processo de Modernização de Ensino, alicerçado nas pedagogias da aprendizagem de vertente cognitivistas. De fato, é diante da EAD que será enfrentada a dificuldade de transformar os princípios normativos das políticas de formação em atitudes que favorecerão o desenvolvimento da Instituição frente às novas e desafiantes demandas do processo formativo do oficial combatente. / This work describes the distance learning phenomenon and investigates the attitudes of military students towards the distance learning mode in the educational system of the Brazilian Army Command. More exactly, it focus on the Department of Education and Culture of the Army (DECEx), which is responsible for training officers. Understanding the students attitudes to this teaching mode contributes to the planning and implementation of an effective educational policy in the institution. To that end, the guideline of this dissertation is the modernization process of the institution and its consequences for educational planning. It sees the adoption of distance education as an accompanying and increasingly important move in the teaching modernization process, based on cognitive learning pedagogies. In fact, it is through distance education that educational policies will face the challenge of transforming its normative principles into measures which will favor the institutional development as regards new and challenging demands of the officer training process.

O presente trabalho visa descrever o fenômeno da educação a distância e investigar as atitudes dos alunos militares para com a modalidade de EAD no Sistema de Ensino do Comando do Exército Brasileiro, particularmente, no âmbito do Departamento de Educação e Cultura do Exército (DECEx), responsável pela formação dos oficiais combatentes. Compreender as atitudes dos alunos para com essa modalidade de ensino, contribui para o planejamento e implementação de efetiva política de formação da Instituição. Para isso, toma-se como eixo norteador o processo de modernização da Instituição com seus desdobramentos formativos, de forma a traduzir a incorporação da educação a distância como um movimento crescente do Processo de Modernização de Ensino, alicerçado nas pedagogias da aprendizagem de vertente cognitivistas. De fato, é diante da EAD que será enfrentada a dificuldade de transformar os princípios normativos das políticas de formação em atitudes que favorecerão o desenvolvimento da Instituição frente às novas e desafiantes demandas do processo formativo do oficial combatente. / This work describes the distance learning phenomenon and investigates the attitudes of military students towards the distance learning mode in the educational system of the Brazilian Army Command. More exactly, it focus on the Department of Education and Culture of the Army (DECEx), which is responsible for training officers. Understanding the students attitudes to this teaching mode contributes to the planning and implementation of an effective educational policy in the institution. To that end, the guideline of this dissertation is the modernization process of the institution and its consequences for educational planning. It sees the adoption of distance education as an accompanying and increasingly important move in the teaching modernization process, based on cognitive learning pedagogies. In fact, it is through distance education that educational policies will face the challenge of transforming its normative principles into measures which will favor the institutional development as regards new and challenging demands of the officer training process.

This research focuses on the perceptions and attitudes that parents have towards the learning area Technology. The research was motivated by the fact that the learning area Technology is a ‘new’ learning area, that has only come into being since the inception of outcomes based education. The study took into account the fact that the parents of grade 7 pupils of 2009 do not have first hand knowledge of this learning area. It was because of this reason that it is interesting to find out what these parents perceptions are of this learning area. Technology is a composite of many old subjects, such as needlework, woodwork, domestic science and arts and crafts. A literature study was undertaken to ascertain what has been written about the history of Technology world-wide and especially in South–Africa. The emergence of outcomes based education, curriculum 2005 as well as the revised national curriculum are written about in the literature study. The role of the parent in the child’s life was also examined with special focus on the parent’s role in the school and learning context. The study was undertaken in the three districts of Tshwane. These three districts had representative English and Afrikaans schools as well as schools that were well resourced and others that were less well resourced chosen and compared to each other as well as mothers and fathers views. The research was done by way of questionnaires that had questions to be answered by way of the Likert scale as well as two open questions. The study was mainly quantitative with a small qualitative component to give a better understanding of the subject. According to the majority of data collected the parents do not have a favourable attitude and perception towards Technology. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted