The knowledge and cognitive process dimensions of Technology teachers’ lesson
objectives
This study employs both quantitative and qualitative enquiry, which seeks to establish the
nature and quality of the lesson objectives intended by Technology teachers. Technology
teachers are frequently faced with the need to use technological knowledge and its
methodological approaches in their development of lesson plans and in their teaching. The
methodological aspect and technological knowledge of these teachers should be reflected in
the framing of lesson plans containing explicit statements of lesson objectives or learning
outcomes. The cognitive levels to which the objectives lead are important because of the
demands placed on learners by the subject of technology. Technology inherently requires
mastery of some scientific knowledge, and procedures of the technological process from
needs establishment to design and fabrication of artefacts. This requires learners to achieve at
the upper levels of Bloom‟s taxonomy. This is the important goal of education.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge and cognitive process dimensions
of the lesson objectives in lesson plans of Technology teachers. These dimensions of
Technology teachers‟ lesson objectives were mapped using the Taxonomy Table adapted
from the Revised Bloom‟s Taxonomy.
This study used a primarily qualitative research approach, with some quantitative analysis of
data. A survey research design with limited scope was used to obtain lesson plans from
Technology teachers in order to establish the nature and qualities of their lesson objectives.
Lesson plans were collected from 19 teachers in three districts of Mpumalanga. These lesson
plans were analysed, interpreted and discussed with sampled teachers in a focus group.
With regard to the knowledge and cognitive domains of the Technology teachers‟ lesson
objectives, findings from this study suggest that teachers tend to focus more on factual
knowledge and less towards metacognitive knowledge, and operate at low-order level in the
cognitive domain. In other words, technology learners are being taught factual knowledge at
the low-order level of thinking. Technology teachers tend to have lesson objectives that are known only to them. This might imply that teaching in technology occurs without proper
specific objectives.
Measures need to be put in place to intensify support to Technology teachers so that they
realise the importance of the formulation of lesson objectives that cover all the levels in the
knowledge and cognitive domains. Furthermore, Technology teachers should be encouraged
to state their lesson objectives explicitly. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/36788 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Mathumbu, David |
| Contributors | Braun, M . W. H., zalabantu@gmail.com, Rauscher, W. J. |
| Publisher | University of Pretoria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Rights | © 2012 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
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