Teacher Knowledge and Understanding of Design and Technology for

Children in the 3-11 Age Group: A Study Focusing on Aspects of Structures

Eric Parkinson
2001
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v13n1/parkinson.html

Understanding Natures Design for a Nanosyringe

Carlos F Lopez, Steve O. Nielson, Preston B. Moore, and Michael L. Klein
2004
http://www.pnas.org/content/101/13/4431.full

Identifying Shared Understanding in Design Using Document Analysis

Andrew Hill, Shuang Song, Andy Dong, and Alice Agogino
2001
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alice_Agogino/publication/2573362_Identifying
_Shared_Understanding_In_Design_Using_Document_Analysis/links/0fcfd507c7476a
a34d000000.pdf

Summary
Teacher Knowledge and Understanding of Design and Technology for
Children in the 3-11 Age Group: A Study Focusing on Aspects of Structures
This article focuses on issues related to teacher knowledge and
understanding, mainly in the areas of science and technology. The student age
range that this article pays special interest to is from 3-11. It is within these years
that students must develop the fundamental skills and confidence necessary to

succeed in these fields. The article begins its discussion of the topic with
professional concerns, such as the types of activities teachers use to instruct in
these areas. With such a broad topic, it is important that the curriculum encompass
all that it can. Thus the concern arises, are todays educators educated enough
themselves to be able to properly teach todays youth on this topic?
The article then address several misconceptions about the field. With such a
field that is largely made up of minds contrasting each other, misconceptions can
arise, especially with children, about the true nature of the subject. The authors
point out that it can be difficult to teach a subject that is about open-mindedness.
Teaching certain ways of doing things can create a bias towards other ways of
achieving goals. Although, without some instruction, it can be argued that students
will not know where to begin.
The latter portion of the article discusses a study that was conducted using
student teachers to investigate problem-solving instruction. The subjects were to
build a bridge using limited materials and were given more specifications than a
child would have been given to add challenge for the adults. The study found that
certain instructions given limited the outcome of the bridges. Although, the study
found that some of the terms used to describe the bridges, such as weak and
strong, were broad and did allow for open-mindedness. Overall, the study found
that even though the subjects were given certain instructions, they still managed to
use their own intuition to come up with different ideas for the bridge construction.