Lesley Cowling
THE Department of Education is testing new ways of implementing science and technology education at schools, an area that recent research has revealed is seriously inadequate.
South African standard five and six pupils came bottom of the class in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study -published last week – which tested students in 41 countries.
These problems are not news to the education department and to educationists, however, who have been looking at ways to improve sci-tech education for some time. Last year, in addition to maths and science, technology was identified as a key learning area for the first nine years of schooling.
A group called Technology 2005 has been set up by the education department to investigate how technology can be integrated into the schools system. Rod Sherwood, national director of Technology 2005, says its major focus right now is to create capacity at South African schools for the subject.
“The problem is that technology has no history in the school system,” he says. This means no curriculum, no scheduled classes and no trained teachers of technology in most schools.
But the subject is being tested at pilot schools all over the country, with the idea of looking at teaching methodology and trying out curricula. Eventually, the pilot schools will be used to extend the subject to other schools, with the aim of getting all schools on board by the year 2005.
Technology should add value to maths and science by allowing them to be used practically in the classroom. Sherwood says that, particularly in primary school years, “the best practice is to deliver technology, science and maths in an integrated way”.
Andre Goosen, who is part of the Technology Association, a group of teachers and people interested in sci-tech education in the Western Cape, says some schools are turning the subjects formerly known as metalworking, woodworking and handwork into technology teaching by changing the focus of the courses.
#Students still make things, but their aim is to solve a problem rather than to learn to be proficient with a hammer and saw. Goosen’s pupils at Sacs, a primary school in Cape Town, have to design their objects before they make them.
The objects may be simple – a pencil box or a small bridge made from cardboard or plastic – but the children learn basic principles of structure and design through building them. “It’s practically the process an industrialist will take to develop a new product,” he says.
Goosen believes technology courses in schools need not rely on expensive equipments and materials – waste products can be used and simple tools – and that the crucial component is the way the courses are designed.
The Technology Association organises meetings and workshops for teachers who are interested in the subject, and has them designing and building as a first step in understanding the process.
Professor Gerald Nurick, president of the South African Institution of Mechanical Engineers, says the biggest challenge the engineering departments face is “getting a technology ethos into our younger generation”.
The institution has launched a technology olympiad for schools and an international expo for young scientists that will take place next year. The institution is also involved in workshops for teachers, many of whom are unqualified to teach science, biology and maths.
However, it is not simply teachers that are the problem. The Foundation for Research Development has identified a number of critical indicators for pupils to be successful in maths, science and biology. These are proficiency in English; motivation among pupils; low pupil-teacher ratios; and adequately equipped laboratories.