Technology education in preschool: providing opportunities for children to use artifacts and to create

Technology has become an important area in the kindergarten’s training curriculum, but pre-schools/kindergartens in many countries have no tradition of teaching subjects, and research shows that many pre-school/kindergarten teachers are unsure of how to teach children about technology. This purpose of this study is to map recommendations for both pre-schools/kindergartens and for kindergarten/pre-school teacher education. The researchers investigated which elements employees include when teaching about technology.

The researchers identified seven categories within the field of technological training: Artefacts and systems in child environments, Create, Problem solving, Concept of technology, Experiments, Techniques/Motor skills and Natural Sciences. They found that (1) artefacts play a key role in pre-school technological training, and at least three verbs were associated with how these artefacts were addressed: use, create and understand, (2) the technological content of the training in government-regulated documents is described to varying degrees by the participants, and sometimes not at all, (3) expected elements such as play and the important role of employees are not expressed in the answers. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.

Data were collected through qualitative questionnaires that were sent to 10% of pre-schools in one municipality. The participants were pre-school teachers and kindergarten staff. In order to answer the research question, three open-ended questions were asked to the respondents. These were chosen with the intention of providing information about both content and activities in pre-school. The questionnaire responses were inductively analysed. In total, 102 respondents answered (73% of those who received the questionnaire), of which 63 were pre-school teachers and 39 were kindergarten staff. Seven participants were men, while 95 were women, and their age ranged from under 25 to over 50 years old. Of all the respondents, 16 had received training in technology and relevant didactics. 37 respondents reported that their workplace implemented a Reggio Emilia-inspired pedagogy, while seven respondents said they worked at an ICT (information and communication technology)-oriented pre-school. Two respondents reported that they worked according to a form of outdoor pedagogy. The rest of the respondents did not report any specific pedagogical profile regarding their workplace.

In order to answer the research question, three open-ended questions were asked to the respondents. These were chosen with the intention of providing information about both content and activities in pre-school.

Sundqvist, P. & Nilsson, T. (2018). «Technology education in preschool: providing opportunities for children to use artifacts and to create». International journal of technology and design education, 28(1):29-51.