Abstract:

In 2001, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded a four-year grant for the “TECH-know Project” collaboration for the development of Technology Education standards-based instructional materials. The topics covered in these units included communications, manufacturing, transportation, medical, agriculture and biology, construction, and power & energy. These units were also identified with the Standards for Technological Literacy, National Science Education Standards, Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. In late 2005, twenty units of instruction were published and made commercially available.

In researching the “TECH-know Project” units, these curriculum materials were field-tested by a purposeful sample of twenty-two technology education classrooms from nine USA states. An assessment instrument was developed on each specific unit in order to ascertain students’ pre-content knowledge through criterion-referenced tests (CRT) based on core science, math, and technology education concepts and principles identified and embedded into those instructional units. These CRTs were developed within the course of the project’s expert content development and pilot testing. After treatment, a matching post-CRT followed. According to analysis testing, results concluded that all units of instruction had a significant affect on student’s scores in technology, mathematics and science content.

In addition to the CRTs, a questionnaire was developed and delivered to ascertain information students’ access to communication technologies outside the classroom that included personal computers and software, Internet access, video games, and digital imaging technologies. Results were gathered from 473 students participating in field-testing these new Technology Education curriculum materials.

Of the 20 units developed for the “TECH-know Project” this subgroup study focused on four specific field-tested communication technology units. These four units covered topics related to website development, digital photography, digital video, and desktop publishing. The four chosen field-tested units incorporated classroom in six states from both rural and suburban settings. The samples were designed to have six technology education teachers, one in each State, with three middle school and three high school technology education classrooms, with each teacher field-testing two units, with at least 30 students per classroom. These samples provided observations on variables of gender, grade level, teacher influence, and unit of instruction results on the pretest and post test assessments of the treatments.

The goal of the subgroup research was to investigate and present any observable connections between students’ pre-course knowledge of the content of the four communication units of instruction and their availability or access to information and communication technologies outside the classroom. For this evaluation, analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were performed to achieve a better understanding of pre-content knowledge and access to communications technologies at home. A portion of this research found that students with access to computers outside the classroom demonstrated a significant relationship between their pre-content knowledge and understanding of the communication technology curriculum. Would further analysis on access to communication technologies outside the classroom offer similar significance? These were the goals of this study.

Keywords:

Communication Technology, Technology Education, Research on Access.