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Curriculum strands and component descriptors
Technological practice
Technological practice refers to the iterative practices involved in: establishing needs or opportunities, exploring and defining potential outcomes, and modelling, evaluating and testing these to ensure resulting outcomes are fit for purpose.
Students examine others’ practice and undertake their own technological practice, developing a range of outcomes that may include: conceptual designs, plans, technological models, briefs, and fully functioning prototypes and/or systems.
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Indicators of progression
Indicators of progression have been developed for each technological practice component.
These describe the achievement objective, offer teacher guidance, and provide indicators of expected student performance/understanding at levels 6, 7, and 8.
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The components of technological practice
Brief development
Brief development is a dynamic process to define what is to be done and why it should be done, and to establish the specifications that an outcome needs to meet.
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Planning for practice
Planning for practice involves the efficient management of resources to ensure completion of an outcome.
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Outcome development and evaluation
Outcome development and evaluation can involve developing products and systems from an initial idea to a fully realised outcome that is evaluated in situ.
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Technological knowledge
Technological knowledge refers to the knowledge that is key to all technological endeavours – that is, conceptual understandings related to technological modelling, products, and systems.
Students develop an understanding of how and why things work. They understand that functional modelling is used to test and evaluate design ideas, concepts, and prototypes to determine their fitness for purpose in situ.
Students develop understanding of material properties and how material properties influence their use in products and systems.
They also learn how constituent parts of systems work together to form technological systems.
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Indicators of progression
Indicators of progression have been developed for each technological knowledge component.
These describe the achievement objective, offer teacher guidance, and provide indicators of expected student performance/understanding at levels 6, 7, and 8.
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The components of technological knowledge
Technological modelling
Technological modelling is concerned with functional modelling and prototyping to justify decision making in technological practice.
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Technological products
This component focuses on the relationship between the composition of materials and their performance properties and how this relationship impacts on the use of the materials in technological products. (Note that both the products and systems components are more relevant to some contexts than others.)
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Technological systems
Technological systems are a set of interconnected components that serve to transform, store, transport, or control materials, energy, and/or information. These systems exist as the result of human design.
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Nature of technology
Nature of technology refers to the philosophical underpinnings of technology as intervention by design.
Students develop an understanding of technology as a discipline, and of how it differs from other disciplines (for example, science, the arts).
Students learn to critique the impact of technology on society and explore current and historical issues in technology.
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Indicators of progression
Indicators of progression have been developed for each nature of technology component.
These describe the achievement objective, offer teacher guidance, and provide indicators of expected student performance/understanding at levels 6, 7, and 8.
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The components of nature of technology
Characteristics of technology
Students develop an understanding of technology as intervention by design.
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Characteristics of technological outcomes
This component focuses on technological products and systems as situated in their social and historic context.
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Last updated August 10, 2015