Technical education
Technical education can be broadly defined as the overall context of the educational processes and pedagogical concepts in dealing with technology as a whole and, in a narrow understanding, as a synonym for technical didactics of technology teaching.
Technical education in the broad sense
In a broader sense, technical education encompasses the overall context of educational processes and pedagogical concepts dealing with technology , technical action, engineered living environments and technical civilization .
The professionalization and institutionalization of technical education in the context of specific (school and extracurricular) educational institutions is an expression of the fundamental insight that technical action is one of the central modes of people for coping with their own lives and the social and cultural shaping of their living conditions. In the context of a comprehensive mechanization of the worlds of life and the constitution of ultra-modern knowledge societies as an omnipresent technical civilization, the demands on the technical competence of a sovereign, responsible and judgmental individual are presented in a special way.
The technical competence does not only aim at the sovereign use of engineered everyday culture or at a technical and scientific basic knowledge (technological literacy), but also includes a complex tableau of educational goals and places of education in a differentiated, high-tech culture and society. The educational theoretical model is the orientation towards the self-responsibility and self-development of the individual towards his biographical lifestyle as well as his social responsibility and his equitable participation in social prosperity and social change.
In this context, technical education can be conceptualized as an overarching connection between four central educational goals:
- Coping with life in technical civilization
- Development of a technical culture habitus
- To keep up with technical civilization
- Shaping and developing technical civilization.
Technical education in the narrow sense
In the Federal Republic of Germany, technical education, especially in pedagogical specialist discourse, is often understood in a narrow definition. In this sense, the term technical education is basically used as a synonym for a technical didactics of technology teaching ( technology didactics ), whereby a general educational technology didactics and a technical didactics in vocational education can be distinguished.
Technical education and educational science
Technical education is still a rather neglected area in the context of educational science as well as educational theory . In terms of specialist disciplines, it is usually assigned to vocational pedagogy and thus largely to pedagogy for vocational schools . In addition, it appears in the specialist discourses primarily as a topic and problem of specific specialist didactics.
Technical education in school
In the federal school and teaching landscape of the Federal Republic of Germany, there is no uniform, binding and systematic place for technical instruction. In primary schools , it is mostly an integral part of the subject teaching. In the secondary schools it is a (compulsory) component of handicraft lessons , industrial studies or AWT (work-works-technology) classes in various forms . In secondary schools , technology lessons are initially a compulsory subject and later as an elective. In contrast, at grammar schools, technology classes play largely no or at most an outsider role.
Technical education finds its most systematic pedagogical location as subject didactics of technology lessons in this respect above all in the vocational school system at vocational schools, vocational schools , technical colleges , etc., as well as in the tertiary education system of technical colleges and (technical) universities with their technical science courses (e.g. Engineering courses).
While the theoretical conceptualization of general technical education is still at the beginning, technical didactics in Germany can already look back on decades of professional discussion. Conceptually, different programmatic and theoretical didactic approaches can be distinguished. Schmayl differentiates between the general technological approach (AtA), the multi-perspective (MpA) and the work-oriented approach (AoA).
Technical education in pre- and extra-curricular pedagogy
Right up to the present day, technical education is a rather neglected area in the classic fields of activity of extracurricular child and youth education. Although traditionally, especially in some youth associations (e.g. DLRG youth, youth fire brigade, etc.) and associations (e.g. technical aid organization ), technical education is implicitly part of the self-image of youth association work and via Section 12 (3) KJHG (children and Youth Welfare Act) is also legally anchored in open youth work and youth association work, its educational conceptualization in extracurricular child and youth education is ultimately still in its infancy.
In this respect, new forms and model projects have developed in recent years outside of this classic pedagogical setting of child and youth education, which endeavor to provide “technical education for everyone”. The sponsors or initiators of this extracurricular technical education are on the one hand public institutions (e.g. ministries of education), but also technical and industry-related associations - e.g. B. VDI (Association of German Engineers), DGTB (German Society for Technical Education), Acatech , Komm-mach-MINT u. a. - Programs and concepts sometimes operate under the term MINT education (mathematics, computer science, natural sciences, technology).
Typical forms of offer in this segment are the so-called technical or scientific school laboratories , technology centers, youth technology schools, technology museums, technology workshops, MINT summer schools and the like. a. - Initiatives such as Girls' Day , which, from a gender perspective, particularly endeavors to strengthen technical education among girls and young women, can be regarded as short-term educational offers with an event character in this field . In the interests of orientation towards a cross-phase technical education, the area of early childhood education has increasingly come into focus in recent years. The expansion of all-day education in Germany also opens up new opportunities for educational cooperation between schools and extracurricular, company or university providers in the school, but also outside of the classroom, for the benefit of technical education outside of technical instruction.
literature
- Regina Buhr, Ernst A. Hartmann (Hrsg.): Technical education for all. Institute for Innovation and Technology, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89750-150-8 .
- Ludger Fast, Harald Seifert (Ed.): Technical education. Deutscher Studien-Verlag, Weinheim 1997, ISBN 3-89271-695-1 (congress report ).
- Wassilios E. Fthenakis et al. a .: Early technical education. Children under 6 years. Bildungsverlag Eins, Troisdorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-95469-089-3
- Winfried Schmayl: Pedagogy and Technology. Investigations into the problem of technical education. Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 1989, ISBN 3-7815-0640-1 .
- Winfried Schmayl, Fritz Wilkening: Technology lessons . Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 1995, ISBN 3-7815-0640-1 .
- Winfried Schmayl: Didactics of general technical instruction . Schneider Hohengehren, Baltmannsweiler 2010, ISBN 978-3-8340-0800-8 .
- Hans-Jürgen von Wensierski, Jute Sophia Sigeneger: Technical education. An educational concept for school and extracurricular child and youth education. Volume 1. Barbara Budrich, Opladen 2015 ISBN 978-3-8474-0626-6 .
- Christian Wiesmüller: School and Technology. Technology in school theoretical thinking. Schneider Hohengehren, Baltmannsweiler 2006, ISBN 3-8340-0076-0 .