Opportunities for learning design and technology skills and values in the Maltese curriculum

Abstract This research was motivated by the changing nature of technologies and the idea that despite constant change, the skills and values required to harness these new technologies may have some underpinning commonalities. The rationale of the study revolves around the fact that new technologies are emerging at very fast rates and a comprehensive updated curriculum would include skills and values which are relevant to the design and operation of future technologies. It is therefore important to research what skills and values are required and also if a country’s current curriculum documents are up to date. The context of the Maltese curriculum was chosen to identify whether opportunities are present for learning advanced skills and values within the context of the curricular subject of Design and Technology. The methodology of the research includes a narrative thematic literature review which was carried out to identify the common features of new technologies as well as the skills and values required to harness them. This was then followed by semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of six key experts coming from different professional backgrounds. A thematic analysis of the interview transcripts was carried out. The results of the narrative thematic literature review showed that with regards to new technologies, they would be digital or supporting automation of processes, and related to or supporting a view to sustainability. The results from the thematic analysis of the interviews revealed eight themes which the experts believed were important: (a) access and cost of technology, (b) knowing your basics, (c) technology and communities, (d) cross-curricular learning, (e) constructivism, (f) mindsets (ways of thinking), (g) types of knowledge, and the (h) digital nature of new technologies. A list of skills and values required to harness new technologies was assembled by compiling a matrix relating the results from the literature, and the thematic analysis of the interviews. From this matrix it was concluded that while the Maltese National Curriculum Framework (NCF) presents many of the ingredients that are required for a sound conceptualization of technology, the links to an up to date definition of technology education are not sufficiently made due to the narrow view of technology that the NCF holds. The latter’s view sees technology as the application of science and as being composed principally of artifact design-and-make activities only. While the NCF presents opportunities for the conceptualization of technology as artifacts, it lacks, to differing degrees, in presenting opportunities for the conceptualization of technology as knowledge, processes, and volition in accordance with a more recent philosophy of technology and futuristic requirements of technological skills and values. It is recommended that a new National Curriculum Framework aligns itself more with research in design and technology philosophical and educational trends.