“A sufficiently complex construction” and other conceptions of technology held by engineering students: A case study from Sweden
Paper in proceeding, 2011

Engineering has been described as a particular community of practice with its own tacit assumptions about the nature and purpose of engineering and technology. In this paper we investigate how engineering students conceptualise technology. Data was collected through ten interviews and the data was analysed using a phenomenographic approach, leading to six different conceptions of technology. Interestingly, the social dimension of technology was almost invisible in all conceptions. We discuss how these results can be used as an educational intervention to help engineering students to develop a more complex understanding of technology. We also outline the structure of a course aiming to increase students’ understanding of engineering as well as the relationship between science, technology and society.

technology

conceptions

phenomenography

students

Author

Jens Kabo

Chalmers, Applied Information Technology (Chalmers), Engineering Education Research - EER (Chalmers)

Tom Adawi

Chalmers, Applied Information Technology (Chalmers), Engineering Education Research - EER (Chalmers)

Proceedings of The 22nd Annual Conference for the Australasian Association for Engineering Education, 5–7 December 2011, Fremantle, Western Australia

286 - 291

Subject Categories

Educational Sciences

Learning and teaching

Pedagogical work

More information

Created

10/7/2017