AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS´ KEY COMPETENCES AND KNOWLEDGE THROUGH
INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD
a
PETER BREČKA,
b
MONIKA VALENTOVÁ,
c
ALENA
HAŠKOVÁ
Department of Technology and Information Technologies,
Faculty of Education, Constantine the Philosopher University in
Nitra, Dražovská cesta 4, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia
email:
a
pbrecka@ukf.sk,
b
mvalentova2@ukf.sk,
c
ahaskova@ukf.sk
This contribution was created in connection with the project KEGA 021UKF-4/2018:
Development of teaching materials supporting pupil’s orientation for technical study
programs.
Abstract: The topic of the study is the issue of students´ key competence development
in relation to the use of digital technologies as supportive means in teaching processes.
In particular the attention is paid to the possibilities to develop students´ key
competences in teaching Technology, a compulsory subject at lower secondary
schools (ISCED 2) in Slovakia, based on the use of IWB in teaching/learning
activities. The objective of the research, presented in the article, was creation,
application and partial verification of an educational model aimed at key competences
and knowledge development through IWB in the subject of Technology. The authors
describe partial results of the created model verification with a research sample of
students of the 6th and 8th grade (aged 12 and 14 years). The results show that the
educational model contributes to the key competence development - especially
interpersonal competences and class interactions, stimulates mutual communication
and teamwork of students which are among the most demanded competences.
Keywords: Key competences, Lower Secondary Education, Technology, Interactive
Whiteboard (IWB).
1 Introduction
The life we are living today can be characterized very well as the
age of continuous information and communication technology
(ICT) development. These means have become a common part
of our everyday lives and they play a very significant role in
every sphere of the society – i.e. in education, too. Digital
technologies are implemented more and more into the
educational processes on every level of education, from pre-
school to higher education institutions (Brečka, 2014; Ormanci
et al., 2015; Drigas, Papanastasiou, 2014; Serow, Callingham,
2011). To ensure the best learning achievements of the broad
scope of students and through the achieved education to ensure
adaptability of young people to both their common life in the
society and the labour market requirements, development of so-
called key competences is becoming more and more emphasized
in most of the European countries (Pepper, 2011). That is why
currently education and teaching processes in many EU and
OECD member states, Slovakia not excluding, are trying to
follow the key competences development (Hutmacher, 1997;
Papak et al., 2015). Based on the employer survey aimed at the
primary key competences in the 21st century in 500 most
successful organisations worldwide, the most significant (by the
employer most required) key competences, arranged in order of
their priority, are these ones (Longworth, Davies, 1996): team
work, problem solving skills, interpersonal skills,
communication skills, listening skills, personal and professional
growth, creative thinking, leadership, defining goals and
motivation, writing and organization development. These skills
are not specific in relation to some particular science field or
school subject, they can be understood as cross-curricular, i.e. as
skills which should be developed in frame of each of the school
subjects. A question for educators is how to develop these skills
(key competences), through which means and what activities
(within a particular school subject). One of the possibilities how
to support the key competence development is to use interactive
whiteboards in teaching processes for this purpose. Hereinafter
we present results of a research aimed at the possibilities of the
key competence development by the use of these means in
teaching school subject Technology.
2 Background of the research
2.1 Teaching Technology at lower level of secondary schools
Technology is a compulsory school subject taught in Slovakia at
the lower level of secondary education (ISCED 2, in Slovak
conditions grades 5 – 9 of a basic school) with a time allocation
of 1 lesson per week in each of the grades 6 – 9). According to
the State Education Program (2015) the purpose of the school
subject is to form practical work habits of students, i.e. to
complete their general education with a component necessary for
one´s integration into the real practical life and the labour
market, too. Through practice oriented activities students acquire
safe work habits and learn to assess risk when working with
various materials and tools. Furthermore, students acquire basic
administrative and commercial skills such as time and resource
management.
The main objectives of education in this subject is the
development of:
technical creativity, which Hand (1985) defines as the
activity of students related to technology, characterized by
the full concentration of students on the technological
object of education;
technological literacy, which has been defined by several
authors including Dyrenfurth, Zoller and Toldsepp,
according to whom it is the technical education minimum
that should be acquired by each individual (Dyrenfuhrt,
1991);
technical thinking (complex of thought operations,
particularly the thought analysis of the work result
expectations, retaining and activating previously acquired
knowledge, skills and experiences, which may be used to
solve a particular given problem, in construction,
production process, and the synthesis of all the matters by
means of which the solver reaches the project design, in
other words the construction solution and processing of a
product (Škára, 1993);
spatial imagination, i.e. the ability to imagine/visualise
features of three-dimensional objects – their shape,
position, size, location (Tomková, 2014);
knowledge and skills related to technology, technical
materials and tools for their processing.
To teach Technology requests a great effort of Technology
teachers to ensure appropriate conditions mainly for the practical
activities of students. The teachers point out as the most frequent
problems related to teaching this subject insufficient technical
and material equipment to carry out inquire learning and
practical oriented activities of students, non-functional didactic
technology, out-of-date teaching aids including working tools
and measurement devices and absence/lack of specialized
classrooms (workrooms) for Technology teaching at schools
(Hašková, Bánesz, 2015; Pavelka, 2013). The mentioned is not
problem only for Slovakia, as there is evidence of this problem
also in other countries (Mellingsæter, Bungum, 2015; Öz,
Hüseyin, 2014; Tatli, Kilic, 2015; Redman, Vincent, 2015; Sahin
et al., 2010).
On the other hand the level of ICT equipment - school ratio has
been now-a-days quite satisfactory. But in this point we
distinguish between the ICT equipment of schools by such
“general” didactic technology means as are computers,
dataprojectors, interactive whiteboards or tablets and technical
equipment of schools in particular for teaching Technology
(technical means and teaching aids as saws, bench planes,
grippers, electronic and robotics kits etc.). So on the one hand
teachers are right when they point out the problem of insufficient
technical and material equipment to teach the school subject
Technology but on the other hand we are witnesses of the fact
that as to the equipment of schools by the ICT didactic
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