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AD ALTA

JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

ASSESSMENT OF THE

INNOVATED STATE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM IMPACT

ON TECHNOLOGY LITERACY OF LOWER SECONDARY EDUCATION PUPILS (ISCED 2)

ALENA HAŠKOVÁ,

DANKA LUKÁČOVÁ

Constantine the Philosopher University, Faculty of Education,
Department of Technology and Information Technologies,
Dražovská cesta 4, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia
email:

ahaskova@ukf.sk,

dlukacova@ukf.sk

This work has been supported by the Cultural and Educational Grant Agency of the
Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic under the
project No. KEGA 021UKF-4/2018.

Abstract: The paper deals with realization of technology education in Slovakia on the
level of primary and lower secondary education - so called basic schools. (ISCED 1,
ISCED 2). At the first part of the paper, there is analysed impact of the curriculum
reform from 2008 and innovated State educational program from 2015 on the scope
and content of technology education. Consequently, in the second part of the paper
there are presented results of a research aimed at the impact of the reform and
innovated State educational program on the level of knowledge acquired by pupils 7

grade of basic schools in frame of teaching the school subject technology.

Keywords: Technology education. Technology literacy. Primary and lower secondary
education. School subject technology. Pupils` learning achievements. Curriculum
reform. Innovated State educational program. Content and performance standard.

1 Introduction

Technology has always constituted an important part of culture
in each type of society. On the other hand, progress of
technology has influenced, even determined, further
development of any type of society. Application of technology
knowledge in practice has created preconditions of the society
prosperity, and not only the recent ones but also the next ones.
As the main initiator of any application of technology
knowledge, technology innovation or change has always been,
and still will be, a man. That is why beside creative educated
people in general each society needs also creative educated
technicians and engineers. And that is why technology education
has always been an integral part of school education, although in
different types of societies and different countries this education
has been carried out in different ways. In some countries we can
find it to be taught incorporated within the scope of science
subjects while in others we can find it incorporated within the
school curricula as an independent school subject.

In Slovakia technology education has always been an integral
part of general education. Before 1995 technology education was
carried out within a freestanding school subject called work
education which was taught with the lesson allocation 2 lessons
per week at each grade of the second stage of basic education
(relevant to lower secondary education – ISCED 2). This
situation was changed twice, at first in 1996 and secondly in
2008. At the first change the name of the subject work education
was changed to technical education and the number of lessons
allocated for its teaching was decreased from 2 lessons per week
to 1 lesson per week, still in each grade of the lower secondary
education. The next change was done within the curricular
reform which came into operation through enactment of the new
Law on Education in 2008 (Law No 245/2008).

The most significant feature of the curricular reform in 2008 was
introduction of so-called State educational program and School
educational programs. As to the technology education, in frame
of the curricular reform the school subject technical education
was renamed to technology and was incorporated into the
educational area A man and the world of the work comprising of
three subjects: manual training (primary education ISCED 1: 4

grade, 1 lesson per week), world of the work and technology
(lower secondary education ISCED 2, both subjects taught
equally: in 7

grade 0.5 lesson per week and in 8

grade, 0.5

lesson per week). This means that the lesson allocation for
technology education (subject technology) was cut from 1 lesson
per week to only a half of a lesson per week taught already only
in 7

and 8

grade, or the school could determine the grade in

which the subject has been taught.

2 Background of the research

Standards-based initiatives in Slovakia have arisen after 1989,
when an effort to measure students` learning achievements has
started.

Standards describe the goals of schooling, the destinations at
which students should arrive at the end of some milestones of
their school attendance. They are usually composed of
statements that express what a pupil or student knows, can do, or
is capable of performing at a certain point in his/her learning
progression.

In the above mentioned definition of standards two kinds of
standards are referred to -- content standards (also called
learning standards, subject matter standards or academic
standards) and performance standards. Content standards
indicate what students should know and should be able to do. At
the same time the content standards describe the knowledge,
skills, and other understandings that schools should teach in
order for pupils or students to attain high levels of competency
in challenging subject matter, i.e. they reflect the ideas, skills,
and knowledge in each discipline that are important enough for
everyone to learn They are elements of declarative, procedural,
schematic, and strategic knowledge that, as a body, define the
specific content of an educational program. Performance
standards (sometimes identified as indicators) measure how well
(at which level – basic, proficient or advanced) a pupil or
student`s work meets the content standard, i.e. they define
various levels of competence in the challenging subject matter
set out in the content standards.

The genesis of educational standards in Slovakia started with a
gradual liberalization of pedagogical documents in the
Educational Research Institute (now-a-days the National
Institute for Education) in Bratislava. In the second half of the
year 1991 the Educational Research Institute started to deal also
with issues of norms related to basic school (primary and lower
secondary education) pupils` knowledge and skills. The goal of
these efforts was to develop and introduce into the practice
educational standards to selected school subjects. However, the
school subject work education (subsequent technical education)
was not included among the selected school subjects. In 1995 the
Educational Research Institute prepared Project of experimental
verification of educational standards for the 1

and 2

stage of

the basic school (basic education, i.e. primary and lower
secondary education) but the school subjects work education,
neither art education and music education, was not included in
the project.

The first proposal of the technical education educational
standards was prepared in 1995 by the subject committee of the
technology education, the commission of the National Institute
for Education as the Content and performance standard of
technical education for 5

– 8

grade of the basic school

(primary and lower secondary education, ISCED 1 - 2). In 1997
the elaboration of the technical education standard continued, in
particular there was carried out verification of the standard for
the core and alternative subject matter of technical education and
its respective parts. Beside the standard, questionnaires for head
teachers, teachers and pupils as well as didactic tests were
elaborated.

The educational standard came into force on September 1

2000. The standard consisted of two relatively independent parts,
content and performance standard. Each of them included three
chapters according to the subject segmentation into the particular
parts: technical education, plant cultivation works and family
education. Subject matter of technical education was divided
into the core and alternative subject matter. The educational
standard for the alternative part of the subject matter in its
technical part followed the requirements stated in the core

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