Abstract

Today, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is a growing interest, concern, and need for technological literacy. To this end, the International Technology Education Association (ITEA) through the Technology for All Americans Project, has developed and promulgated the Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology. This effort is part of the ongoing initiative to develop technology standards on a national level, and to focus on what every student in grades K-12 should know and be able to do in order to achieve technological literacy (ITEA, 2000). The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceived knowledge, use, and acceptance of national content standards by industrial technology education teachers in the state of Arizona. This study used a descriptive survey design in which self-reported perceptional and demographic data were obtained from industrial technology education teachers in Arizona. The survey was delivered via the web for expediency and reduced cost in collecting the data. Due to the relatively small size of the population and historically low response rate from teachers in the field, a census study was conducted (Creswell, 2002). The instrument was adapted from a survey questionnaire developed through Utah State University after a review of the literature failed to reveal any validated instrument that could be used to collect the requisite data. In addition to investigating the perceived level of knowledge, use, and acceptance of national content standards, the study also investigated the perceptions of industrial technology teachers as to the importance of the content standards with regard to their students and to classroom instruction. Frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, and correlational analyses were performed on the data. Results of the study showed that in spite of a low percentage of membership in either the state or international governing organizations, the majority of industrial technology education teachers in Arizona endorsed all of the national content standards presented in the Standards for Technological Literacy. This is in contrast to an historic lack of acceptance of technology education by industrial arts teachers. The study also revealed that the majority of technology education teachers in Arizona perceived they would benefit from additional training on all of the standards.

Degree

MS

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology; Technology

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2005-12-06

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd1147

Keywords

standards, technological literacy, technology education, perceptions, standards-based training

Language

English

Technology Emphasis

Technology Engineering Education (TEE)

Download

Share

COinS