Hierarchical structure of the importance of teaching context in general technology education

The teaching context can play an important and sometimes key role in learning process, and thus in achieving the goals of general technology education. Given the integrative function of technology education, which integrates knowledge from different fields into applicable and meaningful student activities, the quality of achieved teaching goals often determines the future professional and career development of pupils. Therefore, the implementation of teaching in an appropriate context, which will provide students with the opportunity for successful learning, is an important segment of the success of technology education. However, in the real school environment, learning and teaching often take place in a decontextualized way, which is why the teaching goals that society expects from the individual are not achieve. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to establish and argue the importance of specific elements of the context of teaching general technology education and to build a hierarchical structure of these elements that will give priority to certain elements over others. In this way, at the level of policies, but also at the level of operationalization of the curriculum, they want to lay the foundations that will ensure the appropriate achievement of the goals of this teaching, as a segment of education important for the development of each individual. For this purpose, a qualitative analysis of the existing research of the teaching context and the attitudes of teachers of technical culture towards the role of the teaching context in achieving the goals of teaching was conducted. The results of two previous empirical researches conducted by the authors used for the analysis, and the results of which indicate the consistent attitudes of teachers, as important factors in the quality of each teaching. Based on the analysis, the hierarchical structure of the elements of the teaching context was established, and the importance of each element for achieving the main goals of general technology education was qualitatively argued. The analysis highlights the priority groups of elements of the teaching context, which divided into dominant activities, significant periodic activities, dominant contextualization, subject-specific contextualization, and general contextualization. The dominant group consists of pupils‘ activities with artifacts of technology, presentation of their own results, use of models and simulations, service learning activities and professional excursions. Other elements can be considered only a part or means of contextualizing teaching. Ultimately, the selected groups and all elements of the teaching context were implemented in the model of contextual learning and student development, as the backbone of learning and teaching in general technology education. The model basically represents a cycle of reflection on learning and teaching technology, which can be applied to every level of learning and teaching engineering and technology. Such a model can, at the macro and micro level, form the basis for the planning, organization and implementation of general technological education and thus be an important theoretical basis for the operationalization of the curriculum of this teaching.