Design and Technology

Piaget said,
"The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done … men who are creative, inventive, who discover".

Technology has emerged as one of the greatest factors affecting change in our lives.

"The big picture curriculum" provides children with the necessary skills to approach our technological society with confidence.

"The big picture" is the educational branch of Lego, which has been introduced at WHPS starting in Grade 0 and culminating in a robotics component by Grade 7.

Design and Technology aims to:

• Promote creative and divergent thinking
• Promote creativity together with a sense of purpose
• Provide an active method of learning
• Provide a design-based problem solving activity
• Encourage communication, co-operation, compromise and consensus
• Encourage both individual and co-operative work
• Develop manipulative skills and pride in the finished product
• Encourage children to become creative, inventive and discoverers, who can be critical, can verify and who do not accept everything they are offered without question.

The reasons for Design and Technology in education:

• Technology is an important part of our daily life.
• It is essential for the economy of South Africa that a future technological work-force is educated with an entrepreneurial attitude and innovative and creative thinking skills.
• A basic knowledge of technology is indispensable; not only for technical jobs, but for all professions.
• To survive in a technological work and cope with the technological products that surround us, technological literacy is needed.
• To have control over our technology-affected environment, insight into its nature is essential.
• To develop problem-solving skills which may be used in all aspects of life.

Pupils can become highly motivated through Technology Education, when developed and implemented in the right way, because it allows them to master the realisation of products that relate to human and social needs.

"Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all."

John F. Kennedy

Return from Design and Technology to WHPS Home Page