Toward a Humanistic-Technological Education Objectives & Means Amiad Gurewitz and Yoram Harpaz
The Ultimate Purpose: Education The goal of education of the technological schools of Reshet Atid (the Future Network) is to cultivate intelligent and decent individuals. Intelligent: thoughtful, deliberate, inquisitive, sensitive to context. Decent: considerate, generous, socially involved, exerting oneself for the benefit of society as a whole. We paint with such a broad brush intentionally, as our goal goes to the foundation and very essence of education itself it is pedagogical rather than economic, national, security-oriented, or otherwise. Our education, in the words of the Israeli educational philosopher Zvi Lamm, "is in charge of man's humanity"; or in Emmanuel Kant s terms, man which is to say, the student serves an end in itself, and is not simply a means to improving national welfare, security, or power or some other interest of the state. The technological education for which we stand, therefore, is technologicalhumanistic in nature. This point merits emphasis because vocational-technological education, as generally conceived, is deemed to be in the service of the economy, industry, security, or some similar national goal. By this instrumentalist logic, when the economy experiences a shortage of skilled labor in some industry, it is the educational system s responsibility to fill the gap. This rationale has narrowed the scope of vocational-technological education and thus denies its true purpose. Students in the Reshet Atid educational system, like those in the educational system more generally, respond to their educational influences, and the role of Reshet Atid is to support them in becoming intelligent and decent for their own sake and for the benefit of society as a whole. The goal of Reshet Atid, therefore, is identical with that of the general educational system to educate, to influence for the good, to provide youth with a foundation for a fulfilled and meaningful life. Accordingly, the view we espouse is that the vocational-technological educational system must engage in education. The state has other institutional frameworks for narrowly defined technological training. The educational system abandons its mission, its students, its parents, and its teachers when it permits economic and other agendas to dictate its goals and transform it into mere vocational training. This view does not rule out vocational training; it advocates technological training that is achieved in a pedagogical context, i.e., a context whose purpose is to develop and nurture man s humanity and the human being as an end in itself. Our educational view flows from a quintessentially social perspective: Students from poor or diminished socio-economic circumstances are in most cases both in our country and elsewhere steered towards schools that are engaged almost exclusively in narrow vocational-technological training, i.e., providing specific technical skills, predominantly in non-professional fields (fields not based on theoretical knowledge). Conversely, youth from more economically advantaged families generally attend schools that are more intellectually oriented education that provides general knowledge and cultural capital (or purports to do so). Our aim in Reshet Atid is to subvert this equation and leverage our technological world to its highest and best use education that nurtures students and opens them to full and gratifying lives. Technological education in this sense simultaneously serves governmental, social, and economic interests. In democratic civil societies, an enterprise economy demands intelligent and decent citizens and workers endowed with broad knowledge, thinking skills, general responsibility, and moral sensitivity. A narrow vocational-technological training may have been suitable to the industrial demands of the last two centuries but is ill-suited to the needs of the present, post-modern, post-industrial century. The 21 st century demands education! -3- -2-
Objectives & Means: The World of Technology Objectives In considering educational purpose, there ought not be a distinction between education generally and technological education. The purpose of both is to enable students to fulfill their human potential. The difference depends on the content: our content's realm the one through which we are teaching is technology ant it's various facets. It is a rich and complex realm that generates its distinctive objectives and means for technological education. There are four areas of endeavor in Reshet Atid technological-humanistic education: literacy; understanding; inventing; and directing. First Goal: Second Goal: Third Goal: Fourth Goal: Technological Literacy Technological Understanding Technological Invention Directing Technology Technical Thinking Theoretical Thinking Creative Thinking Ethical Thinking In this instance, the objective is This objective aims to assist This objective helps students This objective assists to assist the learners in gaining learners to construct understanding create ideas for new technologies students to internalize automatic, effortless, and of technology s scientific or perfect existing technologies. value judgments for proper autonomic, contextually intuitive, infrastructure and contexts social, development and proper mastery of skills required to use environmental, psychological, use of technology. the given technology. aesthetics and the like. These taxonomy of four goals serve as powerful levers to achieve our objective because technology is rich in human meanings and a lens through which to understand and improve the human condition. -5- -4-
Means Education is validated not by its declared objectives but, rather, by its means. Technological-humanistic education must be validated by its distinctive educational means. These include the curriculum, instructional patterns, assessment method, organizational structure, learning climate, physical structure, equipment, etc. These means must reflect our four levels of technological education literacy, understanding, invention, and direction. Here we offer three means. 1. Curriculum 2. Patterns of Teaching Comprised of four parts: (a) In technological literacy a range of specific skills; (b) In technological understanding technology s theoretical contexts (scientific, historical, sociological, climatological, aesthetic, etc.); (c) In technological invention description and analysis of technological invention and of entrepreneurial and creative thinking tools; and presenting ethical dilemmas relating to the development and use of technology. In the actual educational environment the school it isn t necessary to draw such stark distinctions among the four dimensions of technology. Any activity in one of the areas will impact others. Moreover, our aim should be for students to approach this subject matter in an integrated way. Nonetheless, we should pay attention to the four distinct levels as a means of directing our vocationaltechnological-humanistic pedagogy. A vision is not a dream; a vision must be feasible it must acknowledge and deal with its limitations. There are any number of constraints on our vision: mandated curriculum imposed by Departments of Education and Finance; examination systems; characteristics of students; quality of teachers; parental aspirations; school infrastructure; economic considerations; inertia of the prevailing vocationaltechnological pedagogy; and more. To realize our challenging technological-humanistic vision, we must rely on all the various parties involved in technology education. It takes a village to educate a child. -7- (a) In technological literacy providing skills by means of demonstration and praxis; (b) In technological understanding teaching for understanding that facilitates linkages between concepts and understanding performances; (c) In technological invention teaching that provides and develops tools and dispositions for creative thinking and that generates creative processes; and dialogical teaching relating to ethical dilemmas. -6-3. Assessment (a) In technological literacy evaluating the degree of effective mastery of technical skills; (b) In technological understanding evaluating the ability to employ theoretical concepts, to forge conceptual linkages, and present understanding performances; (c) In technological invention evaluating creativity, the ability to develop original concepts, to refine mechanisms, to register a patent, and the like in a completed project; evaluating the ability to address a moral dilemma in the form of an essay, oral presentation, symposium, dialogue, debate, etc.
The Objective Humanistic education through technology The Means Curriculum Pattern of teaching Method of assessment Organization Learning climate Building and equipment The Goals Technological literacy Technological understanding Technological invention Technological directing Studio Noam Tamari