Abstract
We examined children’s and students’ recognition of the concepts of “science” and “technology.” A total of 3948 (947 elementary school children, 1,889 lower secondary school students and 1,112 upper secondary school students) were surveyed in order to obtain suggestions for the education system in the disciplines of science and technology, from the perspective of technology education. The results showed that the children and students easily recognized the term “science and technology” to mean something that is scientific. Industries related to food, clothing, and housing, such as “fiber,” “paper making,” “pottery,” and “architecture” were easily recognized as being technical. Manufacturing processes such as “product design,” “adjust and manage the machine,” and “maintenance and repair” were also easily recognized as technical. Junior high school students have come to recognize that the “machine,” “car,” and “information equipment and systems” industries, as well as jobs related to “manufacturing products,” are technical in scope.
