Abstract:
Most previous early technology learning research has reported children's responses to short,
intensive teacher-directed topics in diverse settings. Few studies have tracked children's
sustained investigations of their own technological questions.
Rather than examining a young child's appropriation of his teacher's technological narrative,
this study described and analysed a child's own narrative, in the telling, in a wide range of
contexts, over an extended period. To do so, one of us participated in one young child's
inquiry of his own technological question at home and in his extended community over a two year
period, describing how he exploited those means available to satisfy his curiosity. Plato's
Meno questions (about the subjects a learner selects, his methods of inquiry and whether he
knows he has learnt) provided a framework with which we could then gauge the development
of this young child's ideas about technological phenomena. Findings reveal the educational
significance of this child's pursuits: they qualify as learning, highlighting his capabilities and
the sustenance they receive within his community.
This study provides a model for technology teachers of young children, demonstrating how
they might adopt an active role alongside other members of children's learning communities
so as to nurture young children's technological capability, and an analytical framework by
which such capability can be judged. Implications can be drawn from this research for the
feasibility and worth a new kind of education in an information age, one in which children
have greater control of curriculum. Moreover, the three Meno questions provide a new and
significant basis on which children's technological capability can be assessed. Such rethinking
challenges present teacher education in technology.
