Difficulties and Opportunities when Teaching About Technological Systems in K-12

Socio-technical systems are studied in compulsory school (pupils aged 7–16) in Sweden. The purpose is to increase pupils’ understanding of how technology and society affect one another by highlighting the interaction between technological artefacts, humans, institutions, and society at large. Many teachers find this subject difficult to teach, and therefore avoid it. To rectify this, a course module about socio-technical systems for teachers was instigated at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. This study was conducted during that course, and shows that teachers are affected by their educational backgrounds in their understanding of the systems; those who are trained in social sciences prioritize different aspects of the systems in their teaching than do those who have started out in the natural sciences. It also shows that the formulation of learning objectives in this area is very difficult for most teachers and few students include goals that relate to more general knowledge in areas such as genderrelated issues, historical aspects or environmental issues. Few of the students showed the ability to create a varied learning environment; searching information on the Internet and writing reports dominate the students’ suggestions. Understanding of socio-technical systems has the potential to bridge the gap between engineering and various aspects of society in education. It is therefore an essential part of technological literacy, and teacher training in the area should be improved.