Pupils’ ways of understanding programmed technological solutions when analysing structure and function

Abstract

Abstract Programming has recently become part of Swedish technology education; pupils should now be able to analyse existing programmed technological solutions, and be able to design new ones. Teachers facing this curriculum change need guidance on how to teach and what to address, based on how pupils understand the content. The aim of this study is to investigate pupils’ different ways of understanding programmed technological solutions when analysing their structure and function. Taking a phenomenographic approach, interviews were conducted with pupils aged 11–12. In the interviews, prepared contexts were used: Micro:bit constructions and programmed technological solutions from everyday life. The results show that pupils have different approaches to programmed technological solutions based on what parts are discerned in the prepared contexts, and also that pupils approach the two prepared contexts differently. The parts that are critical to discern in both of the contexts are the physical structure of components in the technological solution, how the components work and what their function is in the solution, as well as the logic in the code and how it controls the components and the flow of information that determines the function of the solution. The discernment of these parts is necessary to transcend the contextual details and generalize the understanding of structure and function in programmed technological solutions. These results have implications for teaching with concrete programming materials, suggesting a need to focus on facilitating discernment of the parts and addressing the similarities and the differences between different contexts in order to reach a generalized understanding.