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THE CURRENT REFORMATION: THE COMPARISON BETWEEN OLD AND NEW LIVING TECHNOLOGY CURRICULA OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN TAIWAN

Ted Shir-Tau TsaiDirector, Graduate Institute of International Workforce Education & Development, National Taiwan Normal UniversityWen-Pin HsiehDirector of Academic Affairs, Kaohsiung Municipal Jui-hsiang Senior High School

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I. BACKGROUND-1

•Since the fall semester of 2002 academic year, the new “Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guide” was put into practice to replace the prior “Curriculum Standard” for grade 1-9 in Taiwan. •Ministry of Education (MOE) originally proposed to finish revising the Curriculum Standard in 2004, and put it into effective in 2005.

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I. BACKGROUND-2•Unfortunately, the arguments were without an end in the process of amending the Curriculum Standard. Under the pressure of reforming scheme, therefore, MOE can only presented a version of “Tentative Curriculum Guide” (TCG) and will implement it in 2006 academic year. •It has been delayed for one year and cannot be ready for this year’s senior high school freshmen who studied new curriculum during grade 1-9. The “Formal Curriculum Guideline” is expected to be implemented in 2009 academic year.

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I. BACKGROUND-3•Under the new TCG for grades 10-12 in Taiwan, “Living Technology” (LT) and “Home Economics” (HE) have been combined into the new “Living Learning Area”. •LT&HE share eight credit hours. Students are required to takes at least two credit hours of LT&HE in grade 10 and 12.

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II. THE HISTORY OF REVISING LT

CURRICULUM •LT and its preceder have been developed for about one hundred years in Taiwan, and the revision is made about once ten years. The previous course title for LT is “Industrial Arts” (IA). •In 1995 IA was replaced with LT. This article will analyze and compare the LT Curriculum announced in 1995 and 2005.

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III. OLD CURRICULUM STANDARD OF LT-1

•The old curriculum goals (1995) have the following characteristics: (1) Replace the name of IA to LT for the first time; (2) In order to incorporate the idea of gender equality in education, both HE & LT became the required courses for male and female students; (3) HE & LT are offered in the first and second years; (4) Each course has two hours every week and that may be arranged consecutively. The curriculum goals contained the aspects of cognitive, affection and skill.

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III. OLD CURRICULUM STANDARD OF LT-2

•The old LT curriculum is organized into four categories:

–“Technology and life”, –“Information and communication”,– “Construction and manufacturing”, and– “Energy and transportation”.

•Elective courses of LT includes “Drafting”, “Energy and Power”, and “Industrial Materials”.

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IV. NEW CURRICULUM GUIDELINE OF LT-1

•The new TCG of LT in senior high school views the “Technology and Life” core course (two credits) as required courses. •Besides, schools can choose another two or four credits to provide advanced lessons among six credits of “Technological areas” according to students’ needs or interests, teachers’ background, and school’s equipments and focuses.

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IV. NEW CURRICULUM GUIDELINE OF LT-2

•The LT core course in the upper-secondary education includes original technology subfields - communication, construction, manufacturing, transportation, energy, and new-added biological technology in “Technological World”, and puts more emphasis on studying “The Essence of Technology”, “Technology, Science, and Environment”, “Creative Design and Making”, and other themes.

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IV. NEW CURRICULUM GUIDELINE OF LT-3

•The new “Living Learning Area” (LLA) possesses eight credits, but LT&HE possesses varied teaching hours. The only requirement is that students should take at least two credits of LT&HE respectively. •Therefore, after new curriculum took effect, each school must decide how to allot teaching hours base on their situations. Besides, LLA should be offered in the first and third year in senior high school.

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IV. NEW CURRICULUM GUIDELINE OF LT-4

•The elective courses of LT can be delivered in the first, second, and third years. Students can take two to four credits. Elective courses includes :

–Technology and Engineering– Technology and Society–or select two or four credits of technological fields from the “Advanced Courses” of LT.

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IV. NEW CURRICULUM GUIDELINE OF LT-5

• After analyzing the new TCG of LT in senior high school, the following features could be concluded:

–1. Coherent with the upper-secondary education core courses–2. Integrate in Life Learning Area “Formally” –3. Emphasize design, hands-on, project-based and other learning activities–4. “Information Technology” is integrated into each topic, not presented individually–5. The content of instruction is flexible but the number of textbooks will be increased

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V. COMPARISON OF NEW AND OLD LT

CURRICULUM• The following course objectives, course outline, position of learning areas, required credits, grade of curriculum arrangement, arrangement of technology sub-fields, and elective courses of new and old LT curricula are analyzed and compared, shown as table 3.

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VI. CONCLUSION -1

• The Tentative Curriculum Guide of Living Technology has already appropriately corresponded to the developmental trend of international technology education (Fang & Lin, 2004).•Living Technology is required to be offered in the first and the third years. It will make Living Technology in crisis.

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VI. CONCLUSION-2 • Both Living Technology and Home Economics belong to “Living Learning Area”, under the condition of being equal; Living Technology can preserve its own identity. Therefore, the position of learning area of Living Technology is appropriate. •In short, this reformation of senior high school Living Technology curriculum in Taiwan brings the new face at the turning point. In the future, the teaching qualities and learning outcomes of Living Technology should be promoted constantly.