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Swati Mehrotra

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Papers by Swati Mehrotra

Puppetry as a Technology Education Unit

Analyzing Best Practices in Technology Education, 2007

Teachers' appropriation of game-based pedagogy: A comparative narrative

This paper was presented at the 20th International Conference on Computers in Education, held in ... more

Narrating professional development trajectories in the context of the Statecraft X game-based learning curriculum

Teaching and Teacher Education, 2014

ABSTRACT This article examines the professional development trajectories of two teachers who impl... more ABSTRACT This article examines the professional development trajectories of two teachers who implemented the Statecraft X digital game-based learning curriculum. The research project&#39;s objective was to enhance teachers&#39; capacities to enact game-based learning curricula. Teachers participated in guided reflective questioning after their dialogic sessions that generated narratives. The narratives reported here indicate that teachers&#39; professional development experiences were influenced by their personal practical knowledge. These experiences had a powerful influence on them as developing professionals and in transforming their pedagogical practices. These findings have implications for teacher professional development with respect to game-based learning and teachers&#39; readiness for 21st century classrooms.

Authentic game-based learning and teachers’ dilemmas in reconstructing professional practice

Learning, Media and Technology, 2014

Teachers who attempt pedagogical innovation with authentic digital games face significant challen... more Teachers who attempt pedagogical innovation with authentic digital games face significant challenges because such games instantiate open systems of learner activity, inviting inquiry learning rather than knowledge acquisition. However, school environments are normatively sanctioned cultural spaces where direct instruction and high stakes tests are de riguer. In this paper, we draw on the conceptual frame of dilemmatic spaces to illuminate the dilemmas teachers encounter when attempting to reconstruct professional practice in the classroom. We worked with nine teachers who enacted the Statecraft X social studies curriculum. Drawing on coded interview data, our findings suggest that teachers are forced to wrestle with tensions engendered by misalignments that emerge from the innovation's tacit requirement for change and the system's inherent gravitation toward maintaining the status quo. A school culture that cultivates innovative practice based on greater teacher agency is needed for authentic game-based learning to find traction in the classroom.

Reflective, Reflexive Guided Appropriation: Facilitating Teacher Adoption of Game Based Learning in Classrooms

The use of games to advance learning in the classroom often appeals to teachers perplexed by stud... more The use of games to advance learning in the classroom often appeals to teachers perplexed by students who disengage from conventional instructional processes. However, the research literature suggests that enthusiasm quickly wanes when obstacles are encountered and things do not work out as expected. Consequently, the take--�up of game--�based learning is inhibited, and the “scaling” of techno--�pedagogical innovations into routine classroom practice stalls. Recognizing that teacher preparation is crucial for successful implementation of innovative game- based curriculum in the classroom, a process-centric “appropriation model of innovation uptake” was initially suggested as a conceptual tool with which to approach the said challenge. This model draws on ideas from Coburn (2003) on “rethinking scale” in the context of school reform, as well as those of Clark and Dede (2009). The suggested model shifts the focus of attention from a system perspective of “scaling” to a model where the...

Professional development for scaling pedagogical innovation in the context of game-based learning: teacher identity as cornerstone in “shifting” practice

Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 2014

Notice: Changes introduced as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing and formattin... more

Designing design tasks for Indian classrooms

Title Effective game based citizenship education in the age of new media Effective Game Based Citizenship Education in the Age of new Media

Abstract: Educational systems worldwide are being challenged to respond effectively to the digita... more Abstract: Educational systems worldwide are being challenged to respond effectively to the digital revolution and its implications for learning in the 21st century. In the present new media age, educational reforms are desperately needed to support more open and flexible structures of on-demand learning that equip students with competencies required in a globalized and multicultural world. Game-based learning represents one pathway to educational reform through its emphasis on performance. In this paper we describe the Statecraft X game-based learning program that blends performative game-based learning with dialogic pedagogy in the context of citizenship education. The Statecraft X curriculum was designed with the understanding that a digital game on its own does not necessarily lead to meaningful student learning. Rather, it is the students together with their peers and aided by their teacher who must work together to make meaning of their in-game experiences and connect these exp...

Effective Game Based Citizenship Education in the Age of New Media

Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 2013

Educational systems worldwide are being challenged to respond effectively to the digital revoluti... more Educational systems worldwide are being challenged to respond effectively to the digital revolution and its implications for learning in the 21st century. In the present new media age, educational reforms are desperately needed to support more open and flexible structures of on-demand learning that equip students with competencies required in a globalized and multicultural world. Game-based learning represents one pathway to educational reform through its emphasis on performance. In this paper we describe the Statecraft X game-based learning program that blends performative game-based learning with dialogic pedagogy in the context of citizenship education. The Statecraft X curriculum was designed with the understanding that a digital game on its own does not necessarily lead to meaningful student learning. Rather, it is the students together with their peers and aided by their teacher who must work together to make meaning of their in-game experiences and connect these experiences t...

Studying Indian Middle School Students' Attitudes towards Technology

by Swati Mehrotra and Sugra Chunawala

gnowledge.org

Understanding students' ideas is a key step towards meaningful learning. Perception and atti... more

Effective Citizenship Education Through Mobile Game Based Learning: The Statecraft X Curriculum

ABSTRACT Educating for effective citizenship remains a largely elusive goal in schools. All too o... more ABSTRACT Educating for effective citizenship remains a largely elusive goal in schools. All too often, schools only educate students about citizenship. This outcome does not translate into the dispositions and capacities for active citizenship widely sought in students’ post-school years. To address traditional weaknesses of citizenship education in schools, we developed and researched the Statecraft X curriculum in classrooms. Unlike learning about content related to citizenship, students learn governance and its relation to citizenship by enacting governorship, that is, by performing governance. Performance is enacted through role taking in immersive game play on a mobile device—an Apple iPhone—and through dialogic conversations in the classroom, where students reflect on the significations arising from game play. Teachers facilitate these conversations and help students to “play between worlds” by making pertinent connections between issues arising in the game world and in the real world. They encourage students to be reflexive in their learning, directing them to the actions that they took in playing the game and thinking through the ensuing consequences. In this paper, we report an implementation of the Statecraft X curriculum in a Social Studies class attended by 42 15-year-olds attending a government secondary school. At the conclusion of the three-week curricular program, students wrote an extended essay related to governance that served as the summative assessment. They were asked to identify key issues of personal concern and to suggest how the government should deal with the problems highlighted. The essays of the intervention class were compared with those of a control class comprising 40 students who were taught governance using traditional instruction. Essays were evaluated on the basis of four criteria: (1) multiple viewpoints, (2) solutions supported by evidence and argumentation, (3) disposition of active citizen, and (4) persuasiveness. The results indicate that students of the intervention class outperformed those of the control class on all four criteria. Our findings suggest that the Statecraft X curriculum has efficacy in achieving the desired curricular learning outcomes. We discuss some challenges that teachers needed to work through and to resolve in order to effectively appropriate the understandings, beliefs, and dispositions essential to enacting the curriculum successfully in the classroom.

Facilitating dialog in the game-based learning classroom: Teacher challenges reconstructing professional identity

ABSTRACT Despite widespread interest in the use of digital games to engage students and enhance t... more ABSTRACT Despite widespread interest in the use of digital games to engage students and enhance the quality of student learning, the teacher’s perspective has been less extensively studied. The challenges that teachers face when enacting authentic game-based learning predicated on dialogic pedagogy in the classroom offer powerful opportunities for professional learning despite potentially engendering stressful experiences. In this paper, we draw on the conceptual frame of dilemmatic spaces to theorise and document challenges teachers encounter when learning to enact dialogic facilitation in a game-based learning curriculum. Based on coded interview data drawn from nine teachers, our findings suggest that teachers wrestle with tensions engendered by habituated modes of classroom teaching and the need to redefine power relations with students. They experience a gap between their existing professional practice when they embark on the curriculum—their being—and striving to perform the role of an effective dialogic teacher—their becoming. The (re)construction of teacher identity that emerges is contingent on how teachers respond to continuing professional development as well as how they deal with challenges they face in the classroom.

Authentic game-based learning and teachers' dilemmas in reconstructing professional practice. [doi: 10.1080/17439884.2014.953958]

Learning, Media and Technology, 40 (4), 514–535, Dec 1, 2015

Teachers who attempt pedagogical innovation with authentic digital games face significant challen... more Teachers who attempt pedagogical innovation with authentic digital games face significant challenges because such games instantiate open systems of learner activity, inviting inquiry learning rather than knowledge acquisition. However, school environments are normatively sanctioned cultural spaces where direct instruction and high stakes tests are de riguer. In this paper, we draw on the conceptual frame of dilemmatic spaces to illuminate the dilemmas teachers encounter when attempting to reconstruct professional practice in the classroom. We worked with nine teachers who enacted the Statecraft X social studies curriculum. Drawing on coded interview data, our findings suggest that teachers are forced to wrestle with tensions engendered by misalignments that emerge from the innovation’s tacit requirement for change and the system’s inherent gravitation toward maintaining the status quo. A school culture that cultivates innovative practice based on greater teacher agency is needed for...

COGNITION IN ACTION IN DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY UNITS AMONG MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

by Ritesh Khunyakari, Sugra Chunawala, and Swati Mehrotra

In Chitra Natarajan and Beena Choksi (Eds.). Proceedings of epiSTEME2: International conference to review research on Science, Technology and Mathematics Education., 2007

In technology education, designing and making are often discussed as two distinct entities. Howev... more In technology education, designing and making are often discussed as two distinct entities. However, design is the core of technological activities. Design pervades all the phases including making, of Design and Technology (D&T) education units that we have developed for middle school level. We conducted trials of these among school students in three socio-cultural settings. This paper attempts to highlight the link between students' conceptualization of a plausible solution, namely designing and its actualization as artefact. The links are exemplified by our observations of students in one D&T unit on making a windmill model to lift given weights. The paper also suggests a framework for analysing the cognitive aspects involved while students collaboratively made an artifact designed by them.

DIALOGUES IN FORMAL COMMUNICATION: A STUDY OF STUDENTS' TALK IN A D&T UNIT IN INDIA

by Swati Mehrotra, Sugra Chunawala, and Ritesh Khunyakari

In Chitra Natarajan and Beena Choksi (Eds.). Proceedings of epiSTEME2: International conference to review research on Science, Technology and Mathematics Education., 2007

Communication is an important element of schooling and yet it receives little attention in the re... more Communication is an important element of schooling and yet it receives little attention in the regular classroom teaching and learning contexts. According to Kimbell (1991) communication plays an important role in any design and technology activity and is essential at various stages in the Design-Make-Appraise approach. The study being reported here was conducted with Indian middle school students in three socio-cultural settings and focuses on communication aspects that were specifically built into a design and technology unit. It examines the nature of dialogues that students engaged in on two occasions – formal communication of design and reflections on the product. The recordings of students' talk were analysed using a modified form of the categories developed by Dawes et al (1992). This paper reports differences in the kind of talk that emerged among boys and girls within a setting and among students across the three social settings in the unit on puppetry.

Using Pictures and Interviews to Elicit Indian Students' Understanding of Technology

by Swati Mehrotra, Sugra Chunawala, and Ritesh Khunyakari

In J. R. Dakers, W. J. Dow and M. J. de Vries (Eds), Teaching and Learning Technological Literacy in the Classroom: Pupils' Attitudes Towards Technology (PATT 18) Conference, 2007

This paper reports on a survey aimed to elicit students' understanding of technology. The survey ... more This paper reports on a survey aimed to elicit students' understanding of technology. The survey was carried out with over 200 students of Grade 6 (11-14 years old) from schools in and around Mumbai, India. Two questionnaires: 'technology-as-objects' and 'technology-as-activities' were administered followed by interviews on a sub-sample. Analysis indicates that objects and activities related to communication and transport, especially modern gadgets used in urban areas were often considered technological. Objects presented along with humans were perceived more related to technology than objects alone. Most interviewed students had consistent reasons for associating objects and activities with technology. They believed that technology has existed in the recent past, has evolved and is ubiquitous now. Scientists and researchers were credited with creation of technology while others were mere users. The utilitarian and human-made nature of technological artefacts and its role in speeding work were emphasised as reasons for associating objects and activities with technology.

Designing design tasks for Indian classrooms

by Sugra Chunawala, Swati Mehrotra, and Ritesh Khunyakari

Studying Indian Middle School Students' Attitudes towards Technology

by Sugra Chunawala, Swati Mehrotra, and Ritesh Khunyakari

In K. Subramaniam and A. Mazumdar (Eds.). Proceedings of epiSTEME3: An International Conference to Review Research in Science, Technology and Mathematics Education, 2009

Understanding students' ideas is a key step towards meaningful learning. Perception and atti... more

Design as Drawings: Analyzing Drawings of Middle School Students in Technology Education Tasks

by Sugra Chunawala, Swati Mehrotra, and Ritesh Khunyakari

epiSTEME1: an International Conference to Review Research on Science Education, Abstracts of presentation, 2004

Objectives Technology tasks engage its participants in a variety of activities: investigation, pl... more

Evidences of Learning Through Collaboration in Design and Technology Tasks in Indian Classrooms

by Sugra Chunawala, Swati Mehrotra, and Ritesh Khunyakari

In K. Subramaniam and A. Mazumdar (Eds.). Proceedings of epiSTEME3: An International Conference to Review Research in Science, Technology and Mathematics Education, 2009

Working together in a group or teamwork is a soft skill that is highly valued in the job market. ... more

Puppetry as a Technology Education Unit

Analyzing Best Practices in Technology Education, 2007

Teachers' appropriation of game-based pedagogy: A comparative narrative

This paper was presented at the 20th International Conference on Computers in Education, held in ... more

Narrating professional development trajectories in the context of the Statecraft X game-based learning curriculum

Teaching and Teacher Education, 2014

ABSTRACT This article examines the professional development trajectories of two teachers who impl... more ABSTRACT This article examines the professional development trajectories of two teachers who implemented the Statecraft X digital game-based learning curriculum. The research project&#39;s objective was to enhance teachers&#39; capacities to enact game-based learning curricula. Teachers participated in guided reflective questioning after their dialogic sessions that generated narratives. The narratives reported here indicate that teachers&#39; professional development experiences were influenced by their personal practical knowledge. These experiences had a powerful influence on them as developing professionals and in transforming their pedagogical practices. These findings have implications for teacher professional development with respect to game-based learning and teachers&#39; readiness for 21st century classrooms.

Authentic game-based learning and teachers’ dilemmas in reconstructing professional practice

Learning, Media and Technology, 2014

Teachers who attempt pedagogical innovation with authentic digital games face significant challen... more Teachers who attempt pedagogical innovation with authentic digital games face significant challenges because such games instantiate open systems of learner activity, inviting inquiry learning rather than knowledge acquisition. However, school environments are normatively sanctioned cultural spaces where direct instruction and high stakes tests are de riguer. In this paper, we draw on the conceptual frame of dilemmatic spaces to illuminate the dilemmas teachers encounter when attempting to reconstruct professional practice in the classroom. We worked with nine teachers who enacted the Statecraft X social studies curriculum. Drawing on coded interview data, our findings suggest that teachers are forced to wrestle with tensions engendered by misalignments that emerge from the innovation's tacit requirement for change and the system's inherent gravitation toward maintaining the status quo. A school culture that cultivates innovative practice based on greater teacher agency is needed for authentic game-based learning to find traction in the classroom.

Reflective, Reflexive Guided Appropriation: Facilitating Teacher Adoption of Game Based Learning in Classrooms

The use of games to advance learning in the classroom often appeals to teachers perplexed by stud... more The use of games to advance learning in the classroom often appeals to teachers perplexed by students who disengage from conventional instructional processes. However, the research literature suggests that enthusiasm quickly wanes when obstacles are encountered and things do not work out as expected. Consequently, the take--�up of game--�based learning is inhibited, and the “scaling” of techno--�pedagogical innovations into routine classroom practice stalls. Recognizing that teacher preparation is crucial for successful implementation of innovative game- based curriculum in the classroom, a process-centric “appropriation model of innovation uptake” was initially suggested as a conceptual tool with which to approach the said challenge. This model draws on ideas from Coburn (2003) on “rethinking scale” in the context of school reform, as well as those of Clark and Dede (2009). The suggested model shifts the focus of attention from a system perspective of “scaling” to a model where the...

Professional development for scaling pedagogical innovation in the context of game-based learning: teacher identity as cornerstone in “shifting” practice

Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 2014

Notice: Changes introduced as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing and formattin... more

Designing design tasks for Indian classrooms

Title Effective game based citizenship education in the age of new media Effective Game Based Citizenship Education in the Age of new Media

Abstract: Educational systems worldwide are being challenged to respond effectively to the digita... more Abstract: Educational systems worldwide are being challenged to respond effectively to the digital revolution and its implications for learning in the 21st century. In the present new media age, educational reforms are desperately needed to support more open and flexible structures of on-demand learning that equip students with competencies required in a globalized and multicultural world. Game-based learning represents one pathway to educational reform through its emphasis on performance. In this paper we describe the Statecraft X game-based learning program that blends performative game-based learning with dialogic pedagogy in the context of citizenship education. The Statecraft X curriculum was designed with the understanding that a digital game on its own does not necessarily lead to meaningful student learning. Rather, it is the students together with their peers and aided by their teacher who must work together to make meaning of their in-game experiences and connect these exp...

Effective Game Based Citizenship Education in the Age of New Media

Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 2013

Educational systems worldwide are being challenged to respond effectively to the digital revoluti... more Educational systems worldwide are being challenged to respond effectively to the digital revolution and its implications for learning in the 21st century. In the present new media age, educational reforms are desperately needed to support more open and flexible structures of on-demand learning that equip students with competencies required in a globalized and multicultural world. Game-based learning represents one pathway to educational reform through its emphasis on performance. In this paper we describe the Statecraft X game-based learning program that blends performative game-based learning with dialogic pedagogy in the context of citizenship education. The Statecraft X curriculum was designed with the understanding that a digital game on its own does not necessarily lead to meaningful student learning. Rather, it is the students together with their peers and aided by their teacher who must work together to make meaning of their in-game experiences and connect these experiences t...

Studying Indian Middle School Students' Attitudes towards Technology

by Swati Mehrotra and Sugra Chunawala

gnowledge.org

Understanding students' ideas is a key step towards meaningful learning. Perception and atti... more

Effective Citizenship Education Through Mobile Game Based Learning: The Statecraft X Curriculum

ABSTRACT Educating for effective citizenship remains a largely elusive goal in schools. All too o... more ABSTRACT Educating for effective citizenship remains a largely elusive goal in schools. All too often, schools only educate students about citizenship. This outcome does not translate into the dispositions and capacities for active citizenship widely sought in students’ post-school years. To address traditional weaknesses of citizenship education in schools, we developed and researched the Statecraft X curriculum in classrooms. Unlike learning about content related to citizenship, students learn governance and its relation to citizenship by enacting governorship, that is, by performing governance. Performance is enacted through role taking in immersive game play on a mobile device—an Apple iPhone—and through dialogic conversations in the classroom, where students reflect on the significations arising from game play. Teachers facilitate these conversations and help students to “play between worlds” by making pertinent connections between issues arising in the game world and in the real world. They encourage students to be reflexive in their learning, directing them to the actions that they took in playing the game and thinking through the ensuing consequences. In this paper, we report an implementation of the Statecraft X curriculum in a Social Studies class attended by 42 15-year-olds attending a government secondary school. At the conclusion of the three-week curricular program, students wrote an extended essay related to governance that served as the summative assessment. They were asked to identify key issues of personal concern and to suggest how the government should deal with the problems highlighted. The essays of the intervention class were compared with those of a control class comprising 40 students who were taught governance using traditional instruction. Essays were evaluated on the basis of four criteria: (1) multiple viewpoints, (2) solutions supported by evidence and argumentation, (3) disposition of active citizen, and (4) persuasiveness. The results indicate that students of the intervention class outperformed those of the control class on all four criteria. Our findings suggest that the Statecraft X curriculum has efficacy in achieving the desired curricular learning outcomes. We discuss some challenges that teachers needed to work through and to resolve in order to effectively appropriate the understandings, beliefs, and dispositions essential to enacting the curriculum successfully in the classroom.

Facilitating dialog in the game-based learning classroom: Teacher challenges reconstructing professional identity

ABSTRACT Despite widespread interest in the use of digital games to engage students and enhance t... more ABSTRACT Despite widespread interest in the use of digital games to engage students and enhance the quality of student learning, the teacher’s perspective has been less extensively studied. The challenges that teachers face when enacting authentic game-based learning predicated on dialogic pedagogy in the classroom offer powerful opportunities for professional learning despite potentially engendering stressful experiences. In this paper, we draw on the conceptual frame of dilemmatic spaces to theorise and document challenges teachers encounter when learning to enact dialogic facilitation in a game-based learning curriculum. Based on coded interview data drawn from nine teachers, our findings suggest that teachers wrestle with tensions engendered by habituated modes of classroom teaching and the need to redefine power relations with students. They experience a gap between their existing professional practice when they embark on the curriculum—their being—and striving to perform the role of an effective dialogic teacher—their becoming. The (re)construction of teacher identity that emerges is contingent on how teachers respond to continuing professional development as well as how they deal with challenges they face in the classroom.

Authentic game-based learning and teachers' dilemmas in reconstructing professional practice. [doi: 10.1080/17439884.2014.953958]

Learning, Media and Technology, 40 (4), 514–535, Dec 1, 2015

Teachers who attempt pedagogical innovation with authentic digital games face significant challen... more Teachers who attempt pedagogical innovation with authentic digital games face significant challenges because such games instantiate open systems of learner activity, inviting inquiry learning rather than knowledge acquisition. However, school environments are normatively sanctioned cultural spaces where direct instruction and high stakes tests are de riguer. In this paper, we draw on the conceptual frame of dilemmatic spaces to illuminate the dilemmas teachers encounter when attempting to reconstruct professional practice in the classroom. We worked with nine teachers who enacted the Statecraft X social studies curriculum. Drawing on coded interview data, our findings suggest that teachers are forced to wrestle with tensions engendered by misalignments that emerge from the innovation’s tacit requirement for change and the system’s inherent gravitation toward maintaining the status quo. A school culture that cultivates innovative practice based on greater teacher agency is needed for...

COGNITION IN ACTION IN DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY UNITS AMONG MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

by Ritesh Khunyakari, Sugra Chunawala, and Swati Mehrotra

In Chitra Natarajan and Beena Choksi (Eds.). Proceedings of epiSTEME2: International conference to review research on Science, Technology and Mathematics Education., 2007

In technology education, designing and making are often discussed as two distinct entities. Howev... more In technology education, designing and making are often discussed as two distinct entities. However, design is the core of technological activities. Design pervades all the phases including making, of Design and Technology (D&T) education units that we have developed for middle school level. We conducted trials of these among school students in three socio-cultural settings. This paper attempts to highlight the link between students' conceptualization of a plausible solution, namely designing and its actualization as artefact. The links are exemplified by our observations of students in one D&T unit on making a windmill model to lift given weights. The paper also suggests a framework for analysing the cognitive aspects involved while students collaboratively made an artifact designed by them.

DIALOGUES IN FORMAL COMMUNICATION: A STUDY OF STUDENTS' TALK IN A D&T UNIT IN INDIA

by Swati Mehrotra, Sugra Chunawala, and Ritesh Khunyakari

In Chitra Natarajan and Beena Choksi (Eds.). Proceedings of epiSTEME2: International conference to review research on Science, Technology and Mathematics Education., 2007

Communication is an important element of schooling and yet it receives little attention in the re... more Communication is an important element of schooling and yet it receives little attention in the regular classroom teaching and learning contexts. According to Kimbell (1991) communication plays an important role in any design and technology activity and is essential at various stages in the Design-Make-Appraise approach. The study being reported here was conducted with Indian middle school students in three socio-cultural settings and focuses on communication aspects that were specifically built into a design and technology unit. It examines the nature of dialogues that students engaged in on two occasions – formal communication of design and reflections on the product. The recordings of students' talk were analysed using a modified form of the categories developed by Dawes et al (1992). This paper reports differences in the kind of talk that emerged among boys and girls within a setting and among students across the three social settings in the unit on puppetry.

Using Pictures and Interviews to Elicit Indian Students' Understanding of Technology

by Swati Mehrotra, Sugra Chunawala, and Ritesh Khunyakari

In J. R. Dakers, W. J. Dow and M. J. de Vries (Eds), Teaching and Learning Technological Literacy in the Classroom: Pupils' Attitudes Towards Technology (PATT 18) Conference, 2007

This paper reports on a survey aimed to elicit students' understanding of technology. The survey ... more This paper reports on a survey aimed to elicit students' understanding of technology. The survey was carried out with over 200 students of Grade 6 (11-14 years old) from schools in and around Mumbai, India. Two questionnaires: 'technology-as-objects' and 'technology-as-activities' were administered followed by interviews on a sub-sample. Analysis indicates that objects and activities related to communication and transport, especially modern gadgets used in urban areas were often considered technological. Objects presented along with humans were perceived more related to technology than objects alone. Most interviewed students had consistent reasons for associating objects and activities with technology. They believed that technology has existed in the recent past, has evolved and is ubiquitous now. Scientists and researchers were credited with creation of technology while others were mere users. The utilitarian and human-made nature of technological artefacts and its role in speeding work were emphasised as reasons for associating objects and activities with technology.

Designing design tasks for Indian classrooms

by Sugra Chunawala, Swati Mehrotra, and Ritesh Khunyakari

Studying Indian Middle School Students' Attitudes towards Technology

by Sugra Chunawala, Swati Mehrotra, and Ritesh Khunyakari

In K. Subramaniam and A. Mazumdar (Eds.). Proceedings of epiSTEME3: An International Conference to Review Research in Science, Technology and Mathematics Education, 2009

Understanding students' ideas is a key step towards meaningful learning. Perception and atti... more

Design as Drawings: Analyzing Drawings of Middle School Students in Technology Education Tasks

by Sugra Chunawala, Swati Mehrotra, and Ritesh Khunyakari

epiSTEME1: an International Conference to Review Research on Science Education, Abstracts of presentation, 2004

Objectives Technology tasks engage its participants in a variety of activities: investigation, pl... more

Evidences of Learning Through Collaboration in Design and Technology Tasks in Indian Classrooms

by Sugra Chunawala, Swati Mehrotra, and Ritesh Khunyakari

In K. Subramaniam and A. Mazumdar (Eds.). Proceedings of epiSTEME3: An International Conference to Review Research in Science, Technology and Mathematics Education, 2009

Working together in a group or teamwork is a soft skill that is highly valued in the job market. ... more