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Factors influencing the uptake of a mechatronics curriculum initiative in five Australian secondary schools

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An Erratum to this article was published on 14 February 2011

Abstract

While the ready-made Lego™ Robotics kits are popular in schools and are used by students at both primary and secondary year levels, using the Picaxe microcontroller (chip) to create simple electronic devices, including robotic devices is less popular. The latter imposes an additional challenge as a result of the need to construct the universal board with the chip in it—a challenge embraced in the cross-disciplinary mechatronics program in this study. This paper reports on how teachers from five Australian secondary schools put into practice technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) developed from expert-led workshops and explores factors (intrinsic and extrinsic) that influenced the implementation. The results show that different strategies were adopted by the schools in implementing the programs. While teacher attitude played an important role in influencing the program’s success, being able to identify where the program sits within the curriculum and planning around timetable and facility constraints were also important factors to consider. The research indicated that teachers’ TPCK was most challenged in non-obvious areas such as diagnosing where faulty soldering joints were.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the Commonwealth of Australia Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The initiative is called the Australian Schools Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics. We would like to thank Tony Stevens for his research assistance in the project.

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Correspondence to Howard Nicholas.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10798-011-9156-6

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 3.

Table 3 Template for preparing for mechatronics curriculum units: Partnerships, persistence, patience, precision and understanding

Appendix 2

Appendix 3: Teachers’ interview questions

  1. 1.

    Please explain the background to the school’s involvement in the Picaxe project

  2. 2.

    Can you describe your own background in terms of Picaxe?

  3. 3.

    Are there any similar types of technologies that have been used in your school to achieve the same outcomes as those proposed for the Picaxe project?

  4. 4.

    Please describe your involvement in the project from the early times to the period just after the fair in (June/July)

  5. 5.

    What were some of the challenges your school faced in terms of getting the project running?

  6. 6.

    Probe above in terms of:

    1. a.

      Management support

    2. b.

      Infrastructure

    3. c.

      Project team support

    4. d.

      Attitudes: staff/students

  7. 7.

    What were some of the highlights of the project for you?

  8. 8.

    Did you ever feel frustration during the project? What led to this?

  9. 9.

    If you were ever to implement a project like this again (‘you had your time over again’) what would you do differently?

  10. 10.

    In what ways do you believe this type of technology might benefit students in the learning process? (Probe)

  11. 11.

    In what ways could this product hinder students in the learning process? (Probe)

  12. 12.

    What was the development environment like at your school—would you describe it as collegiate, leader-personality driven (who?) or some other approach (specify)?

  13. 13.

    Did you have any contact with other schools? What happened?

  14. 14.

    General comments?

Appendix 4

An example of how observations were documented.

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Nicholas, H., Ng, W. Factors influencing the uptake of a mechatronics curriculum initiative in five Australian secondary schools. Int J Technol Des Educ 22, 65–90 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-010-9138-0

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