Abstract
There has been very little research into children’s technological practice in early childhood settings. This article describes four typical examples of the technological activity that occurs on a daily basis in New Zealand early childhood settings. It is suggested that children come to compulsory schooling with well-developed technological knowledge and competence in instigating and carrying out technological tasks that is not recognized and taken advantage of by the majority of primary early years programme developers and teachers. A number of ways by which early years school technology programmes could benefit by recognizing the extent of children’s emergent technological literacy and amending programme delivery and teaching strategies are detailed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alkon, I. (2004). The chicken and egg project. Early Childhood Research & Practice [Electronic Journal], 6(2).
Anning, A. (1992). Factors effecting design and technology capability at Key Stages 1 and 2. DATA, 24, 10–15.
Anthony, G., & Walshaw, M. (2009). Mathematics education in the early years: Building bridges. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 10(2), 107–121.
Austin, A. M. B., Blevins-Knabe, B., Ota, C., Rowe, T., & Knudsen Lindauer, S. L. (2011). Mediators of preschoolers’ early mathematics concepts. Early Child Development and Care, 181(9), 1181–1198.
Bruce, T. (2004). Developing learning in early childhood. London: Paul Chapman Publishing.
Carr, M. (2000). Technological affordance, social practice and learning narratives in an early childhood setting. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 10(1), 61–79.
Crebbin, J. (1998). Cows in the kitchen. Somerville: Candlewick Press.
Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Daniel, A., & Daniel, L. (1992). Old McDonald had a farm. Bothel, WA: Wright Group.
De Boo, M. (2006). Science in the early years. In W. Harlen (Ed.), ASE Guide to primary science education (pp. 124–132). Herts: The Association for Science Education.
Dehaene, S. (1999). The number sense: How the mind creates mathematics. London: Penguin.
Dockett, S., & Fleer, M. (1999). Play and pedagogy in early childhood: Bending the rules. Melbourne: Thomson.
Doyle, M., & Rinaldi, A. (2002). Cows. London: Simon & Shuster.
Fleer, M. (1996). Talking technologically in preschool and school: Three case examples. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 21(2), 1–6.
Fleer, M. (1997). The technical language children use at home. Early Childhood Folio A Collection of Recent Research, 3, 23–28.
Fleer, M. (1999). The science of technology: Young children working technologically. The International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 9(3), 269–291.
Fleer, M. (2000). Working technologically: Investigations into how young children design and make during technology education. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 10(1), 43–59.
Fleer, M., Jane, B., & Robbins, J. (2004). Designerly thinking: Locating technology education within the early childhood curriculum. Early Childhood Folio: A Collection of recent research, NZCER, 8, 29–33.
Floerchinger, J. (2005). The lunch project. Early Childhood Research and Practice [Electronic Journal], 7(1).
French, L. (2004). Science as the center of a coherent, integrated early childhood curriculum. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 19, 138–149.
Geist, E. (2001). Children are born mathematicians: Promoting the construction of early mathematical concepts in children under five. Young Children, 56(3), 12–19.
Gustafson, B., & Rowell, P. (1998). Elementary children’s technological problem solving: Selecting an initial course of action. Research in Science & Technology Education, 16(2), 151–163.
Hope, G. (2001). Taking ideas on a journey called designing: A model for explaining design drawing to young children. Journal of Design and Technology Education, 6(3), 197–200.
Howitt, C., Morris, M., & Colvill, M. (2007). Science teaching and learning in the early childhood years. In V. Dawson & G. Venville (Eds.), The art of teaching primary science (pp. 233–247). Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Jane, B. (2004). What are the effects of tinkering experiences in early childhood? Paper presented at the Australian Research in Early Childhood Education, Frankston, Victoria.
Jane, B., & Robbins, J. (2004). Grandparents supporting children’s thinking in technology. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education, Melbourn.
Johnston, J. (2005). Early explorations in science (2nd ed., pp. 29–59). Maidenhead, England: Open University Press, Read.
Martin, B., & Hay, G. (2008). Discovery time: Developing key competencies through activity-based, child-directed learning. Wellington: Page Break Ltd.
Mawson, B. (2002). Developing technology in early childhood settings. Early Education, 29, 11–16.
Mawson, B. (2003). A question of values: Young children in a technological world. Early Education, 33, 13–18.
Mawson, B. (2007). Factors affecting learning in technology in the early years at school. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 17(3), 253–269.
Mawson, B. (2011). Technological funds of knowledge in children’s play: Implication for early childhood educators. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 36(1), 30–35.
Metz, K. E. (1993). Preschoolers’ developing knowledge of the pan balance: From new representation to transformed problem solving. Cognition and Instruction, 11(1), 31–93.
Metz, K. E. (1997). On the complex relation between cognitive developmental research and children’s science curricula. Review of Educational Research, 67(1), 151–163.
Metz, K. E. (2004). Children’s understanding of scientific inquiry: Their conceptualization of uncertainty in investigations of their own design. Cognition and Instruction, 22(2), 219–290.
Metz, K. E. (2011a). Disentangling robust developmental constraints from the instructionally mutable: Young children’s epistemic reasoning about a study of their own design. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 20, 50–110.
Metz, K. E. (2011b). Young children can be sophisticated scientists. Kappan, 92(8), 68–71.
Milne, L. (2004). Put your finger on your nose if you are proud of your technology!: Technology in the new entrant classroom. Set: Research Information for Teachers, No. 1, 31–46.
Milne, L., & Edwards, R. (2011). Young children’s views of the technological process: an exploratory study. International Journal of Technology and Design Education [Online First].
Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.
Ministry of Education. (2011). Education counts Electronic source. Available at http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/ece/prior-participation-in-ece.
Most, B. (2003). The cow that went oink. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Napper, I. (1991). The development of technological capability in young children. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 16(3), 23–27.
Neuman, W. L. (2000). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Park, B., Chae, J.-L., & Boyd, B. F. (2008). Young children’s block play and mathematical learning. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 23(2), 157–162.
Pound, L. (1999). Supporting mathematical development in the early years. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Roden, C. (1999). How children’s problem solving strategies develop at key stage 1. The Journal of Design and Technology Education, 4(1), 21–27.
Rogers, S., & Evans, J. (2008). Inside role-play in early childhood education: Researching young children’s perspectives. London: Routledge.
Rogers, G., & Wallace, J. (2000). The wheels of the bus: children designing in an early years classroom. Research in Science and technology Education, 18(1), 127–136.
Rogoff, B. (1997). Evaluating development in the process of participation: Theory, methods, and practice building on each other. In E. Amsel & K. A. Renninger (Eds.), Change and development: Issues of theory, method and application (pp. 265–286). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2009). Conceptualising progression in the pedagogy of play and sustained shared thinking in early childhood education: A Vygotskian perspective. Educational & Child Psychology, 26(2), 77–89.
Smorti, S. (1999). Technology in early childhood. Early Education, 19, 1–5.
Van Hoorn, J., Scales, B., Nourot, P., & Alward, K. (1999). Science in the play centred curriculum. In J. van Hoorn, B. Scales, P. Nourot, & K. Alward (Eds.), Play at the centre of the curriculum (pp. 135–156). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mawson, W.B. Emergent technological literacy: what do children bring to school?. Int J Technol Des Educ 23, 443–453 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-011-9188-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-011-9188-y