Technological knowledge, concepts and attitudes in nursery school

This paper reports on research undertaken in a French school with children from 3 to 6, in order to determine assessment items for the teaching of design and technology. The aim of the research was both to know the way young pupils perceive materials, artefacts and making processes, and to evaluate the advance induced by making activities. Among twenty one pupils from the three levels of French KS1, data about thirteen have been processed. A video-taped interview using objects was undertaken, the subjects then made some products in less than three hours. A similar interview was conducted following this. A change in the way pupils perceive artefacts is measurable : they do not designate things as much by their names, customary function or shape but are more interested in their structures. They have an improved ability to analyse the artefacts. Their attitude toward technological outcomes has changed from a user's to a producer's one.