Cognitive Science Concepts and Technology Teacher Education

In the early 1990s, Johnson (1992a) stated that technology educators had shown little interest in cognitive science-based research which he observed was unfortunate because of the close alignment between many concepts in cognitive science and technology education. That may be less true today, but the disconnect between being aware of these concepts and/or terms and teaching students to be able to consciously use these constructs to enhance learning is still apparent. It also appears that there is very little research on these cognitive science theories within the context of technology teacher education or technical education in general. This article explores technology teacher educators’ perceptions about and use of the following cognitive science theories: schemata, mental and graphic visualization, reflection and debriefing, situated learning or cognition, cognitive apprenticeship and its component parts modeling, coaching and scaffolding, and metacognition. These theories are followed by a discussion of a survey of a selected group of teacher educators. The survey focused on three questions: 1. How important do technology education teacher educators believe each of the identified cognitive science concepts are for inclusion in the preparation of preservice technology education teachers? 2. To what level do preservice teachers learn about or develop skills in each of these cognitive science concepts in preservice technology education teachers programs? 3. To what extent are these cognitive science concepts modeled and integrated intoclassroom instruction for preservice teachers?