| At the PATT-TIPE conference in Breukelen, last year April, I presented the results of a short questionary. The general conclusion was that all teachers liked to give technology education a greater place in their lessons, but they didn’t know how to do. In 1993 the Netherlands government published an actionplan to give technology a place in Dutch primary schools.
The action plan described three main lines along which the stimulation of technology education must take place. These lines are:
a) to develop methods and material
b) to react on action that takes place around the primary schools
c) to teach the new teachers
To realise and to co-ordinate this plan a committee was formed under the name Steering group for technology in primary education. This group described what they will use as the working definition of technology education.
Working definition of technology
Technology is a field of human activities, based on collections, knowledge and skills, by which humans provide themselves with the means to adapt the environment to their needs, both in their own interest and in the interest of the group. In primary education there are five aspects which are very important:
- The process of technology is central
- The knowledge of technical principals
- Technology has a historical component
- Technology and society
- Materials, energy and information
The main activity was to start a project that would give a lot of schools (1500 from the 8000 schools for primary education) material and lessons in technology. There were 15 project chosen to be presented to the schools. The schools could make their choice and in January 1996 they received the material and the lessons. I will give a few examples of the projects presented to the schools. | 
Ph.D., Lic. Theses
