Developing Analytical and Synthetic Thinking in Technology Education

One of the most prominent characteristics of modern society is the increasing number of students acquiring technology education. An important question that must be dealt with, regarding this phenomenon relates to the nature of an appropriate technology education. A thorough examination of prevalent trends indicates that cultivating analytical skills constitutes an essential feature of science education, while within the framework of technology education mainly synthetic skills are being cultivated. Analytical thinking deserves little attention in processes of teaching technology, and is not adequately stressed in processes of constructing design skills. Apparently it seems that the different curricula adopted in science and technology education emanates from the inherent differences between research methodologies in science as opposed to design in technology. Whereas analytical thinking is typically related to the scientific process, synthetic thinking manifested in planning, building and developing is an essential part of design processes. However, several stages requiring analytical thinking can be identified in the design process. These stages mainly characterize the initial process and include analyzing the task, the selection of an appropriate model, formalization, etc. Technology is viewed, within the conceptual framework of our research, as a discipline based on two types of thinking: synthetic and analytical, occurring both in the realm of practice (in the real world) and the realm of theory (using symbolic representations of the real world). The hypothesis examined in this research relates to the desired interactions between the two types of thinking, as well as to the manner of their integration in processes of teaching and learning. We hypothesize that integrating the above mentioned types of thinking might enhance the efficiency of technology instruction. In order to examine the hypothesis an interactive learning environment SMILE (State machine Interactive Learning Environment) has been developed. SMILE enables the designing of computer systems by using different representations (Flowcharts, State Machine Graphs, etc). SMILE enables both the designing of computer systems (synthetic thinking) and the analyzing of systems by using formal procedures (analytical thinking). The main question that has been posed in this research focuses on examining the nature of the desired interaction between analytical and synthetic thinking (both in real design processes and in their symbolic representations) in planning teaching and learning activities by using the SMILE system.