Page 105 - Standards for K-12 Engineering Education

Standards for K-12 Engineering Education?

90 STANDARDS FOR K–12 ENGINEERING EDUCATION?

Table 5 Sample of French Standards

2.5 Germany
As in Australia and the United States, German education is determined both nationally and by
the states. Each German state (Länd) is authorized to determine the content of the curriculum,
but the types of schools are defined at the national level. Primary education covers grades 1-4 or
1-6, depending on the state. Technology education is sometimes part of the curriculum, although
this is the exception rather than the rule. In secondary education, there are different school types,
representing different (cognitive) levels. The status of technology education, as well as the
extent to which it deals with engineering content, differs widely. In some states it is a separate
compulsory subject, in some it is part of a wider subject, often called work education, and in
some it is taught only in cross-disciplinary projects.

The city of Hamburg has a document that contains the senior secondary exam for technology
(Abiturprufung Technik); however, no document was found for the state of which Hamburg is
the capital. The document lists three domains of accomplishments (Anforderungsbereiche)
numbered I, II and III. In my analysis in Section 3, I will show the nature of these levels, each of
which is subdivided into content-related knowledge and skills and process-related knowledge
and skills. Most of these are described in behavioral language. The document also includes a
list of Operators: general skills for engineering, such as “name,” “describe,” “realize,”
“measure,” “estimate,” “develop,” design,” “choose,” “optimize,” and so on.

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