Applying new educational models in ICT teaching and learning

Abstract

This paper presents a group of elements to improve the teaching and learning in technological education, applied to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). These elements are based on some contributions issued from contemporary education models, namely, the thematic approach, meaningful learning, concept maps and the spiral curriculum. Based on a thematic approach, a new way is proposed to select the contents that will be explored in the educational process. We emphasize the benefits of a thematic approach in students' motivation. After contents are chosen, we propose the use of the directives of meaningful learning and concept maps, as a method and a tool, respectively, to organize knowledge hierarchically, from general and inclusive concepts to the specific ones. This may facilitate the learning and understanding of the great bulk of knowledge to be covered in technological courses. A proposal has been submitted for a teaching module in ICT. The spiral curriculum was applied during the development of learning, where some fundamental concepts were introduced many times over, increasing more details gradually. A qualitative analysis of the application of these educational proposals, including learning evaluation aspects, is also presented.