Critical-aesthetic scenarios in technological comprehension – an inter-disciplinary approach

Abstract

This article explores how critical-aesthetic scenarios can be used in courses that include all four spheres of competence to help develop the didactics of the Danish subject “technology comprehension”. The article hypothesizes that such scenarios are well suited to support students’ digital empowerment through critical thinking due to their ability to allow students to leave their own point of view and critically consider the issue from multiple perspectives through processes involving work on materializations of ideas concerning technology and the consequences of the use of technology. Inspired by Design-Based Research, the study is based on a course in which grade 6 students developed digital artifacts that critically exhibit society’s use of health data. In the first part of the course, students designed a death clock predicting the date of a person’s death. In the second part, they designed a prototype for a health program targeting a client in one of three scenarios: a totalitarian state, a hospital, or the students’ own busi­ness. Empirical data were collected through observations and informal conversations during the lessons and interviews with the teacher, before being analyzed with a focus on the potential learning potential, actualized learning potential, and actual learning. The analysis reveals extensive potential learning potential that is only actualized in the classroom to a limited degree, resulting in limited actual student learning. These findings are discussed in relation to the article’s theoretical perspective as well as experiences gathered from the national trial of a subject in technology comprehension in order to qualify future lesson plans based on critical-aesthetic scenarios.