Abstract
D.Ed.
The school is an institution that came into being on demand of the community and as such is
also responsible to the community for all its activities. This entails that the teaching provided by
the school should be directed, amongst other things, to the interests and needs of the learners
and the community. To ensure that the teaching is systematic, purposeful and progresses
according to specified contents, all school activities are organized by a programme, known as a
curriculum.
This research was directed at a definite aspect of formal teaching provision, viz.
vocationally-oriented education and more specifically to technical education at secondary school
level. Observation and commentary from various sources indicate that the relevance of
technical education at school level is questioned by post-school "users of technical education".
This is particularly pertinent if it is considered against the background of, inter alia, the appeal
for a greater shift in emphasis of vocationally-oriented and vocational education, the revision of
the broad curriculum for pre-tertiary education that is currently being undertaken and the
economic, social and political climate that prevails in the RSA at present.
The problem for the present research was defined against this background as the search for
measures to ensure that the curricula for the technical field of study at school level comply with
the needs and demands of the community with specific reference to the post-school "users of
technical education". The purpose of the study centres around the development of a curriculum
for technical education. As a result of restrictions imposed on the extent of the study the
developmental activities were curtailed to the design of a part-theory that comprises a situation
and goal analysis followed by the setting of guidelines for a structure whereby the contents for
the electrical field of study (as exemplar for the technical field of study) can be selected and
organized. In achieving this aim, brief consideration was initially given to the didactic-pedagogic
founding of the school curriculum and curriculum development as a process.
An extensive literature study was subsequently undertaken regarding technical education at
school level (as a form of vocationally - oriented and vocational education). This literature
investigation mainly covered two fields, viz. the historical development of technical education at
school level in the RSA and definite aspects directly related to the provision of
vocationally-oriented vocational education and specifically technical education at school level.
Regarding the latter, consideration was given, amongst others, to relevance and differentiation
as principles of educational provision, the task of the school with reference to the provision of
generally-oriented and specialized education (vocationally-oriented and vocational education), the
status of technical education as well as the rationalization of technical subjects at school level...