ABSTRACT
A most important feature of technology is that the emphasis is almost exclusively upon the physical sciences, and not, as is usually the case in primary schools, upon nature study. It is reasonably clear what is meant by the statement 'technology means the design and construction of original devices which perform a practical function'. Technology causes children to investigate the environment, but it also aims to introduce children to the concept of changing the environment by adding to it something useful which did not exist before. Teachers apart, the number of practising pure scientists must be very small, but the nature of science teaching remains influenced by the plainly unsupportable assumption that all children will become pure scientists. As far as resources permit, technology is given precedence over Science 5–13, and intra-school INSET has, as its major objective, the strong confirmation in practice of the order of priority.
