Exploring Practical, Disciplinary, and Engineering Reasoning in a High School Technology Classroom

This paper presents how students in a secondary school technology classroom navigated different forms of reasoning during the early stages of a design project to build gravity-powered street luges. The data collection methods included classroom observations, examining student artefacts, teacher interviews, and focus group discussions with students, the analysis identified three modes of reasoning, practical (trial-and-error), disciplinary (use of science and mathematics), and engineering (conceptual design integration). Findings show that students predominantly relied on practical reasoning early on in the project, with disciplinary concepts often referenced at a surface level. Engineering reasoning emerged later especially when triggered by testing failures or design constraints. This paper contributes to understanding how conceptual learning can be fostered through design-based activity and offers implications for strengthening interdisciplinary thinking in technology education.