Learning Good Electronics or Coping With Challenging Tasks: The Priorities of Excellent Students

In today’s competitive society, the secondary school serves as a crucial stage in acquiring a higher education, a profession, and the social and economic status that these provide. Technology education in high school is the last stage prior to seeking employment and embarking upon a career or seeking further education. Unfortunately, it is an elective program in most countries. Thus, students who do not opt for technology studies in high school miss an essential part of the program. Not studying technology in high school creates a three-year severance—from the completion of technology studies in junior high school until graduation from high school and beginning the process of acquiring a higher education and a profession. Since technology has never been a basic part of education in the eyes of students and their parents, there is a considerable gap between the prestigious image of technology and the actual status of technology education as an elective subject in high school. The situation in which outstanding students choose to opt out of technology studies in high school severely weakens the status and centrality of technology education. The effort to attract outstanding students to technology studies in high school is the spearhead of efforts to strengthen technology education and enhance its status. Without a cadre of excellent students, technology education may be perceived as being of secondary importance, not only in high school, but also in the entire spectrum of K-12 education. In Israel, technology education plays a central role in high schools. Approximately fifty percent of high school students major in technology, at different levels, at comprehensive high schools. This system is subject to conflicting pressures. On the one hand, the system is intended to cultivate the excellent students, who are interested in topics such as electronics, computers, and robotics. On the other hand, technology studies in high school have become the main educational framework for students with lower achievement, who take the matriculation exams at the most basic level or finish high school without a certificate that enables them to go on to a higher education. This is a manifestation of the conflict between the prestigious image of technology on the ___________________________