Loughborough University Library: Open Journals
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Yep – We Can Do That: Technological response to the curriculum ‘needs’ arising…
Get PDFNew Zealand has recently released a new national curriculum presented as the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) (Ministry of Education, 2007). This document has significant implications for the future redevelopment of both the compulsory school curriculum and the non-compulsory senior secondary school curriculum. After a
general introduction, this paper is divided into three main sections. In the first section, I explain the ‘givens’ presented in the NZC, these being the overarching Principles, Values and Attitudes, and the Key
Competencies. I also outline the concept of ‘Learning Areas’ – as opposed to subjects. In the second section, I provide a brief overview of technology in New Zealand and present the key constructs of the revised technology learning area in the NZC. In the third section, I discuss and illustrate ways in which technology education can work to
address the ‘givens’ in innovative ways that support the development of student technological literacy and general citizenship. I conclude the paper with an acknowledgement of potential issues, and express my
opinion that while technology is well placed to respond to ‘needs’ arising, we should also be thinking about how much of this responsibility we should take on
Design and Technology Inside the Black Box: Assessment for learning in the design and technology classroom
Get PDFTitle: Design and Technology Inside the Black Box: Assessment for learning in the design and technology classroom Author/Editor: Judy Moreland, Alister Jones and David Barlex Publisher: GL Assessment Price: £5.00 Reviewed by: Kay Stables ISBN: 978 0 7807 1764 6 Orders: www.gl-assessment.co.uk
Standards in technology
Get PDFThis is an edited version of the Maurice Brown Memorial Lecture given by Professor Richard Kimbell at the NEC, Birmingham, 14th Nov 199
Gender issues: assessing boys as underachievers
Get PDFThis paper identifies the current weaknesses and misuse of national assessments within design and technology in making sophisticated judgements about the success and failure of particular groups. Firstly, there are weaknesses in the accuracy of teachers' assessments. Secondly, there are weaknesses in ensuring consistency between schools. Thirdly, there are weaknesses in the interpretation and delivery of content prior to assessment and finally, there are weaknesses in matching pupil capability with assessment. This paper concludes that damaging judgements against particular groups of pupils based upon existing assessment practices cannot be justified
Taking the Softer Option? Aspects of Year 9 Pupils' Attitudes to Using Materials
Get PDFThis paper is developed from research undertaken as part of a Masters degree programme at Middlesex University by T. Ford. The objective of the research was to try to understand Year 9 pupils' attitudes to the activity 'making'. It was hoped to abstract from the data: whether pupils preferred working with certain resistant materials over others and to derive a comparison with previous Crafts Council findings ('Pupils as Makers', 1995) pupils' views on the realised, practical outcomes of the making activity The work develops and to some extent supports the view that pupils have clear ideas of their own about the materials that they like to work with and how they should be applied to making products. These preferences correlate to the above Crafts Council findings
Creativity, Innovation and life in the Lily-Pond: nurturing the design and technology family while keeping the alligators fed. DATA International Research Conference: International Keynote
Get PDFCasting one’s net to capture understandings of creativity and innovation can produce a rich catch that includes: political and industrial ideal; cultural vogue; economic curative; educational whim; psychological theory; curriculum dream; a student’s right; or, a school’s duty. It would seem that everyone in the lily-pond has a claim but what is a reasonable balance and who should decide? If the whole business isn’t just a passing fad then practising design and technology (D&T) professionals have a challenge. The answer lies in a balanced diet of theory, experience, knowledge, history and foresight – and knowing when to chuck which alligator what chop.Key words creativity, innovation, design and technology, curriculum
A Visual Literacy Strategy - Why not?
Get PDFThe paper asserts that the National Curriculum subjects of 'art and design' and 'design and technology' have a fundamental connection that has not been fully recognised or exploited in primary schools. The two subjects help children to develop important skills of aesthetic awareness, discrimination and critical thinking and that they could do this through a common rationale and approach to the development of visual literacy. The paper goes on to review the term 'visual literacy'. A new term - 'visual field' is offered as a way of connecting objects and artefacts of both broadly functional and broadly aesthetic natures. Pedagogic frameworks in current use by primary teachers intended to promote critical discussion are analysed with reference to the visual field. It is concluded that each framework has a different emphasis yet each is concerned with and therefore connected by the visual field. The paper concludes that a coherent strategy to ensure all children have the opportunity to become visually literate should be developed
Young children's problem-solving in design and technology: towards a taxonomy of strategies
Get PDFDesign and technology tasks make great demands on young children's conceptual and procedural knowledge, yet little is known about the problem-solving strategies young children bring to these activities and how these strategies might be expected to develop in the early years classroom. The present research aims to identify and classify children's emergent, developing and changing problem-solving strategies in a longitudinal study and to trace these throughout Key Stage 1. The phase of this work described in this article looks closely at children engaged in design and technology tasks in two schools and describes the strategies they use. The children were observed through reception, Year 1 and Year 2 engaged in six different design and technology tasks. An attempt has been made from this data to generate units of analysis towards creating a taxonomy of young children's problem-solving strategies. These strategies appear to be inter-related developing from and building upon one another to form strategic patterns or styles. Questions emerge concerning young children's personal strategic style and the most effective strategies children use for solving problems in design and technology at this stage. It is suggested that an awareness of a taxonomy may help primary teachers to understand children's 'intuitive' ways of working and to offer the most useful support at the most appropriate time when guiding children through design and technology tasks in the classroom