Design and Technology Education (LJMU)
Not a member yet
602 research outputs found
Sort by
Visualizing the critique: Integrating quantitative reasoning with the design process
Get PDFIn the age of “Big Data,” information is often quantitative in nature. The ability to analyze information through the sifting of data has been identified as a core competency for success in navigating daily life and participation in the contemporary workforce. This skill, known as Quantitative Reasoning (QR), is characterized by the ability to integrate arithmetic, statistics, visualizations and models for the analysis and interpretation of information. For students of graphic design, QR competencies are essential for the design of effective visual displays of information.
This case study provides design educators with an assignment that introduces data analytics and visualization strategies to the design critique. The study describes how, in two sections of an undergraduate Information Design course, the traditional delivery of feedback through verbal dialogue was replaced with an anonymous survey. Responses were collated, stripped of identifiers, and distributed to the class with directions to create data visualizations of the critique. Students employed various mapping strategies in their visualizations and successful projects demonstrate acquisition of skills related to the analysis and interpretation of data. Additionally, the assignment clarifies the criteria of success of design assignments and delivers focused feedback on student wor
Design, system, value: The role of problem-solving and critical thinking capabilities in technology education, as perceived by teacher
Get PDFThe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2013) defines its views on necessary skills for 21st century citizenship and life-long learning, advocating a generic skillset of literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving in technology-rich environments. Other sources also include critical thinking as a vital 21st Century skill. There are also those who question the concept of 21st Century skills, claiming that, although very important, these skills are in fact old and have been around for decades, or even centuries. Therefore, in many countries, skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving are already addressed in technology education as part of the core subject matter, especially regarding competencies connected to technological literacy. Critical thinking and particularly problem-solving have been well researched in technology education, but seldom from the teacher’s point of view.
The aim of this article is to investigate Swedish compulsory school technology teachers’ views on problemsolving and critical thinking as curriculum components and as skills addressed in teaching. Twenty-one teachers were subjected to in-depth qualitative interviews. The findings of the study show that the interviewed teachers can be said to express three approaches to teaching about technology in a critical thinking and problem-solving mode: (1) the design approach, (2) the systems approach, and (3) the values approach. Even though the present Swedish technology curriculum does not explicitly mention these skills, the teachers say they incorporate critical thinking and problem-solving in different settings within the subject of technology. Problem-solving and critical thinking are not seen as generic capabilities but they are always connected to, and integrated with, subject content in technology by the teachers. The teachers mix the approaches depending on the teaching content, especially when teaching about complex technology, although there is a tendency to disregard critical thinking capabilities when dealing with design, and neglect problem-solving skills when addressing values
Enduring Learning: Integrating C21st soft skills through technology education
Get PDFAs times change we need to continually review what our education systems offer and where priorities might lie. The Technology and Knowledge Ages of the twenty-first century have brought about new understandings, new ways of doing things, and an array of new career and workplace opportunities. Employees today are expected to bring more than an accumulation of traditional knowledge acquisition. Increasingly important today are a plethora of attitudinal skills and dispositions that enable workers to engage in much greater collaboration, communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking. What are these newly emphasised skills and dispositions and how should they be addressed within the education system? Meaningful learning of these ‘soft skills’ will occur best in authentic and integrated programmes where explicit teaching identifies the required learning. This paper will investigate the nature of the skills, consider some implications and barriers and then demonstrate connections between the nature of technological practice and ‘soft skills’. An essential consideration of this new learning focus is how it might be assessed. A new authentic assessment practice within a Technology Education tertiary education programme is introduced as an example of how knowledge and ‘soft skill’ acquisition can be combined and achieved
A Case Study in Online Formal/Informal Learning: Was it collaborative or cooperative learning?
Get PDFDeveloping skills in communication and collaboration is essential in modern design education, in order to prepare students for the realities of design practice, where projects involve multidisciplinary teams, often working remotely. This paper presents a learning activity that focusses on developing communication and collaboration skills of undergraduate design students working remotely and vocational learners based in a community makerspace. Participants were drawn from these formal and informal educational settings and engaged in a design-make project framed in the context of distributed manufacturing. They were given designer or maker roles and worked at distance from each other, communicating using asynchronous online tools. Analysis of the collected data has identified a diversity of working practice across the participants, and highlighted the difficulties that result from getting students to work collaboratively, when not collocated. This paper presents and analysis of participants’ communications, with a view to identify whether they were learning collaboratively, or cooperatively. It was found that engaging participants in joint problem solving is not enough to facilitate collaboration. Instead effective collaboration depends on symmetry within the roles of participants and willingness to share expertise through dialogue. Designing learning activities to overcome the challenges that these factors raise is a difficult task, and the research reported here provides some valuable insight
Data sources:
LJMU Research Online (Liverpool John Moo...PATT40 (LJMU)Biomolecular Research Reports (BRR) (LJM...
Design and Technology Education (LJMU)BLResearchDay (LJMU)Journal of Living Labs (LJMU)Journal of Natural Products Discovery (L...Journal of Social Media for Learning (LJ...Student Law Journal (LJMU)PRISM (LJMU)Public Health Institute Journal (LJMU)SPARK (LJMU)Student Experience Proceedings (LJMU)Transformation in Education (LJMU)Innovations in Practice (LJMU)Links to Health and Social Care (LJMU)
Design and Technology Education (LJMU)BLResearchDay (LJMU)Journal of Living Labs (LJMU)Journal of Natural Products Discovery (L...Journal of Social Media for Learning (LJ...Student Law Journal (LJMU)PRISM (LJMU)Public Health Institute Journal (LJMU)SPARK (LJMU)Student Experience Proceedings (LJMU)Transformation in Education (LJMU)Innovations in Practice (LJMU)Links to Health and Social Care (LJMU)Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage Design and Technology Education (LJMU)? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!