Learning to Teach Design and Technology in the Secondary School

A Companion to School Experience

Alison Hardy, Gwyneth Owen-Jackson, Alison Hardy

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000179767
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

Learning to Teach Design and Technology in the Secondary School is a core text for all those training to teach design and technology in the secondary school. It helps you develop subject knowledge, acquire a deeper understanding of the role, purpose and potential of design and technology within the secondary curriculum, and provides the practical skills needed to plan, teach and evaluate stimulating and creative lessons.

This fully updated fourth edition includes information on all areas of design and technology, and on new subject requirements relating to exam qualifications. It includes three new chapters on the role of critiquing in design and technology education, transitions after secondary design and technology, and using and producing design and technology education research. Designed to be read as a course or dipped into for support and advice, it covers:

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• Each area of design and technology: materials, textiles, electronics and food

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• Integrating new curriculum topics, such as emerging technologies, into your teaching

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• Developing areas of subject knowledge

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• Health and safety

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• Planning lessons

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• Organising and managing the classroom

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• Teaching wider issues through design and technology

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• Assessment issues

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• Your own professional development.

Bringing together insights from current educational theory and the best contemporary classroom teaching and learning, this book will prove an invaluable resource for students on all training routes – as well as their mentors – who aspire to become effective, reflective design and technology teachers.

Part 1

Design and technology in education

Introduction

Chapters 1 and 2 look at the subject in secondary and primary school, considering its development, its nature and its purpose on the school curriculum.

In Chapter 1 Alison Hardy presents the history of design and technology in order for you to understand two things: first how the subject came to be a single subject called ‘design and technology’ and second so that you can see how the subject’s history continues to influence and shape its curriculum and how it is taught in schools. The second part of the chapter discusses some of the more recent developments that are, and might be, affecting the nature of design and technology. The aim of the chapter is to help you develop your critical understanding of what you are teaching and why.

Chapter 2 focuses on primary design and technology education. Clare Benson clarifies the nature, value and place in the curriculum of primary design and technology, before describing a variety of ways of planning and teaching the subject. She concludes the chapter by exploring the issue of bridging the gap between primary and secondary.

These chapters will contribute to your understanding of design and technology and to your developing professional identity as a design and technology teacher.

1	Design and technology in the secondary school Alison Hardy

Introduction

Design and technology was first introduced to the school curriculum in England and Wales in 1989, for pupils aged 5–16 years, and is now firmly established as an important part of the curriculum in many countries. One important aspect, therefore, of studying design and technology and being a teacher of it is being clear about what it means, its purpose and value in the curriculum. This chapter explores some definitions of design and technology and looks, briefly, at its history in the secondary school curriculum in ­England. It also considers the purpose of design and technology in the curriculum and what it contributes to pupils’ learning.

Objectives

By the end of this chapter you should:

■ be able to give a definition of design and technology

■ understand its historical development in England

■ be able to provide a rationale for design and technology on the school curriculum.

What is design and technology?

It has been said that ‘in order for teachers to teach technology effectively it is necessary for them to have a well-developed understanding of technology’ (Forret et al. 2013, p. 166).

Task 1.1 Defining design and technology

Write down, in your own words, your definition or understanding of design and technology.

You have certainly chosen an interesting subject to teach. Design and technology has a complex history, deriving from craft traditions, linked to manufacturing and industrial practices, incorporating design work and embracing new technologies. This history does cast a long shadow, which is discussed in several chapters later in this book. But a single subject called ‘design and technology’ is still a relatively new subject compared to other subjects (White 2011), such as mathematics, English, history and the like, and as such it continues to develop and evolve.

Internationally it is also known by different names – design and technology in England and Wales; design and technologies in Australia; technology in South Africa, New ­Zealand and elsewhere; technologies in Scotland; technology and design in Northern Ireland. This variety in nomenclature reflects the different perceptions of what the subject is or could be. To understand this, I will explain how and why design and technology is called design and technology in England and Wales. At the inception of the National Curriculum for England and Wales, prior to 1990 (Wakefield and Owen-Jackson 2013), a working party defined the subject (DES/WO 1988) and called it design and technology. But it’s useful to consider why the ‘and’, why ‘design’ not just ‘technology’ and vice versa. The ‘and’ exists for a purpose. As Tristram Shepard said (personal communication 2014), ‘design technology’ as a noun does not exist, but there is ‘design’ and there is ‘technology’; the ‘and’ brings together two existing nouns, ‘design’ and ‘technology’, as a compound noun and therefore a ‘unitary concept’ (DES/WO 1988, p. 2). The explanation in the working in the report is so clear I will repeat it here:

… most, but not all, design activities will generally include technology and most technology activities will include design … our use of design and technology a unitary concept, to be spoken in one breath as it were, does not therefore embody redundancy. It is intended to emphasise the intimate connection between the two activities as well as to imply a concept, which is broader than either design or technology individually, and the whole of which we believe is educationally important. (Accordingly, we use design and technology a compound noun taking the singular form of verbs …).

(p. 2)

For the sake of repetition to highlight the importance: it is a ‘unitary concept’ represented as a compound noun ‘to be spoken in one breath’ (1988, p. 2). Wakefield and Owen-Jackson (2013) remind us that for a brief period design and technology was a subsidiary of a subject called technology; this included business studies and IT, and this, along with its earlier history, may be the reason why it is known by different names in England and Wales. But in my view the name design and technology defines the subject’s identity in England and Wales; calling it by any other name implies a different subject. The purpose and focus of design and technology is all in its name; call it by another name and it becomes a different subject with a different purpose. Before continuing, complete Task 1.2 .

Task 1.2 Name and purpose of design and technology

What do you call the subject? Think about why you use this name and not any other? Do you use different phrases and names for different situations? For example, ‘home economics’, ‘product design’, or ‘woodwork’. If you do, why do you use different names? Does using different names help or confuse? Do you agree with my argument above that different names imply a particular focus or purpose?

However, not only does altering the subject’s name suggest a different purpose, with each new version of the National Curriculum there is a shift in focus, often reflecting the political ideology and educational thinking of the time. With each new version, there is a new cohort of student design and technology teachers who bring their own ideas from when they studied design and technology at school, influenced by their teachers’ views on the purpose of the subject. So, the cycle of change and influence continues with each iteration of the curriculum, new cohort of teachers and their design and technology experiences (Hardy 2017).

Now complete Task 1.3.

Task 1.3 Comparing design and technology content

If possible, talk to a design and technology student teacher or newly qualified teacher from another school. Compare what is taught in design and technology in your school with the other school:

■ Are there similarities in the content of the topics?

■ Are the same materials, equipment and processes used?

■ How is the content structured and taught?

■ What are the differences, and what are the reasons for them?

When design and technology was first introduced to the curriculum in England and Wales it was described as a subject in which pupils learn ‘to operate effectively and creatively in the made world. The goal is increased competence in the indeterminate zones of practice’ (DES/WO 1988, p. 3). Whilst appearing to define the subject by its outcomes there followed much discussion about what was meant by ‘design and technology’. A number of definitions have emerged over time including:

D&T is an essentially practical activity, concerned with developing pupils’ confidence to tackle a variety of issues, drawing on a broad base of knowledge and skills. It is developed in response to perceived needs and opportunities, takes place within a context of specific constraints, depends upon value judgements at almost every stage and enables the individual to intervene to modify and improve his or her environment.

(Somerset County Council 1990 cited in Doherty et al. 1994)

It is an active study, involving the purposeful pursuit of a task to some form of resolution that results in improvement (for someone) in the made world. It … uses knowledge and skills as a resource for action rather than regarding them as ends in themselves.

(Assessment of Performance Unit 1991, p. 17)

Technology is the application of knowledge and skills to extend human capabilities and to help satisfy human needs and wants, and it has had profound effects on modern society. Learning in the technologies enables children and young people to be informed, skilled, thoughtful, adaptable and enterprisi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of tasks
• Acknowledgements
• List of contributors
• Introduction
• Part 1: Design and technology in education
• Part 2: Design and technology curriculum
• Part 3: Teaching design and technology
• Part 4: Developing your design and technology teaching and career
• Index