Search

Drawing on the work of Lee Shulman, this article reviews literature exploring the concept of signature pedagogies, which are described as having have surface, deep and implicit structures. These structures are complex and changing; concerned with habits of head, hand and heart. Emerging from professional education and now being explored in STEM and Humanities education, they are characteristic forms of teaching and learning that are common across a sector. Common themes emerge from within a range of disciplines including art, built environment, design, music, religious, social work and teacher education. These include the roles of the curriculum, the teacher, the learning environment, as well as capability, uncertainty and the challenges associated with signature pedagogies. Focusing on literature from design education, the paper explores the nature of signature pedagogy in design and technology, as a tool for professional discourse. The conclusions propose a discursive framework for design and technology education in which the structures are tied together by the three fundamental activities of ideating, realising and critiquing; more commonly thought of as designing, making and evaluating. The deep structure being project-based learning, undergirded by the implicit values and attitudes associated with design thinking; including collaboration, creativity, empathy, iteration and problem solving. Design and technology education has something unique to offer the broad and balanced curriculum through its signature pedagogies and the way that knowledge is experienced by learners.

Inspired originally by the work of Bruce Sterling, this paper presents narrative accounts from experienced design and technology teachers who were introduced to the notion of “design fiction” during their teacher education programmes. While training to teach as part of their subject study, pre-service teachers were introduced to the concept of design fiction. During their training they were encouraged to embrace the notion and use it as a catalyst to effect innovative pedagogical approaches in their teaching of design and technology. Specifically, to explore the advantages of using this concept as a tool not only on the effectual delivery of design, but in order to support the creation of a high quality conceptual outcome, where learning is concerned with innovation and the development of skill, rather than to produce a fully functional working model or artefact.

In the context of curriculum change within English education, and beyond, this article explores the cultural historical roots of design and technology as an educational construct, distinct from design or engineering, which exist as career paths outside of the school curriculum. It is a position piece, drawing on literature from a wide range of sources from writing, largely, outside of the discipline.\ud \ud The authors revisit the original intentions of design and technology as a National Curriculum subject and, within the contemporary challenges, discuss the importance of technology, including designing and making, as an essentially human and humanising activity. The aim being to contribute to the theorisation and philosophy of the subject, where typically practitioners focus on practical and potentially mundane concerns.\ud \ud This article asserts that technological human activity is rooted in technological innovation and determinism, inextricably linked to social human activity. The aim is to add to the literature and provoke debate around the place and value of design and technology. The argument for retention of the subject, as part of a broad and balanced curriculum, is presented from a social and technological perspective; recognising the value of the subject as cultural rather than a merely technical or economic imperative.

This chapter outlines key pedagogical approaches in design and technology. Exploring the transformative nature of the subject and the fundamental activities of ideation, realisation and critique, it identifies four signature pedagogies, designing and making, mainly making, mainly designing and exploring technology and society. The chapter encourages student teachers to critically engage with a range of pedagogical approaches, from demonstration to open-ended design activities, considering the potentially expansive or restrictive nature and impact of their choices. It considers the benefits and limitations of approaches to teaching whole classes, groups and individuals, challenging preconceptions and the use of a limited range of approaches. In addition, the implications for managing the design and technology classroom are explored, including extended projects and the challenges of supporting individuals designing, making and evaluating solutions to design problems. The chapter is underpinned by theory, including direct instruction and scaffolding, asserting that design and technology knowledge (and therefore pedagogy) is action-orientated.

Teachers’ knowledge of STEM education, their understanding, and pedagogical application of that knowledge is intrinsically linked to the subsequent effectiveness of STEM delivery within their own practice; where a teacher’s knowledge and understanding is deficient, the potential for pupil learning is ineffective and limited. Set within the context of secondary age phase education in England and Wales (11–16 years old), this paper explores how teachers working within the field of design and technology education acquire new knowledge in STEM; how understanding is developed and subsequently embedded within their practice to support the creation of a diverse STEM-literate society. The purpose being to determine mechanisms by which knowledge acquisition occurs, to reconnoitre potential implications for education and learning at work, including consideration of the role which new technologies play in the development of STEM knowledge within and across contributory STEM subject disciplines. Underpinned by an interpretivist ontology, work presented here builds upon the premise that design and technology is an interdisciplinary educational construct and not viewed as being of equal status to other STEM disciplines including maths and science. Drawing upon the philosophical field of symbolic interactionism and constructivist grounded theory, work embraces an abductive methodology where participants are encouraged to relate design and technology within the context of STEM education. Emergent findings are discussed in relation to their potential to support teachers’ educational development for the advancement of STEM literacy, and help secure design and technology’s place as a subject of value within a twenty-first Century curriculum.

Since the beginning of Design and Technology (D&T) in the English secondary school curriculum, the teaching of design has been identified as less effective than that of making. In 2004 as part of the National Strategies, the D&T framework was launched, aiming to support the teaching of design skills. This small-scale study begins to explore the experiences of pupils and teachers in four schools in the Northwest of England. The study uses a mixed methods approach, gathering quantitative and qualitative data in a questionnaire with a convenience sample of school pupils. Responses are analysed alongside qualitative interviews with D&T teachers from the schools. The findings indicate that many pupils had a clear understanding of the role and function of designing. However, some common assumptions of the nature of design activity centering on the act of sketching or drawing were evident. Whilst some progress has been made in the teaching of design, through the use of design activities introduced in the D&T Framework, the support experienced by teachers was limited and were not sustained beyond the initial training. There are implications for initial teacher educators in supporting beginning teachers and balancing the tensions trainees experience whilst on placements in school. © 2014 Published by C-crcs. Peer-review under responsibility of Editor or Guest Editor of the EJSBS.

Since the beginning of Design and Technology (D&T) in the English secondary school curriculum, the teaching of design has been identified as less effective than that of making. In 2004 as part of the National Strategies, the D&T framework was launched, aiming to support the teaching of design skills. This small-scale study begins to explore the experiences of pupils and teachers in four schools in the Northwest of England. The study uses a mixed methods approach, gathering quantitative and qualitative data in a questionnaire with a convenience sample of school pupils. Responses are analysed alongside qualitative interviews with D&T teachers from the schools. The findings indicate that many pupils had a clear understanding of the role and function of designing. However, some common assumptions of the nature of design activity centering on the act of sketching or drawing were evident. Whilst some progress has been made in the teaching of design, through the use of design activities introduced in the D&T Framework, the support experienced by teachers was limited and were not sustained beyond the initial training. There are implications for initial teacher educators in supporting beginning teachers and balancing the tensions trainees experience whilst on placements in school.

Shortly before the 2014 Annual Conference, the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) was invited to contribute to the Obama Administration’s Thirty-Million Word Gap initiative. The word “gap” relates to the vast difference in the number of words that children from different backgrounds hear before they enter school.

During the 1980s there was a paradigm shift in technology education within the English secondary school curriculum, resulting in a series of National Curriculum iterations with Design and Technology (D&T) emerging in the mid 1990s. School inspection and academic discourse has identified the relative weakness of the teaching of design in comparison with making. This paper is presented as a personal narrative of the teaching of design, within a qualitative and interpretive paradigm. The findings highlight the challenges for D&T practitioners in their role as teachers of design, examining the nature of design education and how design concepts are framed.

This paper builds on a previous study of the ‘demonstration’ as a signature pedagogy in design and technology (D&T). The demonstration is a fundamental pedagogical tool in practical subjects, for the development of learners’ procedural knowledge, from observation and imitation to autonomy and adaption of a technique. As such, it tends to align itself at the restrictive end of an expansive–restrictive pedagogical continuum. In the preceding study, a dialogue emerged around the role of the teacher as a “competent management of the learning experience”, including teachers’ competency and clarity of subject knowledge. The findings of this study highlight two similar, yet distinct, perspectives of the teacher as anexpertand the teacher as afacilitator. This study continues a developing professional conversation around the nature of the demonstration, exploring a snapshot of teacher educators’ subjective beliefs and values. The responses of the participants to a set of 62 statements, representing a range of potential opinions and perspectives, were deployed and analysed using Q Methodology. The sample is purposive and comprised of D&T teacher educators based in England. The study draws parallels with direct instruction and demonstration, and concludes that there different approaches to and ways of viewing demonstration. In addition, further consideration of the expansive–restrictive continuum as a framework for planning and evaluating learning in D&T may support theorisation of the subject, inculcation of theory and research informed practice.

Teachers? knowledge of STEM education, their understanding, and pedagogical application of that knowledge is intrinsically linked to the subsequent effectiveness of STEM delivery within their own practice; where a teacher?s knowledge and understanding is deficient, the potential for pupil learning is ineffective and limited. Set within the context of secondary age phase education in England and Wales (11?16 years old), this paper explores how teachers working within the field of design and technology education acquire new knowledge in STEM; how understanding is developed and subsequently embedded within their practice to support the creation of a diverse STEM-literate society. The purpose being to determine mechanisms by which knowledge acquisition occurs, to reconnoitre potential implications for education and learning at work, including consideration of the role which new technologies play in the development of STEM knowledge within and across contributory STEM subject disciplines. Underpinned by an interpretivist ontology, work presented here builds upon the premise that design and technology is an interdisciplinary educational construct and not viewed as being of equal status to other STEM disciplines including maths and science. Drawing upon the philosophical field of symbolic interactionism and constructivist grounded theory, work embraces an abductive methodology where participants are encouraged to relate design and technology within the context of STEM education. Emergent findings are discussed in relation to their potential to support teachers? educational development for the advancement of STEM literacy, and help secure design and technology?s place as a subject of value within a twenty-first Century curriculum.