A pedagogic approach to enhance creative <Emphasis Type="Italic">Ideation</Emphasis> in classroom practice

The real intent for technology education is to prepare young people so that they may fully participate and function in human society. To achieve this aim, learners are guided towards the development of attributes that include perceptive, critical, creative and informed decision making. Although effective teaching strives to inspire the creative spark in every learner, there is little guidance to inform actual classroom practice. The selection of strategies and implementation methods that engender creative responses in students, is usually left to an individual teacher’s interpretation. A working knowledge of design processing provides a most advantageous methodology to guide teaching and learning as students develop ways “of knowing through thinking and doing,” Sharma and Poole (Des Manag Inst 20(4):64–74, 2010) within classroom design and technological practice. This article looks at the broad stage of Ideation in creative design practice, where designers instigate and generate ideas within their own practice. Insight and transferable skills are observed to inform classroom practice. One event from the ideation stage of design practice processing is selected to enhance student visual communication skills. A pedagogic approach is then shared to inform the implimentation of a teaching and learning strategy that has been trialled with design (aged from 12 to 18 years) and Initial Teacher Education adult students.     

Designer stories: a commentary on the community of design practice

This research explores the design practice of three prominent New Zealand designers. It seeks to identify the key elements and methodologies they employ and to answer the research question: How do designers design? The need to gain understanding on how designers work, gave me occasion to visit and speak with designers about their approach to design. To look inside a designer’s practice has left me with an overriding impression that these designers know and trust their own way of working, they do not map their thoughts onto a pre-existing process; rather, each new work dictates its own direction. Their understanding has come about through a wealth of design experiences, a way of seeing, and perceptive reflection-in-action.     

Beyond `The Design Process': An Alternative Pedagogy for Technology Education

`The design process' as an underpinning structure for technology education is well established. A number of increasingly complex models have been produced to describe the design process. These models have had a widespread, paradigmatic effect on the teaching of technology education. The development and implementation of models of the design process and the influence of these on teacher's classroom practice is examined, and it is then argued that the paradigm is fatally flawed, and that continued adherence to it is having a detrimental impact on children's learning in technology. It is suggested that the basis of an alternative pedagogy for technology education already exists within the research literature. Two examples of an alternative approach for teaching technology are described, and some practical limitations outlined. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Comparisons and Contrasts Between Elementary/Primary ’School Situated Design’ and ’Workplace Design’ in Canada and England

There is a lack of evidence that examines, together, the triad of how teachers in elementary/primary schools are translating curriculum requirements for teaching design, within technology frameworks, in their classrooms, how their students then proceed with design, and how ’school situated design’ relates to ’workplace design’. This paper explores the relationships between designerly thinking and behaviours situated in classrooms and in the workplace, beliefs about how designing is learned in schools and in the ’real world’, and children’s, teachers’ and designers’ understanding of design. These are be illustrated by extracts from interviews with teachers, children and designers and evidence of designing in classrooms and in the workplace. Similarities and differences between evidence from ’school situated design’ and ’workplace design’ and from Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) are discussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Exploring pupils’ beliefs about designers and designing

The purpose of this paper is to report on an investigation into pupil beliefs about designers and designing conducted as part of a research project focussing on Designerly Activity in Secondary Design and Technology which builds upon a pilot study (Barlex and Trebell in Int J Technol Design Educ, 2007). Four research questions drove this element of the study: (a) What do pupils believe designers do? (b) What do pupils believe about the knowledge and skills designers must possess? (c) What do pupils believe designers are like? (d) What do pupils believe about the design decisions made by the designer of a given product? This paper compliments the work of Welch et al. (Designing the future: The design and technology association international research conference 2006, University of Wolverhampton, Telford, 2006) relating to student beliefs about designers and designing by drawing on some elements of the research design to inform this study. Pupil responses to questions relating to the role of the designer, what designers are like and what designers need to know are in line with the findings of Welch et al. (Designing the future: The design and technology association international research conference 2006, University of Wolverhampton, Telford, 2006) in their study of elementary students beliefs about designers and designing with both studies concluding that the qualities ascribed to the designer are positive and non-stereotypical—they can be young or old, female or male.     

Research on Basic Design Education: An International Survey

This paper reports on the results of a survey and qualitative analysis on the teaching of ‘Basic Design’ in schools of design and architecture located in 22 countries. In the context of this research work, Basic Design means the teaching and learning of design fundamentals that may also be commonly referred to as the Principles of Two- and Three-dimensional Design. The body of knowledge associated with Basic Design may be regarded as part of the general theory of teaching and learning design as practiced in many design schools and which has its origins in the classical design schools such as the Bauhaus. In the author’s perception and practice, the pedagogy of Basic Design promotes a holistic, creative and experimental methodology that develops the learning style and cognitive abilities of students with respect to the fundamental principles of design. This includes an understanding of the elements of shape, colour, texture, light, and rhythm in a manner complementary but usually unrelated to the common design methods teaching approach. As is well known among design practitioners, including architects and industrial designers, a deep understanding of the purpose of these fundamental design elements and principles is still relevant to contemporary design practice. The main objective of the research described in this paper was to determine the status and development of Basic Design pedagogy in a significant number of contemporary design schools. On the basis of the results of two surveys conducted in 2001–2002, this paper will identify and illustrate interesting aspects concerning the programmes and organisation of courses delivered by teachers of ‘Basic Design’. This work will also survey the viewpoints of Basic Design teachers in elementary years of design courses and of those teaching design through projects during the subsequent years of the same courses. Interestingly, the design project teachers surveyed in this research expressed a desire to be more involved in the teaching of Basic Design fundamentals which indicates strongly that Basic Design principles are still relevant in contemporary design education terms as they have ever been and that more research is needed in order to better understand and apply the related pedagogy.     

Technologists talk: making the links between design, problem-solving and experiences with hard materials

Design and problem-solving is a key learning focus in technology education and remains a distinguishing factor that separates it from other subject areas. This research investigated how two expert designers considered experiences with hard materials contributed to their learning design and problem-solving with these materials. The research project used a qualitative approach and conducted semi-structured interviews with two mechanical engineers. They identified their experiences under three key headings that provided them with much of the essential knowledge and understanding they employ today to design and problem-solve with hard materials. These included experience of seeing outcomes that provided feedback on their designs, experiences that informed about materials and material selection and accessing others’ experiences from communities of practice.     

Two Cultures of Technical Courses and Discourses: The Case of Computer Aided Design

Researchers in science and technology studies (STS) are in the process of dismantling the conventional human-machine and nature-society-technology boundaries solidified by C. P. Snow and generations of designers, engineers, researchers, scientists and teachers. Using the case of computer aided design (CAD), I argue that by combining the sociopolitical knowledge of STS with technical knowledge we can finally and forcefully bring an end to technical education. To make this argument, I draw on my experiences in teaching CAD in post-secondary institutions in design, engineering, and teacher education. Theories and practices are described to assist design and technology educators with the dilemma of addressing sociopolitical knowledge.     

Technology education in preschool: providing opportunities for children to use artifacts and to create

In recent years, technology has been emphasized as an important area in early childhood curricula; however, in many countries preschool does not have the tradition of teaching specific subjects, and research shows that many preschool staff members are unsure about what teaching technology should include and how it should be taught. Therefore, with the ambition of outlining recommendations for both preschool practice and the preschool-teacher program, we investigated what elements staff members include in educating preschool children in technology. We investigated the research question What do preschool staff members include as elements of technology education in preschool? through open-ended items on a questionnaire completed by 102 preschool teachers and daycare attendants in Sweden. The answers were analyzed inductively, resulting in a set of seven categories: Artifacts and systems in children’s environments, Create, Problem solving, The concept of technology, Experiments, Techniques/Motor skills, and Natural science. Some key results emerged. First, artifacts have a central place in preschool technology education, and at least three verbs relate to how these artifacts are addressed: use, create, and understand. Second, the content of technology education in government regulatory documents is described to varying extents by the participants, and sometimes not at all. Third, expected elements like play and the important role of the staff are not expressed in the answers. Possible explanations and implications for the results are discussed.     

Assessment is for learning: supporting feedback

This paper describes an action research, school situated project conducted with partnership funding from Learning and Teaching Scotland, Scottish Qualifications Authority and Becta, the UK government’s agency for communications technology in education. Based on e-scape (e-solutions for creative assessment in portfolio environments), developed by Goldsmiths, University of London, the Scottish project focussed on integrating innovative methods of capturing evidence of creative performance with providing formative feedback to learners. Classroom trials were conducted with Primary 7 through to Secondary 3 learners (10–15 year olds) in 2 different local education authorities. Learner and teacher thoughts were recorded through blogs, e-forums and interviews; the authored design challenges were shared through the web-based e-scape authoring system and e-folios reviewed by participant teachers and researchers. This paper provides a summary of the reactions and responses from teacher practitioner, learner and researcher perspectives based on their experiences and the results of the classroom trials. It discusses the potential contribution in terms of supporting learning, teaching and assessment within the framework of Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence (2004) Technologies (2009) learning area. It is hoped that e-scape scotland supports pedagogies which enable the capture of creative thinking in real time for authentic and formative assessment and addresses some of the issues for classroom practice and practitioners.     

Progression in Technology Education in New Zealand: Components of Practice as a Way Forward

Understanding and undertaking technological practice is fundamental to student learning in technology education in New Zealand, and the enhancement of student technological literacy. The implementation of technology into New Zealand’s core curriculum has reached the stage where it has become critical that learning programmes are based on student progression to allow for a seamless education in technology from early primary to senior secondary. For this to occur, teachers and students need to focus learning on key features of technology education. This paper is based on research initiated in 2001 which explored the nature of progression of student learning in technology. It draws on findings from research undertaken in New Zealand classrooms in 1999–2000 that resulted in the development of the technology assessment framework (TAF), (as reported in detail Compton & Harwood 2003). The 1999–2001 research was funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Education. Findings from the 2001 research allowed for the identification of key features of technology education that are relevant across all age groups, contexts and technological areas. These key features were collectively termed components of practice. The three components of practice established to date are brief development, planning for practice, and outcome development and evaluation. This paper discusses the development of progression matrices for each of these and provides illustrative examples of student work levelled against the matrix indicators of progression for brief development.     

ASIT—a problem solving strategy for education and eco-friendly sustainable design

There is growing recognition of the role teaching and learning experiences in technology education can contribute to Education for Sustainable Development. It appears, however, that in the Technology Education classroom little or no change has been achieved to the practice of designing and problem solving strategies oriented towards sustainable design. Brainstorming, Brainwriting, SCAMPER, Metaphoric Thinking, Outrageous Thinking, Mind Mapping and other problem-solving strategies used in the classroom could be suitable for eco-design, however, there appears to be little research data on their use. This paper examines and presents the ‘Advanced Systematic Inventive Thinking’ (ASIT) system as an eco-design strategy. ASIT is derived from a more complex engineering-based problem solving strategy known as TRIZ (the Russian acronym for The Theory of the Solution of Inventive Problems). Drawing on Stable’s (in press) call for new approaches to address sustainable design and achieve solutions through Technology Education, this article traces the history of TRIZ and the development of ASIT. It then argues that the ASIT strategy can be an effective methodology to be taught and used in the Technology Education classroom to solve problems in the ‘eco’ or sustainable design context. Several design scenarios have been included to illustrate how ASIT can deliver eco-design solutions to problems. These examples demonstrate the flexibility of the methodology and the diverse range of applications in which ASIT can be applied.     

Promoting student-led science and technology projects in elementary teacher education: entry into core pedagogical practices through technological design

Future elementary school teachers often lack self-efficacy for teaching science and technology. They are particularly anxious about encouraging children to carry-out student-directed, open-ended scientific inquiry and/or technological design projects. Moreover, because this often also is the case with practising elementary school teachers, it is difficult for student–teachers to gain practical experience facilitating student-led project work during practicum sessions. To provide student–teachers with expertise and motivation for promoting student-directed, open-ended project work, therefore, a group of future elementary teachers were taken through a constructivism-informed ‘apprenticeship’ during their university-based teaching methods course and then invited to make project work the subject of the action research that they were required to complete during their practicum. In this paper, successes that one student–teacher (out of 78 studied) experienced in promoting student-directed, open-ended technological design projects are reported. Although she judged children’s designs to be modestly successful, data indicate that her self-efficacy for promoting project work increased significantly. Analyses of qualitative data collected during the methods course and practicum also indicate that aspects of the curriculum, teachers, students and milieu appeared to contribute to this success. Such findings suggest that teacher educators should focus on helping future elementary teachers to develop expertise and motivation that would enable and encourage children to conduct technological design projects before conducting scientific inquiries. Such a tack may be the most pragmatic—and, arguably, epistemologically-sound—approach for helping ‘science- and technology-phobic’ student–teachers to move from the periphery to the core of practices in science and technology education.     

The Challenge of Integrating AI & Smart Technology in Design Education

This paper examines some of the many problems and issues associated with integrating new and developing technologies into the education of future designers. As technology in general races ahead challenges arise for both commercial designers and educators on how best to keep track and utilise the advances. The challenge is particularly acute within tertiary education where the introduction of new cutting edge technology is often encouraged. Although this is generally achieved through the feedback of research activity, integrating new concepts at an appropriate level is a major task. Of particular concern is how focussed areas of applied technology can be made part of the multidisciplinary scope of design education.The paper describes the model used to introduce areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to undergraduate industrial design students. The successful interaction of research and education within a UK higher education establishment are discussed and project examples given. It is shown that, through selective tuition of research topics and appropriate technical support, innovative design solutions can result. In addition, it shows that by introducing leading edge and, in some cases, underdeveloped technology, specific key skills of independent learning, communication and research methods can be encouraged.     

Engineering economy as a vibrant and relevant course in the engineering programs of today and tomorrow

Abstract

Engineering economy has been studied by the majority of engineering students for many years, yet its place in engineering education is often misunderstood. Logic suggests that the engineering economy course would be highly valued since it is the only course many engineering students will take related to financial matters, but instead there is evidence that the subject is being marginalized. While pressures to reduce program credit hours and changes to the Fundamentals of Engineering exam may play a role in this, perhaps engineering economy has not sufficiently evolved to meet the needs of students or the realities of the contemporary workplace. What can be done to ensure that engineering economy fulfills its potential as an important part of engineering education? There may be few clear-cut answers, but we believe that engineering economy should shift toward a future characterized by rigorous coursework grounded in engineering design principles and applications of risk and uncertainty. This has been our goal in teaching engineering economy at Western Michigan University for many years. The purpose of this paper is to communicate the essential elements of a strategy that has helped to make the course a vibrant component of several engineering programs.     

Hotspots and trends of technology education in the International Journal of Technology and Design Education: 2000–2018

Using visualized bibliographic data and a range of quantitative research methods, the analysis of the International Journal of Technology and Design Education (IJTDE), which is included in the core collection of Social Science Citation Index, reached a number of conclusions. Firstly, IJTDE is an important platform for the exchange of research results in the field of technology education, and has a significant influence. Secondly, De Vries, Williams, Ankiewicz and a number of others are influential and prolific authors in the IJTDE. Authors from the USA, England, New Zealand, Taiwan and Australia make most contributions to the IJTDE, Delft University of Technology, University of Auckland and the University of Waikato are the more prolific institutions in the IJTDE. Thirdly, technology education, education, design, science, creativity, technology, design education, knowledge, student, technological literacy and problem solving are the most frequency keywords in the IJTDE. Creativity, design education, problem solving, curriculum development, design and critical thinking, practice, engineering education, and STEM education are research trends in the IJTDE between 2000 and 2018. Fourthly, the discipline knowledge base mainly focuses on teaching and design methods in the technological environment, and the definitions of technology-related concepts. The results enable a deeper understanding and consideration of the content and influence of IJTDE, and the research hotspots in the field of technology education.

     

Developing the Teaching of Food Technology in Primary Schools in England through Curriculum Development and Initial Teacher Education

This paper investigates developments in the teaching of food technology introduced as an element of design & technology in the 1990 National Curriculum for Technology in the English primary curriculum for children aged five to eleven years. It reviews briefly the situation for food teaching before 1990 and identifies a number of relevant issues. This is followed by an overview of developments in food technology in primary schools between 1992 and 2001, highlighting the need for primary teachers and trainee teachers on initial teacher education courses to develop an understanding of how to teach food technology in their schools. The development of teaching materials through the Nuffield Approach to food technology in primary schools is outlined together with a case study of the use of the materials in initial teacher education at the University of Surrey Roehampton. The paper describes the uptake of Nuffield Primary food technology materials as measured by down loads from the Nuffield Primary Design & Technology web site. Alongside this, there are reflections of primary trainee teachers on the impact of using the Nuffield food technology materials on their classroom practice during school experience. It concludes with a discussion of the key issues arising from the paper and suggestions for future research. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Curriculum restructuring in technology in NSW secondary schools — Response to change

This research project aimed to analyse and clarify the impact of the formation of the Technological and Applied Studies (TAS) Key Learning Area (KLA) on school organisation, teachers and teaching method. It further aimed to examine the implications of this change for pre-service teacher education programs. In 1989 the NSW government White paper on curriculum reform mandated the restructuring of primary and secondary schooling. As a part of this restructuring the subjects that had been traditionally taught under the Home Economics and Industrial Arts departments, together with agriculture and computing studies were brought together under the TAS KLA. The government also mandated that every secondary school student would be required to study technology through a newly developed syllabusDesign and Technology Years 7–10. These changes have had significant implications for the organisation and delivery of technology curriculum in secondary schools and there are consequent implications for the provision of teacher education in the field of technology.Ms. Y. McDonald is currently the program director and practicum co-ordinator of the undergraduate bachelor of education secondary home economics: design, technology and health studies program in the Faculty of Education at Sydney University.Mr. J. Gibson is currently the program director and practicum co-ordinator of the undergraduate bachelor of education secondary industrial arts: design and technology program in the Faculty of Education at Sydney University. He has had extensive experience in curriculum development in the technology area through his membership of syllabus committees and the Technological and Applied Studies Key Learning Area Co-ordinating Committee of the NSW Board of Studies.     

How an integrative STEM curriculum can benefit students in engineering design practices

STEM-oriented engineering design practice has become recognized increasingly by technology education professionals in Taiwan. This study sought to examine the effectiveness of the application of an integrative STEM approach within engineering design practices in high school technology education in Taiwan. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to investigate the respective learning performance of students studying a STEM engineering module compared to students studying the technology education module. The student performances for conceptual knowledge, higher-order thinking skills and engineering design project were assessed. The data were analyzed using quantitative (t test, ANOVA, ANCOVA, correlation analysis) approaches. The findings showed that the participants in the STEM engineering module outperformed significantly the participants studying the technology education module in the areas of conceptual knowledge, higher-order thinking skills, and the design project activity. A further analysis showed that the key differences in the application of design practice between the two groups were (a) their respective problem prediction and (b) their analysis capabilities. The results supported the positive effect of the use of an integrative STEM approach in high school technology education in Taiwan.