Assessing scientific and technological enquiry skills at age 11 using the e-scape system

This article reports on the outcomes from the e-scape Primary Scientific and Technological Understanding Assessment Project (2009–2010), which aimed to support primary teachers in developing valid portfolio-based tasks to assess pupils’ scientific and technological enquiry skills at age 11. This was part of the wider ‘e-scape’ project (2003-present), which has developed an innovative controlled alternative to design & technology and science public assessment at age 16. Teachers from eight primary schools were trained in the use of an online task-authoring tool to develop and trial assessment activities based on current classroom work. To compile their e-portfolios of assessment evidence, pupils used netbook devices, which afford multi-modal responses (text, drawing, photo, audio, video, spreadsheet) whilst leaving space on pupils’ tables for practical investigations. Once the pupil e-portfolios had been uploaded to the secure e-scape website, teachers assessed them using a ‘comparative judgement’ approach to produce a rank order with a high reliability coefficient. Participant teachers recognised the strength of the e-scape approach in terms of facilitating and managing pupils’ responses to assessment tasks in the classroom, which they successfully adapted to suit primary pedagogy. In particular, the benefits of scaffolding complex assessment tasks through the step-wise e-scape process in the authoring tool represented for some of the teachers a pedagogically significant development in terms of their planning.     

Learning in DEPTH: developing a graphical tool for professional thinking for technology teachers

In this issue of the International Journal of Technology and Design, we report on a series of case studies from the second phase of an international project—Developing Professional Thinking for Technology Teachers (DEPTH2). The first phase of the project was a study conducted with both primary and secondary technology pre-service teacher education students in a number of different countries who were given the same teacher-knowledge graphical framework as a tool to support reflection on their professional knowledge. We discovered that, despite the different country contexts, student teachers of technology could articulate aspects of their developing teacher knowledge using the same framework for teacher professional development. As previously reported in this journal (Banks et al. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 14, 141–157, 2004), the common graphical tool enabled them to set out their subject knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and ‘school’ knowledge and was useful in helping them become more self-aware. In this second phase of the project we have developed this line of research in two ways. First, we extended the range of participants to include experienced teachers involved in in-service work connected to curriculum development. Second, we looked at the inter-relationship for pre-service teachers between their developing professional knowledge and their own ‘personal subject construct’. In this article, the theoretical framework for the subsequent papers is described and set in the context of recent debates surrounding the nature and importance of teacher knowledge; and the way such professional knowledge can be articulated by teachers.     

Learning by collaborative designing: technology-enhanced knowledge practices

The purpose of the present article is to examine the knowledge-practice based approach to technology-enhanced learning. Toward that end, the article reports the efforts of an elementary-school teacher and researchers in promoting genuine inquiry at the 4th and 5th grade of a Finnish elementary school. We will describe implementation and social organization regarding ‘The Project of Artefacts––the Past, the Present and the Future’ that engaged students in collaborative inquiry and design across 13 months (almost three semesters). Knowledge Forum (KF), a virtual platform for the interchange of information, provided tools and practices that facilitated creative working within participating students and teachers. This was accomplished in a meaningful social setting which was culturally rich and where material and conceptual artefacts played dominant roles. In this article, the analysis of the teacher’s project diary and the contributions to the KF database provides an overview of the knowledge practices enacted during the project. The distribution of knowledge-creation activities during the project reveals that the teacher assumed a role of organizer concerning shared knowledge practices instead of controlling all aspects of students’ learning. Simultaneously, however, students were not left working without guidance; the teacher structured their collaborative efforts with the help of KF and by directing classroom activities.     

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.     

“If I was going to design a chair,the last thing I would look at is a chair”: product analysis and the causes of fixation in students’ design work 11–16 years

Creativity is acknowledged to be important for economic growth and as an everyday life-skill, however several influential reports have suggested that education could do more to harness creative talent. Creative cognition literature suggests the lack of creativity is at least partly the result of ‘fixation’ (difficulty in generating novel ideas due to imagination being ‘structured’ by existing knowledge). This paper focuses on the secondary (students aged 11–16 years) design and technology (D&T) context in the UK. Here we examine whether teacher practice can contribute to fixation by focusing on one specific facet of teacher practice in D&T; the use of product analysis to inform the generation of creative design ideas. Data is drawn from the preliminary phase of a research and intervention project from interviews with D&T teachers (N = 14), students (N = 126) and lesson observations (N = 10) and an analysis of documents and student work. Product analysis is widely used at different points in design projects but, as is shown, in all cases current practice can lead to fixation, as thinking is constrained down specific paths and tasks are at best at procedural rather than comprehension level. The implications of these findings and tentative ways forward for practitioners are discussed.     

Evolving project e-scape for national assessment

In the opening paper in this Special Edition I outlined the major issues that led to the establishment of project e-scape. The project was intended to develop systems and approaches that enabled learners to build real-time web-based portfolios of their performance (initially) in design & technology and additionally to build systems and approaches to facilitate the web-based assessment of those portfolios. The project was commissioned by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) with additional ‘buy-in’ from Awarding Bodies—who were seen by QCA as the leading beneficiaries of a successful project. The project was designed in three phases. I have outlined—in the Introduction to this Special Edition—the early exploratory work that we undertook within phase 1, the aim of which was to prove the viability of the concept. This was achieved, and QCA then commissioned phase 2 with a brief to build a working prototype system and run it through a national pilot-testing programme in 2006. Age 15 was the target age-group, aligning as closely as we could with the Awarding Body requirements for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) that runs with age 16 learners. The successes of the phase 2 prototype—both as classroom activity and as reliable assessment—led QCA and Becta (the body responsible for funding ICT developments in schools) to commission phase 3 in which we explored the potential of the e-scape system for wider application. Specifically, we were required to demonstrate the transferability of the system to other curriculum areas beyond design & technology, and the scalability of the system if it were to be used for national assessment purposes, with hundreds of thousands of candidates. In this paper, I outline the approach that we adopted through the e-scape research; describe the major elements of the work both in terms of classroom/curriculum practice and in terms of new approaches to assessment; and analyse some of the key issues that arise from it.     

Technology education for children in primary schools in Finland and Germany: different school systems, similar problems and how to overcome them

Even if the results of international student assessment studies such as PISA or TIMSS show that girls have been catching up in mathematics and natural sciences, there are still remarkable gender differences in the number of males and females studying and working in the technological fields after basic education. Technology is still a male-dominated area. This is true for the German and Finnish societies. Results of the studies conducted in the UPDATE project show that influences on interest in technological themes take place already in early childhood. Therefore, efforts should be put in developing early childhood education and elementary school education, to raise girls’ interests and motivation towards technology. This article reports the results of the UPDATE-WorkPackage3-project mainly in Finland and in Germany. It concentrates on studying elementary school pupils’ (age 6–12), particularly girls’ motivation towards the contents and methods of technology education. Various curriculum documents and national learning conditions are discussed and suggestions for the gender equitable technology education are made.     

Assessing creative thinking in design-based learning

Infusing creative thinking competence through the design process of authentic projects requires not only changing the teaching methods and learning environment, but also adopting new assessment methods, such as portfolio assessment. The participants in this study were 128 high school pupils who have studied MECHATRONICS from 10th to 12th grades (16–18 years old). By the end of 12th grade, the pupils had created 57 authentic projects. The intervention program had two parts: first, the pupils documented their project according to a creative design process that had been introduced to them. Second, the projects were assessed according to a creative thinking scale. This scale was designed to assist pupils in documenting the design process. It could be used as a guideline for teachers and pupils during the course of the project. The research examined pupils’ performance during project-based learning. The research tools included: observations of class activities, portfolio assessment, and external matriculation assessment. The findings show first that pupils learned to document their design process. Second, pupils’ projects demonstrated various levels of creative thinking skill. Evidences for high-level documentation of the projects were found in pupils’ portfolios. On the other hand, there is much to be learned about documenting teamwork and pupils’ reflection. This research could assist researchers and teachers who are interested in assessing engineering education outcomes.     

Designers as Teachers and Learners: Transferring Workplace Design Practice into Educational Settings

The nature of the design process and how to develop this skill in novice designers has been of considerable interest to technology educators. The relationship between workplace and school-based design is one area in which a need for further research has been identified by Hill and Anning (2001, International Journal of Technology and Design Education 11, 111–136). The research project described in this article had two aims. The first was to compare the workplace practice of six experienced designers with their practice when working on a technological assessment task as part of a pre-service teacher education programme. The second aim was to investigate their experience on teaching practicum in developing design skills with secondary school students. Findings from the research are described and the paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for teaching technology education.     

DEPTH–developing professional thinking for Finnish technology teachers

The Finnish case contributing to the international DEPTH study was carried out within the Technology Education NOW! project at the University of Oulu. Nineteen project teachers participated in the study. The recent revision of the Finnish Basic Education Curriculum with the introduction of the cross-curricular theme “Humans and Technology” provided the contextual framework for the study. The graphic tool called the ‘DEPTH tool’ was introduced to the teachers to help and support them in their professional thinking of their technology teaching in this period of transition. Qualitative research methods were employed in the study. The teachers’ responses to the study indicate that it was appropriate and helped them to make sense of the situation. The DEPTH tool appeared to work well with most of the teachers. Even though some of the teachers used the tool to present a list of activities they have carried out in their technology teaching, most of them understood that they could use the tool in a deeper way to enhance their professional reflection. Five categories of teachers emerged from the data. The categories indicate different aspects and levels of teachers’ professional reflection, especially in relation to curriculum revision and the cross-curricular theme Humans and Technology. Interestingly, some of the teachers who showed a thoughtful level of reflection did not pay very much attention to the revised curriculum.     

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.     

Using the DEPTH model to facilitate learning in an integrated Science and Technology pre-service primary teacher course

The paper describes the development of an Integrated Curriculum Science and Technology subject offering as part of the Bachelor of Education (Teaching) degree for primary pre-service teachers at Massey University in New Zealand. The paper discusses some of the difficulties and concerns which arise when pursuing this type of endeavour. This paper also highlights differences from earlier studies carried out at the same institution using the DEPTH framework. The concept of teaching/learning via a project is not new. The innovation here is the integration of Problem Based Learning (PBL) and the DEPTH approach. The previous study (O’Sullivan, Proceedings of Second International Primary Design and Technology Conference—Quality in the Making, Birmingham, 2001) highlighted the usefulness of the DEPTH framework as an evaluation tool to focus students’ responses to critiquing school teaching practice experience and also informing their own personal constructs. This study again found the framework useful but as a diagnostic tool.     

DEPTH2: developing professional knowledge in D&T secondary initial teacher education

There are various aspects to teachers’ professional knowledge, some such as subject knowledge are more easy to articulate than others, for example knowing how to construct a scheme of work. Student teachers need to be able to understand the various aspects of teachers’ professional knowledge in order to be able to help themselves reflect on and develop these various aspects. This research builds on earlier work conducted with design and technology colleagues in a number of different countries and teacher training institutions (see Banks et al., International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 14, 141–157, 2004). Leach and Banks, together with other colleagues, developed a visual tool for discussing the aspects of professional knowledge that student teachers are required to develop and this formed the basis of this research (Leach and Banks, Investigating the developing ‘Teacher Professional Knowledge’ of student teachers, 1996). The research was carried out with a cohort of 1-year Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students on a conventional face-to-face programme. There were 11 in the group with six male and five female and the majority were aged under 25; this is atypical of this course both for gender and age, but this constituted the 2004–2005 intake. There were three data collection points: September 2004, on their first day of their course; January 2005 following their first school placement and June 2005 at the end of the course. The findings indicate the students’ development across the PGCE course in each of the areas relating to knowledge of subject, pedagogy and school. In each area there is a growth in their knowledge and a development in the complexity of their understanding. The students’ knowledge developed from a generalised understanding to a more specific and sophisticated one. It is hoped to be able to continue this research during the induction year of each successful student.     

A phenomenographic study of Greek primary school students’ representations concerning technology in daily life

The present research investigated and studied students’ representations about daily life technologies, in a prospect of studying technology in Greek primary education. In the research participated 60 Greek primary school students aged 9 to 12 years old. Research data were collected through semi-structured, personal, clinical-type interviews. Each interview investigated student’s conceptions and views about the following thematic areas: the concept of technology, daily life technologies, technological change, and the impact of technology use in everyday life. Data analysis revealed that the majority of students equated technology with modern tools and appliances, especially with computers, TV, mobile phones, satellites and other micro- and macro-technologies, whereas experience based technologies (de Vries, Technology education: Beyond the “technology is applied science” paradigm. J. Technol. Edu. 8 (1996), 7) have been hardly recognized by them as technology. Also students’ representations can be categorized either as technology-oriented representations, which focus on a collection of technical means without reference to humans, or as human-oriented representations, focused on technical means with substantial reference to human needs and activities. Depending on these types of representations, students seem to conceive differently the nature of the problems, which they recognize that the wide use of technology causes mainly to the environment and the responsibility of the user for these problems. Moreover, it seems that the concept of technological change is a quite difficult one for the students. In order to help students form adequate representations about daily life technology and technological change an appropriate teaching approach was designed on the basis of these students’ representations.     

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.     

Technological literacy reconsidered: a model for enactment

This paper presents a model to describe technological literacy as enacted by indiviudals in the course of shaping their lives and the world around them. The model has two interrelated facets—the potential for and enactment of technological literacy—where enactment and potential mutually constitute each other. This potential is made up of knowledge of a particular situation, personal engagement with a situation, and social engagement in the world. Enactment requires a particular set of competencies in action, which together helps shape the situation: recognizing needs; articulating problems; contributing towards the technological process; and analysing consequences. The implications of this model for technological literacy in the context of the individual and society, and the role of technology education in developing technological literacy, are discussed.     

Motivating self-regulated learning in technology education

This paper proposes a compensative model for self-regulated learning in technology education (SRLT) comprised of cognitive, metacognitive and motivational domains. Discussion of the cognitive domain centers on problem-solving and creativity, with a focus on the need to engage students in open-ended assignments in informal contexts and to teach them a repertoire of methods, strategies and heuristics for inventive design and problem-solving, rather than letting them search randomly for ideas or use the trial-and-error method. The notion of metacognition deals with peoples’ ability to be aware of and control their own thinking, for example, how they selects their learning goals, use prior knowledge or intentionally choose problem-solving strategies. Self-regulatory behaviour is highly correlated with an individual’s motivation to handle challenging assignments, and with his or her internal satisfaction from being engaged in a task that contributes more to creativity than to receiving external rewards. Another important factor is an individuals’ self-efficacy belief in their ability to handle a highly demanding assignment determined by previous positive experience in similar tasks and the existence of a supportive social and emotional environment. The SRLT model highlights the interrelationships between the cognitive, metacognitive and motivational aspects of learning, problem-solving and invention. For example, teaching students problem-solving strategies could help them accomplish a task, improve their ability to monitor their own thinking and reflect on their learning, and enhance their self-efficacy beliefs about problem-solving and creativity. The teachers’ role in promoting SRLT education and directions for further research are also discussed.     

The social agenda of education for sustainable development within design & technology: the case of the Sustainable Design Award

The paper explores the adoption of the social dimensions of sustainability in technological design tasks. It uses a lens which contrasts education for sustainability as ‘a frame of mind’ with an attempt to bridge a ‘value-action gap’. This lens is used to analyse the effectiveness of the Sustainable Design Award, an intervention in post-16 technology education in three countries to encourage students and teachers to strengthen design for sustainability in their work. In each country, the intervention project provided varying combinations of teacher professional development, provision of learning resources, in school student support, lobbying of key curriculum policy makers and a student Award. Three types of teacher are identified by reference to their motivation for introducing sustainability into their teaching of design. These teacher types are linked to a hierarchy of teachers’ understanding of the social dimension of sustainability. The consequences for continuous professional development are examined. The findings are then used to critique the value of the lens.     

Viewpoints of higher education teachers about technologies

In the context of recent debates on technological literacy, a renewed research effort has focused on the nature of technologies. The aim of this work, which considers ’epistemological knowledge’ as viewpoints which spring into gear in a given situation, is to use questionnaires and interviews to identify the opinions of teachers in a training institute for master technicians in Tunisia on technologies. The objective was to try and define how these teachers perceive the relations between sciences, technologies and societies and how social and cultural aspects affect their discourse on technologies. The results of the questionnaires and the analysis of their discourses indicate that teachers essentially perceive technology as an applied science for which the ultimate purpose is progress and consumption. The relations identified by teachers between technologies, sciences and societies, reveal dichotomies between science and technology both with respect to the status teachers attribute to knowledge and to their views on its teaching.

Disaggregating the group effect: Vertical and horizontal <Emphasis Type="Italic">keiretsu</Emphasis> in changing economic times

This paper examines the evolution of keiretsu group affiliation among members of horizontal and vertical keiretsu in Japan over two time periods: 1992–1997, and 1997–2002. We found that ties were more stable in the later time period and therefore restricted our empirical analysis to the 1992–1997 period. We also found differences in the response of vertically and horizontally linked groups to economic downturn and capital market change—vertically linked groups weakened their ties while horizontally linked groups showed more stability.