A study of designerly activity in secondary design and technology

Trebell, Donna (2008) A study of designerly activity in secondary design and technology. EdD thesis, University of Greenwich.

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to research designerly activity in secondary design and technology as pupils aged 14 designed but did not make products for the future. Four questions drove this study: What are the features of the classroom interactions that support pupil’s design activity? What sort of designing do pupils do when they design without having to make what they have designed? What is the teachers’ attitude to design-without-make? What is the pupils’ attitude to design-without-make?

This study is presented in four parts. The first part provides a theoretical positioning by reviewing literature in the following fields: theories of learning which promotes the idea that understanding is constructed socially and culturally; the nature of design activity as revealed by some design professionals; the nature of design activity as revealed by ‘fledgling designers’ (Trebell, 2007) creativity in the context of the design and technology classroom; and literature on classroom interaction.

The second part describes the research project and methodology in which designerly activity in a secondary design and technology classroom is captured using video data, the work of pupils carrying out the design-without-make unit is scrutinised and the views of the teacher and four of the pupils are obtained through the use of semi-structured interviews. In the third part, data is presented, analysed and discussed using an analytical framework drawn from the relevant literature.

Findings indicate that pupils designing in this context was highly iterative, creative, involved making a wide range of design decisions and revealed understanding of technological concepts. Features of the classroom interactions that support pupils’ design activity have emerged as themes from the literature and been tested in order to identify their significance in the development of pupils’ designerly activity. These consist of: a) Design decisions – Barlex, (2005); b) Learning conversations drawn from literature on constructive dialogue and c) Scaffolding and Mediation.

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