Wednesday 15 July 2015

Four scenarios for D&T in 2025

Tomorrow Matt McLain and I are giving a brief presentation about what excellent D&T might look like in 2025 at The Edge Foundation. We don't claim to have the answers but our presentation will hopefully stimulate some fruitful discussion amongst the delegates.
We've created four possible scenarios for D&T in 2025. You might see them as extreme, unlikely, intriguing or predictable, but they are just our ideas (and only that - there are no hidden agendas - we are only speculating). We hope we've been provocative and would be interested to hear what others think.
Do you agree with our 'either/or'? Ours are 'D&T would be available for some/ D&T would be available for all' and 'Established technology/ emerging technology'.
What about the scenario labels? Do they 'fit' the description?
The Edge Foundation will be publishing a report with a summary of this event and other similar ones they are also running.




Fixers, geeks and developers (top left)

In this scenario the subject is about high tech and emerging technologies that only a few selected pupils have access to. In some schools only a handful of pupils do D&T, in others it is all of the pupils in that school.
In the D&T rooms there will be minimal traditional hands-on learning activity; much of the classwork is done using simulations and computers to model their solutions. Computer science has become a subsidiary of D&T because it has been recognised that D&T develops design thinking skills, whereas computer science has a narrow focus.
Some of the work uses design thinking and creativity, investigating practical purposes for new technologies, but primarily the lessons are about using and learning how to use the new technologies.
For the higher ability pupils, who were previously underachieving in D&T, they have either been ‘selected’ or have chosen to do this 'emerging technology' based D&T and they know how this subject will play an important role in their future education choices - D&T has become a gate-keeper to higher education engineering/ health-design/ interactive design courses*.  These pupils are heading towards degrees and engineering, high-tech work. In some excellent D&T departments they are also considering the user, how will people use these new technologies.
For some pupils this D&T will prepare them for careers through a vocational and technical route, leading to them becoming technicians and ‘fixers’.
Primarily this excellent D&T will meet address the economic argument for education. Unfortunately it will mean that because so few pupils do the subject then the loss to society will be the limited number of pupils who are able be democratically** active when the effect of emerging technologies is debated. Also the cultural and social arguments will not be met by D&T through the pupils who study it. 
*Health design and fashion- health courses are new HE degrees combining the Internet of Things with integrated technologies, particularly using textiles. This is a growing area in industry, combining the UK’s creative industries strength in fashion, textiles and programming.
** See my article in TeachDesign (issue 2, pages 5-7) explaining the five arguments for D&T.

Hackers, crafters and tinkerers (bottom left)

D&T is still based on established technologies and processes from the previous decades. However this is recognised as a necessity for society - that some people know how to use these traditional skills, such as 3D printing, laser cutting, using sewing machines and other (very traditional) hand tools. This is partly because of the resurgence of the need for people to make things. We have become so disjointed from the manufacture that this subject now meets the needs of society to ‘craft’, to be in touch with the resources and to make personal decisions.
Here only a select few pupils do D&T, again some have been chosen whilst others have self-opted. The subject has a closer relationship with Art and Design but focusses more on the human needs and practical function that A&D. Pupils who do D&T in this scenario are becoming equipped for self-sufficiency but more than that they are the future entrepreneurs, enabled to meet local needs. They will go to hackspaces, even run them, and also be mobile technicians.
This excellent D&T is about 'inquisitive, creative, practical pursuits'.
Some who do this excellent D&T will still be needed to work using ‘old’ technology and be also able to produce low-technology one-off products.This is where one form of disruptive technology has gone***.
However some might see this as a subject where low ability children can go to be ‘minded’.
A progression from this D&T might be to local industry.
This form of D&T responds to the social argument for D&T education, which is that making products/ items is a social activity, whether we are doing it with someone else (a hackspace) or for someone else (a crafter making unique items to order and fit for a specific person).
*** See Barlex, D. & Stevens, M. (2012 Making by printing – disruption inside and outside school? in Thomas Ginner, Jonas Helstrom and Magnus Hulten (Eds) Technology Education in the 21st Century Proceedings of the PATT 26 Conference 2012, 64 – 73, Stockholm, Linkoping University  available here for more about Disruptive Technologies and 3D printers.

Fab-labers (top right)

In this scenario D&T is available for all and its content is around emerging technologies and the implications of these new technologies on society.
Because all children have a right to be taught this D&T and schools to ensure that every child can study it in their own school, its clearly a subject of high status and value for all, pupils and society. This means that the curriculum is quite diverse, which does challenge teachers but these teachers have been trained in a breadth and not a depth (although some of them will have depth in relevant subject content). In a similar way to the 'fixers geeks and developers' learning spaces there is little here that involves practical hands-on making. In this scenario much of the work is virtual and conceptual. This is a subject that not only makes use of the content from other school subjects**** .
D&T is a subject that thrives on debate in the classroom; pupils develop the skills of critical thinking and argument, where they discus the ethics of new designs, consider the changes to society, locally, nationally and globally and tend to be involved in making design decisions about systems rather than products. The learning space is democratic and there are ‘teaching machines’ used when specialist content is needed about the emerging technologies.  
Pupils are also learning to appreciate and critique designed products and systems, making judgements using their developing moral and ethical ‘compasses’.
In this scenario D&T is supporting the democratic and cultural arguments of education, as well as the economic but in a different way to the fixers etc. Pupils who do this type of D&T are able to apply their design thinking skills to a wide variety of employment situations. 
**** Including, but not exclusive to: geography, computer science (which is now very vocational and only available to some pupils), science and physical health (Physical health has replaced PE and is for all pupils; it has been developed in response to the growing obesity problem and ageing population. Cooking and nutrition also are part of this new subject. PE has become a specialist minority subject for selected pupils identified as having high levels of ability and aspiration in competitive sport).

Menders (bottom right)

Established technologies are dominant in the menders learning spaces. On first view this excellent D&T does now appear to be about global issues or the economy, initially it appears to be about preparing for domestic home life. They learn to use tools, equipment and processes. The subject content is around the home, and pupils learn processes needed for the home and family life (reminiscent of the 2013 ‘make do and mend’ D&T curriculum). Very little here relates to the emerging technologies that they will see in most of their work places.
However this excellent D&T is important. As society and governments became more mindful how resources were being depleted (cf Cradle to Cradle) there has become more interest in reusing, recycling, up cycling etc at home. It is seen that by equipping young people with these domestic, practical life skills then some of the (no longer) imminent resource depletion crises could be addressed by D&T. (And yes you guessed it - horticulture has finally found its way into D&T!)
In a ‘low level’ way D&T is addressing the global issue of sustainability. This is sustainable education.
D&T is responding to the democratic and social arguments of D&T, with a long term potential impact on the economy.



Friday 3 July 2015

Autonomy or independence?

Today I've being reading a paper by Alan Cross and it’s reminded me of one of my bĂȘte noire learning outcomes: 'To be successful you will have worked independently to make your widget (change as appropriate)'.

It always puzzles me - what does the teacher mean by 'independent'. It could mean that you want them not to ask you questions or for help but to work it out for themselves or ask a peer: 3B4ME. Or maybe independence is about the child relying on their memory to work out what they need to do next or what decisions they have to take – a sort of recall test. 

But what I think it usually means is a combination of the two:
‘Work it out for yourself, look it up or ask someone else in the group – but not me. If you do this you have successfully met the learning outcome and you are an independent learner’

But what if the consequence of this independence is that ‘widget’ doesn’t fit together or taste right or function as it’s meant to? Where is the child’s success then? What have they learnt as a consequence of being independent? That they aren’t good enough? That they can’t do it on their own?

Constructivist learning and socially-constructed learning is a common theory of learning used by many in D&T (see Fox-Turnbull (2012)) yet this focus in D&T on independent learning undermines this theory. Which brings me back to Alan Cross' paper entitled: 'Teacher Influence on Pupil Autonomy in Primary School Design and Technology'.

Cross quotes Boud (1987), whose view of personal autonomy is '... the ability to make their own decisions about what they think and do' (italics are mine). Surely in D&T this is what we want to develop in pupils? But this cannot be done in one lesson, it is a ‘tortuous path’ to ‘total independence’ (Kimbell in Cross):

'The child will move in small steps from almost total dependence on the teacher to almost total independence...the function of the teacher...is to steer children towards the goal of independent thought and action, along the tortuous path of guided or supported freedom. '
(Kimbell 1982, p.16)

Cross goes onto say that this view is influenced by Vygostkian thinking, linked to the 'Zone of Proximal Development' (ZPD) – back to socially-constructed learning.

By linking Vygotsky's theory with socially-constructed learning I think its clear that a learning outcome for one lesson of 'you will work independently' is unrealistic. 

Effective D&T teaching should plan over time how the teacher will help the child take those 'small steps', at times with their peers or family and others with the teacher. The end-goal of this planning should be that they make their own decisions about how to make that widget function as they have decided it should do, and to autonomously decide whether they need to consult with anyone, including you or three others before you. 

References
Cross, A. 2003. Teacher Influence on Pupil Autonomy in Primary School Design and Technology'. research in Science and Technological Education. Vol 21(1), p,123-135. 

Fox-Turnbull, W. 2012. Learning in Technology. In: P. John Williams (ed). Technology Education For Teachers. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.