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00:00:09.112you're listening to the talking dnt podcast.
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00:00:14.727I'm dr allison hardy, a writer, researcher and advocate of design and technology education.
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00:00:55.110In each episode I share views, news and opinions about dnt and I'm also going to do a quick advert now for a series I'm about to start recording with Alice Hellard and Sarah Davis about pedagogy in D&T, where we're going to be talking about particular pedagogical approaches that we could commonly seen in D&T and unpicking them, having a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek prod at them, and also unpicking what the research says about them and also then how they are and can be used effectively in design and technology.
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00:00:56.954So that's up and coming.
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00:01:09.120So that means in the next few weeks, although I'm focusing on pedagogy in D&T and what the research says, I'm not going to be going into too many specifics in D&T and what the research says, I'm not going to be going into too many specifics.
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00:01:19.647So just this week I want to give an overview about what I mean about pedagogy, and the literature is really quite clear about this, although I think there is sometimes confusion when I read design and technology literature.
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00:01:27.772The general research is quite clear that pedagogy is about the teaching methods and approaches used by the teacher.
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00:01:39.936So that's, the ones that the teacher selects that are the most appropriate for teaching a particular piece of knowledge, process, skill attributes or value.
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00:01:57.674Ok, so teachers make choices and again, as I said, this is quite clear in the literature about pedagogy relates to what the teacher decides to do to help children learn in the best way possible, which I've summarized that very well, but I think you know what I mean.
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00:02:07.953I would recommend that you have a look at Andrew Pollard's text about pedagogy where the reflective teaching book that he led.
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00:02:13.140I think he's got some really good stuff in there about, you know, defining what we mean by pedagogy more generally.
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00:02:28.223So that was the first thing that I wanted to focus on, and so I want to also then reflect back on the earlier episodes in this series, where I talk about the intent of design and technology being design and technology capability.
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00:02:41.963So again, teachers in design and technology select strategies, select teaching approaches that will enable children to achieve their potential in developing their design and technology capability.
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00:02:44.569Okay, and it's complex Okay.
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00:02:46.804So let's not pretend that any of this is complex.
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00:02:50.197Sorry, any of this is straightforward, crikey.
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00:02:51.281I got myself a bit lost there.
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00:02:54.105That any of this is straightforward.
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00:03:17.769It is complex because you've now got you know, you're aware that we're developing children's design and technology capability, that that is underpinned by a growing depth and breadth of knowledge in those two particular aspects of design and technological, and then the other two aspects of procedural and conceptual.
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00:03:27.911So you've got that complexity about, as a teacher, being aware about what is it that you're teaching and how is that contributing to the development of their D&D capability.
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00:03:39.786But you, as a professional, have an awareness of the situation that you're in, the children that you're teaching, what they previously have learnt and done and experienced and what you know is upcoming.
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00:03:43.199And then also, alongside that, you understand the resourcing.
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00:04:13.566You know what there is within the facilities, the school, the space that you have and also the amount of time you in terms of thinking about what will be taught and when it will be taught and how children might make use of that knowledge in developing their dnt capability.
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00:04:23.252So just wanted to get that clear at the beginning of this next few episodes about being clear about what pedagogy is and being clear about its complexity.
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00:05:03.367But I also want to clarify that when we're selecting, when you're selecting a pedagogical approach, it's very easy, I think sometimes in design and technology and this happens in the literature I'm not going to name any names about any particular text that I've read that I think this happens, that there's the pedagogy, what the teachers are doing, their approaches for children learning, and then what's being taught, what pupils learn, the curriculum, and a lot in the literature and design and technology.
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00:05:10.737These two are blended to such a way that it's very difficult to see where one starts and the other one.
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00:05:14.843Sorry, where one ends and the other one starts where one starts and the other one.
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00:05:16.444Sorry, where one ends and the other one starts.
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00:05:21.906So I think we've got to be really clear that.
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00:05:30.851I think it's an iterative process when you're designing a lesson, because you're going back and forth between what the pupils will learn, the curriculum and how you will teach it.
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00:05:34.699But I think you have to be clear that there is a separation.
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00:05:57.430And then I think we have a uniqueness in design and technology of how these do blend is that sometimes we are using, we are teaching, a design strategy, for example, but it ends up becoming a pedagogical approach and then that means that the children don't see the distinction.
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00:06:27.418Now Bob McCormick talks about this in his paper about the ritual of the design project, where and we see this and I'm going to be coming on in a future episode to talk about design and make activities where a teacher designs the curriculum as a design and make activity with different aspects of a design process, from identifying the need, doing some research, writing a specification and so on.
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00:06:40.732So each lesson is almost structured around one aspect of that process, that design process that the teacher is following, and it becomes a ritual.
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00:07:51.574But there's an assumption sometimes from the teacher and I've done this is that the children know they are learning not only about, for example, a particular way of writing a specification or a new strategy for gaining research or about some new materials that they've got access to for this particular design project, but because that has all been framed by this selected design process by the teacher and the teacher thinks they're also teaching the design process and I don't like using the word the in front of design process because we know there isn't a single design process that the teacher thinks that the children is seeing that process through experiencing it and Bob McCormick talks about in his paper that that that doesn't happen and it becomes so ritualized that actually it doesn't help with developing children's D&T capability because they think they've just got to go through these steps and I'm going to go off a slight tangent.
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00:07:54.158I think the NEA is is part of that problem.
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00:08:11.673The non-examined assessment and for those of you who are listening outside of England, that's coursework, that's examined coursework, where children undertake a design and make and evaluate to introduce Matt McClain's language design, make and evaluate.
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00:08:17.040So I'm going to give an example here of.
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00:08:22.519Well, I've given the example there of a design process that is framing a project.
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00:08:30.129Another very distinct one, which doesn't get blurred, is one that Matt McLean does write about a lot, which is the demonstration.
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00:08:42.258So what a teacher is doing when they are demonstrating a process is they are modeling the process and they think aloud sometimes when they're doing it.
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00:09:04.730So I know, for example, when I've shown children how to use hand tools for cutting, I've thought aloud about how I'm standing, how I'm holding the material, how I'm holding the tool to do the cutting, where I'm placing the blades to do the cutting and the action is, you know, going backwards and forwards.
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00:09:09.628I talk it out loud because I'm modelling the action that I want the children to take.
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00:09:14.479And so the pedagogical approach is the demonstration.
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00:09:31.488The curriculum artifact thing is them learning how to cut, you know, using a blade with an oscillating motion, right, that's kind of put some fancy words on it so that becomes.
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00:09:43.576That's really explicit, where the pedagogical approach, the demonstration, is very separate from the curriculum artifact, which is the act, the process of cutting.
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00:09:51.249But this example I've given of design fiction, not of design fiction, sorry.
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00:10:03.818The design process is that the pedagogical approach is kind of the design process but it's not really explicit.
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00:10:19.910So it's where do you build into the design and make activity the opportunity for the children to step back and see that process and see some of the strengths and weaknesses of the process that you've designed for them to follow.
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00:10:23.198I mentioned there very briefly design fiction.
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00:10:25.668I'm going to not talk about that example.
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00:10:32.537I'm going to talk about an example that I've used when I'm teaching and I might kind of suggest to Alice and Sarah that we talk about.
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00:10:43.038This is the 6-3-5 technique of designing, where you fold a piece of A3 paper, so there's six separate boxes.
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00:10:55.034Each of you on the table then starts in the top left box and you have three minutes that's where the three comes from to do a design idea.
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00:11:00.731Okay, and I used to get the children to work in pen and then you'd pass it.
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00:11:09.096The paper would be passed on after three minutes until you get a new piece of paper with one sketch already, and then it would be in the second box, the top right.
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00:11:12.955You'd have another three minutes and the child would then design.
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00:11:18.327They might want to build on what they've already seen, or they might want to come up with a whole new idea, and so on.
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00:11:19.192That would go round.
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00:11:22.756So it'd be basically five moves, and so on.
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00:11:23.278That would go round.
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00:11:24.162So it'd be basically five moves.
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00:11:30.015So ultimately the child would get their piece of paper back with their original one in the top left and five other designs as well as theirs.
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00:11:34.131I mean, the paper might've come back to them once already, so there might be two of their own designs on there.
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00:11:42.293But I used to use that technique and it's a really interesting design strategy for generating ideas and doing it as a group.
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00:11:51.219But I wasn't always explicit that they were using the design strategy.
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00:12:03.955I would be using it as a pedagogical approach, and so then at a later date the children weren't able to come back to that strategy and decide to use it for themselves.
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00:12:16.874That's what makes it a design strategy and partly contributing to developing their de-integrability because they have that strategy that they can draw on.
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00:12:29.500But because I, as the teacher, hadn't been clear that that was a design strategy, I'd used it as a pedagogical approach to frame the lesson, expecting that the children would realise it was design strategy.
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00:12:33.095It didn't actually do what I intended it to do.
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00:12:49.355Talked about in the literature, um, this sort of blending of pedagogy and curriculum artifact curriculum thing that's been taught.
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00:13:11.806So I just wanted to start this next section of the series just by talking about that in more detail and to give you something to reflect on and to kind of set the the sort of where I'm going next with the next few episodes, and this sort of blending of pedagogy and curriculum artifact curriculum thing that's been taught.
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00:13:26.155So I just wanted to start this next section of the series just by talking about that in more detail and to give you something to reflect on and to kind of set the the sort of where I'm going next with the next few episodes.
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00:13:32.177I'm Dr Alison Hardy and you've been listening to the Talking D&T podcast.
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00:14:02.317You can find details about me, the podcast and how to connect with me on my website, dralisonhardycom.
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00:14:11.755Thanks for listening.
