D&T issues

DT Conference hits the spot!
Author: David Barlex

www.data.org.uk

The Design and Technology Association Education and International Research Conference entitled “designing the curriculum – making it work” was unusual in that two of the keynote addresses were completely gripping. Mick Waters delivered the opening keynote on the first day. He demonstrated that the new curriculum at Key Stage 3 provided endless opportunities for design & technology but what was particularly remarkable was his use of striking images and the way he used questions to stimulate intrigue and thirst to learn. It was a master class in teaching. Paul Black delivered a mid conference keynote on assessment for learning. His quiet, unemotional delivery, in complete contrast to Mick Waters, was just as riveting as he recounted the indisputable evidence that AfL enhances learning and revealed that the latest soon to be published work in the Black Box series is devoted to design & technology. Both Mick Waters and Paul Black’s keynotes will appear in the Associations publications soon.

Several of the research paper presentations were similarly thought provoking. Torben Steeg challenged the prevailing design & make orthodoxy with his provocative paper “Makers, hackers and Fabbers: What is the Future of D&T?”. Marion Rutland questioned the wisdom of integrating the Licence to Cook scheme into food technology through tough analysis and searching enquiry with her paper Licence to cook: The Death Knell for Food Technology? Mike Martin, perhaps with an eye to the vision outlined by Mick Waters, asked if the Design & Technology Association’s Competencies for the subject were no longer fit for purpose? And Gill Hope, provided an illuminating presentation in which introduced the community to the work of cognitive archaeologists and demonstrated how their understanding of design activity and significance in human development can be used to understand the way children design and the immense value this has for education.

These and the other papers from the conference will be available on line here.

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