DATA’s ITE Induction Programme …

ensuring support for new researchers

Paper published in Issue 1 of D&TE:IJ

Three new publications
 Readings in Design Education
 Designerly activity and higher degrees
 Design and democracy
Development of DATA’s website
 ITE Induction website
 Further web access to journals

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Why Readings in design
education?
Design problems are described as 'ill-defined' because there is no way
of arriving at a provision description merely by the reduction,
transformation or optimisation of the data in the requirement
specification. By the same token, it is rarely possible to determine
whether or not the finished design is 'the correct'. 'the only' or 'a
necessary' answer to the requirements. It must usually be possible, of
course, to establish whether or not the design is a 'proper' or 'an
acceptable' answer to the requirements. It may or may not always be
possible to judge whether or not one 'proper' answer to the
requirements is better or worse than some other 'proper' answer.
Where such doubts do NOT exist, the problem is not 'ill-defined' and
might therefore have been resolvable by scientific or mathematical
methods rather than designerly methods. Most real-world problems
encountered by most people are 'ill-defined'.
(Archer and Roberts, 1979:55)

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Reasons to look back…
Theoretical support
More fluid times in the 1970s
… when the design process emerged
… but not unchallenged

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Why Designerly activity and
higher degrees?
Detailed guidance on:
 The nature of research evidence
 The supervision of research
 Writing a thesis
 Etc
The Orange Series publication
concerned the general approach

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Archer’s series of 7 seminars
The nature and purpose of undergraduate design
education in Britain
The nature and purpose of higher degrees and
research degrees
The science tradition of research
The humanities tradition of research
Action research: research through art action, research
through design action
A characteristic project trajectory in academic research
Supervision and examination of research degrees

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Why Designerly activity and
higher degrees?
All the normal rules governing research practice apply to action
research. It must be knowledge directed. It must be calculated to
produce new knowledge, or be intended to test, and maybe refute,
existing knowledge. It must be systematically conducted. The
chief questions to be addressed by the research must be
unambiguously expressed. The methods of enquiry and analysis
must be transparent. The data employed, and the observations
made, must be fully and honestly recorded. And the whole must
be exposed to critical examination by others.
 
However, in one important respect, action research is different from
the other categories of research activity. …the investigator is
explicitly taking action in and on the real world in order to devise or
test or shed light upon something.

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Why Design and democracy?
Designers and writers on design frequently offer two very familiar
interpretations of the essence of the activity:
that it is to serve human needs; and
that it is about solving problems
This presents design in a very favourable light. It suggests that designers are
at the forefront of developing a benign and socially responsible material world.
It also suggests that designers are largely able to set their own agenda: that
designers can ensure that in their practice they actually serve human needs
and solve problems that need solving.
 
In this publication I want to explore a very different perspective. If, in fact,
contemporary design serves human needs, which needs does it actually
succeed in satisfying? If it solves problems, whose problems are they? These
questions arise and demand an answer because it is quite evident that the
products of design activity – intended to serve human needs and solve
problems – are themselves problematic.

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Why Design and democracy?
 The four perspectives are as follows:

WEALTH
This perspective views design’s role in society through the lens of
growing wealth and professional specialization resulting from the
division of labour in Nineteenth Century industry.
 
PRODUCTS
This perspective explores the explosion in the manufacture of
products and the nature of commodification in advanced capitalist
economies and the role that is allocated to design in helping to
forward the process of commodification.
 

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Why Design and democracy?
ALTERNATIVES
Here the aim is to identify the nature of some critiques of design’s support for a
market economy and to characterise alternatives. Do any alternatives appear
viable? Can the environmental problems facing the world be solved by an
ameliorative strategy or is revolution required? Do designers have an identifiable
role?

PARTICIPATION
This perspective starts from a consideration of democracy and discusses how far
participation is a reality in design decision-making. It looks at different models of
management and identifies the design profession’s stake in specialization. It
describes the nature of the design education ‘movement’ and the radical
ambitions of its approach.
 
A final section summarises some conclusions that may be drawn from these
speculations.

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DATA’s ITE Induction
website: today’s workshop

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DATA’s ITE Induction
website: today’s workshop
Establishing the brief
Negotiating goal statements
Generating the research questions
Planning the enquiry

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Gaps in the research evidence
(Harris and Wilson, 2003:62)
Our general conclusion is that despite the number of
references to D&T in the literature few were research-
based in terms of meeting peer-review standards.
Many of the papers have been written by advocates of
the subject and where research does exist, it tends to
be small-scale or action-based. While we recognise the
importance of involving users, we recommend that the
development of the D&T curriculum and learning and
teaching would benefit from more funded and
systematic research in D&T generally.

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Specific issues (Harris and
Wilson, 2003:62)

Can a model of research for D&T, which includes

‘users’ be developed?
Can the claims of supporters that D&T encourages
critical thinking, problem solving and creativity be
substantiated?
What are the most effective ways of learning within
D&T, with particular reference to collaborative learning
and the developing (of) higher level skills?

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Specific issues (Harris and
Wilson, 2003:62)
How do good/effective teachers teach D&T, organise their
classrooms/workshops, equipment, access resources and keep up-
to-date?
What are the most effective ways of encouraging design and
creativity in D&T at all stages?
How can ICT be used effectively by pupils and teachers to support
D&T at all stages?
What is the impact of gender/ethnicity/disability on D&T. How can
opportunities for all, both pupils and teachers, be extended in D&T?

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Specific issues (Harris and
Wilson, 2003:62)
What does industry/business want from D&T and how
can productive relationships with them be extended?
Do up-to-date resources impact on pupils’
achievements?
Can outcomes from schools with different levels of
resources be compared?

Finally, there is now an on-going need to monitor the

effects of removing D&T from core at Key Stage 4

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Task 1 … Establishing the brief

Read and discuss the list of specific

issues identified by Harris and Wilson
As a group agree which you believe to
be the most important and prepare to
say why

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Negotiating goal statements
If registered for a higher degree there
are minimum and maximum registration
periods
Negotiate what you are to do with an
experienced university supervisor
…a task for another day

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Conceptual maps
Essential, because there is too much
literature and prior art to simply read it
all

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Example 1… The proposition … that designers know about and
use technology in a distinctive designerly way … could lead
to the following chief questions to be addressed.

What is design? What is technology? How is design and technological activity

interpreted and understood?
How do designers know about technology? What is the distinction between science
and technology? Is technological knowledge ‘merely’ scientific knowledge
reformulated? If so, in what ways? How is knowledge distinguished from
information? What knowledge and information is internalised? And what simply
noted for reference? Can creativity be inhibited by technological knowledge or
information?
Is there a technological knowledge base for product designers? For all practitioners
(and their respective areas)? For the design field? Which areas of technological
knowledge are associated with particular product groups? How is this knowledge to
be identified?
How should technological knowledge and information be taught to designers? How
can/should designers be able to access technological knowledge and information?
What is a designerly approach to the use of technological knowledge and
information in design?

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Example 2 The proposition … that there is a distinctive
discipline that underpins successful design and
technological activity … could lead to these research questions.

What is design and technology? Where is design and technology? Is it only found
within the school curriculum subject? How do we recognise it?
What is the precise nature of the subject discipline? What is the role of knowledge?
Are there different ways of knowing? Is the making and testing of prototype
products important?
How do we justify our claims for it? How is creativity to be fostered? Is there any
conflict between creativity and other aspects of design and technology?
How do we report on its qualities? What is to be assessed? Are teachers’
perceptions in agreement with the Awarding Bodies? OfSTED? Are the means of
assessment accurately reflecting the nature of the discipline?
What is the distinctive nature of the discipline which underpins design and
technology?

(The proposition is a paraphrase of the recent research project (RECORD&T)

undertaken by Professor Geoffrey Harrison in partnership with the QCA and NESTA)

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Example 3 The proposition that … designers change their
design decisions to become more sustainable as a result of
using sustainable design websites … could lead to these
research questions … (Peter Simmons)
What is sustainable design?
- What is the understood consensus of sustainability?
- What are the principles followed by sustainable design in education?
Where do sustainable design related websites fit into sustainability?
- What content do current websites contain?

What is effectiveness in this context?

- What parts of current sustainable design websites do designers find useful?
- What are the drivers behind designers’ decisions?
How do you measure the effectiveness of websites?

Is the Sustainable Design Award (SDA) website effective in influencing design decisions for
students aged 16-18?
- Is the SDA website more effective with supporting inputs?
- At what stages in designing do sustainable design websites influence design decisions? When are they most
effective?

Can the findings be applied to different age ranges?

- Are the effectiveness principles established for the SDA website applicable to sustainable design websites or
websites in general?

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Example 4 The proposition that … design decision-making can
be improved through improved pedagogy and transferred
to other activities … could lead to these research questions …
(Alexandros Mettas)

What types of decisions can we reasonably expect primary and

secondary students to engage in during different parts of
designing and making?

What strategies do primary and secondary education pupils’

follow in order to make their design choices?

What are the difficulties that primary and secondary education

pupils’ face in their efforts to make correct decisions in their
designs?

In what ways do existing teaching materials support primary and

secondary education pupils’ decision making?

To what extent can decision making skills learned within the area
of design and technology be transferred to other activities?

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Task 2 … Generating the research
questions

As a group complete a mind map of

some research questions for the topic
you identified
Try to place these in order and create a
conceptual map of the enquiry

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Searching the literature
and prior art
Books
Journal and conference papers (on the
web and elsewhere)
Prior Art
… then see what questions are left that
require the gathering of primary data

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Books … eg
Teaching and learning design and
technology: a guide to recent research and its
applications (Eggleston, 2000)
Engineering Council (UK) publications
 Interaction: the relationship between science and
design and technology in the secondary school
curriculum (Barlex and Pitt, 2000)
Open University (UK) publications
 Understanding practice in design and technology
(Kimbell, Stables and Green, 1996)

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Journal and conference papers … some on-
line

DATA journals http://www.data.org.uk

IJTDE http://journals.kluweronline.com/
JTE http://iteawww.org
IDATER http://www.lboro.ac.uk/idater
CRIPT http://www.ed.uce.ac.uk/cript/
PATT http://www.iteawww.org/D4c.html

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Prior Art
Everything known about design and
technology education is not written
down
… at least in journals and conference
papers

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Task 3 …Searching the literature
and prior art
As a group, search IDATER98, IDATER99 and
IDATER2000, and the selected Bibliography
by Phil Roberts to see if there is anything
relevant to your research topic
Consider if there is any prior art you would
look at
Which research questions would require
primary data?

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Then …
…all you have to do is to work out how
to get it!
David will be looking at this and other
related issues after the break
… but otherwise you could read
Archer’s advice on the Humanities and
Science traditions and action research
as a good starting point.

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