The purpose of the study reported here was to investigate the use of a design-without-make unit as part of the design and technology curriculum with pupils aged 14. Three research questions drove the study: (a) What sort of designing do pupils do when they work collaboratively to design without having to make what they have designed? (b) What is the teachers' attitude to design-without-make? (c) What is the pupils' attitude to design-without-make? The study is a small pilot and data were collected using semi-structured interviews with a class teacher and two pupils and detailed scrutiny of five pupils' design ideas developed during 6 lessons towards the end of an 18 lessons teaching sequence. Findings indicate that the teacher and pupils in this study responded favourably to design-without-make. The pupils' designing was highly iterative, creative, involved making a wide range of design decisions and revealed understanding of technological concepts.
The purpose of this paper is to report on an investigation into pupil beliefs about designers and designing conducted as part of a research project focussing on Designerly Activity in Secondary Design and Technology which builds upon a pilot study (Barlex and Trebell in Int J Technol Design Educ, 2007). Four research questions drove this element of the study: (a) What do pupils believe designers do? (b) What do pupils believe about the knowledge and skills designers must possess? (c) What do pupils believe designers are like? (d) What do pupils believe about the design decisions made by the designer of a given product? This paper compliments the work of Welch et al. (Designing the future: The design and technology association international research conference 2006, University of Wolverhampton, Telford, 2006) relating to student beliefs about designers and designing by drawing on some elements of the research design to inform this study. Pupil responses to questions relating to the role of the designer, what designers are like and what designers need to know are in line with the findings of Welch et al. (Designing the future: The design and technology association international research conference 2006, University of Wolverhampton, Telford, 2006) in their study of elementary students beliefs about designers and designing with both studies concluding that the qualities ascribed to the designer are positive and non-stereotypical-they can be young or old, female or male.
Keywords Designers Á Designing Á Design and technologyThe nature of design activity as revealed by some design professionals Design of the kind undertaken by professional designers could be considered one of the most intellectually demanding types of thinking as it involves both procedural knowledge, that is, knowing how to do something and declarative knowledge, that is factual or conceptual knowledge (Lawson 2004). In addition designers are required to understand a broad range of contexts and to be able to respond to briefs in a creative manner. Cross
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