Design and Technology in your School: Principles for Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment

This book addresses the practicalities of establishing Design & Technology as a worthwhile subject in the secondary school. Written by two leading experts in the field, it explores the way in which Design & Technology may be taught so that it makes a unique contribution to the learning of young people. It provides Design & Technology departments with practical information and guidance around key issues such as planning and assessing the subject, justifications for teaching it as well as ways in which schools can manage and sustain teaching Design & Technology long term.

In dealing with the breadth and depth of Design & Technology this book:

• Provides rationales for Design & Technology which go far beyond the usual limited economic utility argument.
• Considers the underpinning philosophies of technology and design and the essential place of values, clarifying the substantive and disciplinary knowledge.
• Discusses five important issues: decolonising the subject, gender, disruption, global warming, pollution and waste.
• Describes how a Design & Technology curriculum may be planned, taking into account content, resources and learning activities to achieve breadth, balance, and progression.
• Defines how the subject may be taught through a range of complimentary methods.
• Considers a wide range of assessment practices that meet the varied learning embedded within the subject.
• Discusses how support for the subject can be achieved by collaboration with a wide range of interested parties.

This book is a valuable resource for heads of departments, trainee and practicing teachers, those engaged in further professional development and all who want to make the learning of Design & Technology an interesting, motivating, and exciting experience for young people.

HildaRuth Beaumont (formerly David Barlex) is an acknowledged leader in design & technology education, curriculum design and developing curriculum materials. A former schoolteacher, Senior Lecturer in Education at Brunel University and now an Honorary Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Education, UCL, Hilda’s curriculum development activities stem from her conviction that classroom practice should be informed by academic research.

Torben Steeg has been variously (and in some cases remains) a secondary school teacher, curriculum developer, teacher trainer, local authority curriculum leader, provider of CPD to schools and teachers, maker, and education researcher.