“Not everything that counts can be counted….”

Posted by geraintwilton on July 3, 2014 · 5 Comments 

One of Zaha Hadid’s Liquid Glacial tables.

 

If you work in a school that invested heavily in delivering vocational courses then you will remember all too clearly the shock announcement by Mr Gove that all such courses were failing to make the grade and would be reduced in value at a stroke.  That, of course is not real value, just the way in which they were counted in school league tables.  For the many in both education and business who had worked hard to create and deliver these courses, who knew what it took to pass them and who knew the value of them this came a shattering blow.  Now, several years too late, the government have announced a revised tranche of vocational courses amid a flurry of statements designed to convince the unwary that the previous ones were without rigour, without value and a waste of time for all concerned.  The continuing irony of the education department acting in this way at the same time as the rest of government were proclaiming the need to re balance the economy towards manufacturing will not be lost on you if you had anything to do with education.  For more detail on this front have a look at, Hancock’s Half Hour.

On another front a consultation period is underway about revisions to the A level syllabus for Design Technology.  Oh joy!  What chance of this generating a relevant and dynamic result?  Well, almost none unless we do something about it so I urge you to contribute before it is too late.  Bearing in mind what we know about the way that education runs at the moment this does really matter.  In a results driven culture, where a great deal hangs on notional success measured by exam results, schools are going to respond by focusing on just that.    I came across the quote that forms the title on a classroom wall, attributed to Einstein.  It continues, “and not everything that can be counted counts.”  Well that rings true for education at the moment, doesn’t it?

However we are in the game, like it or not so let’s make the very best of it for the children we teach.  We know that exam results are going to be used a measure of success.  As a result we know that the whole curriculum is going to be geared toward preparing children for exam success.  While most people are optimistic about the impact of the new curriculum for Design Technology any chance of making it work in the way that most design teachers want is going to hang on what the exams end up looking like.  And therein lies the problem.  Design thinking is not easily susceptible to a structured syllabus; almost all exams in our subject are based in the first place on observation of designers at work, this is then formulated into what we tend to think of as the design process which is then translated into a mark scheme.  The twist is that the mark scheme is not the way that designers work, it is a summary of a variety of approaches.  However in order to allocate marks there are a series of statements about what will be in the student’s design folder to get the marks and so the mark scheme becomes prescriptive.  In effect it forces students through a mark scheme shaped nozzle which is rather the antithesis of the creative range and variety of design activity.

I couldn’t resist Zaha Hadid’s table when I saw it in a London gallery, (couldn’t resit taking a photograph that it, it was the kind of shop with no prices displayed but I am fairly sure that it would be well out of my range).  I am sure that somewhere there are some design sketches for it, I doubt very much that the design work it represents would pass GCSE simply because it doesn’t address the criteria.  It was designed using the skills and creativity that it needed, and it is beautiful.  It has no need to prove itself via a criteria referenced folder.

Now here is a real chance.  The dreaded levels are disappearing!  Well to be truthful they are probably not.  Each school has its’s data mangers and they need something to put in their spreadsheets.  Some will no doubt keep levels, some will change them for letters or numbers, some will use the new exam grading.  However in your department you have the opportunity to start to asses design work in the way you want to.  Many colleagues are trawling the new curriculum and writing lengthy level descriptors to match; the task becomes quite Herculean if you are not very careful.  And remember that the curriculum is not intended to take up all the time available so there are opportunities for you to tailor what you provide to suit your school.

How about refining these statement banks to some simple themes?  Then how about describing what really great work would look like in each of those themes, it should be fairly easy to then describe stages on the way to that level which would be open ended enough to allow for a much more flexible approach to designing and making.  Of course you will need to make teacher judgments when something great happens and you should build in something that recognises the way in which failure becomes part of the process.  Whatever you do devise a scheme which you can use with your children, don’t underestimate their capacity to grasp what you are looking for but do make it something that you can use with them in class on a daily basis.

Oh, and if you are still a little hazy about the whole design thing don’t worry, just remember that most poets read their own work very badly.  You might be a great designer but not all that clear about describing what you do.  Help is at hand in the form of a book called, “Design Thinking” by Nigel Cross, well worth a read if you don’t already know it.

Filed under 21st Century education, Art and design, Craft, Curriculum, Curriculum choices, Design, Design education, Design Technology, Economic growth, Education, Education policy, Iterative design, Knowledge based economy, Measuring success, National Curriculum, Teaching and Learning · Tagged with 21st century education, Art and design, Craft, Craft education, curriculum content, Curriculum Review, Design, Design education, Design Technology, Education, Education policy, GCSE grades, iterative design, Learning Objectives, Michael Gove, National Curriculum, NC levels, school league tables, Teaching and learning, vocational courses, Vocational education, Zaha Hadid