Design and Technological Activity: a Framework for Assessment

This report, from the Assessment of Performance Unit (APU), follows a series of other reports establishing the nature of design and technology. This report was again concerned initially to clarify the parameters of design and technological activity and the features of performance that are crucial. Subsequently, the work of the team has centred on the development and trialling of test materials that reflect the description of design and technological activity.

[b]Section 1: Design and technological activity - difficulty[/b]
This section considers the difficulties encountered when considering what is meant by design and technology in schools

[b]Section 2: Design and technological activity - process[/b]
This section discusses the process skills required in design and technology and acknowledges that these skills are common to many other subject areas

[b]Section 3: Thought and action[/b]
An interactive model of design and technology looks at the different stages required when tacking a task, task identification, investigation, generation and development and evaluation

[b]Section 4: Content in the activity[/b]
This section considers the wider aspects of a design task such as: is there a market for the product? Who is the target audience? What characteristics should the product exhibit? How can I test my product?

[b]Section 5: Approaches to monitoring[/b]
The final section looks at the issues around setting tasks that are meaningful and in context and at the same time being able to monitor the progress of students to adequately assess their capabilities and the need to avoid setting tasks devoid of context so as to make the monitoring process easier.