ABSTRACT
Design technology in the primary school has grown out of a strong tradition of craft lessons. Teachers were confident delivering craft in a form with which they felt comfortable. For some pupils these were the days of ‘This is what we’re going to make; this is how you do it.’ And ‘Here’s one I made earlier’. Although these types of lessons could, at worst, culminate in thirty-six pencil tidies made out of three toilet roll holders, some glue, paint and a spot of fabric, with little or no individuality in the designs created and few skills taught, they could also provide pupils with the potential to make simple design decisions and a range of finely honed practical skills to be used in later life. The technology order (DES/WO, 1990) picked up on all the strands of good practice in operation in classrooms, combined them with the requisites of a society, deemed by the late 1980s to be at the forefront of many scientific and technological advances, and changed the emphasis of craft lesson to design technology lessons. The 1990 national curriculum stated that:
Pupils should be able to identify and state clearly needs and opportunities for design and technological activities through investigation of the contexts of home, school, recreation, community, business and industry. [AT 1]
Pupils should be able to generate a design specification, explore ideas to produce a design proposal and develop it into a realistic, appropriate and achievable design. [AT 2]
Pupils should be able to make artefacts, systems and environments, preparing and working to a plan and identifying, managing and using appropriate resources, including knowledge and processes. [AT 3]
Pupils should be able to develop, communicate and act upon an evaluation of the processes, products and effects of their design and technological activities and those of others, including those from other times and cultures. [AT 4] (DES/WO, 1990)
