ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with student experiences of moving between one form of practice and design in a primary school to another form of practice and design in a secondary school. Moving between different forms of pedagogic practice that are aligned with design environments appears to have a marked effect on how connected students feel to their schools. Schooling constitutes a form of collective social activity with specific forms of interpersonal communication. Within schools and between schools there are differences in the content, structure and function of interpersonal communication. The central generative construct which underpins the aspects of schooling is the dominant theory of instruction that is explicitly or tacitly adhered to by designers and practitioners. ‘School connectedness’ is a concept that has been used in a variety of ways as an attempt to identify the psychological ‘fit’ of students to the school environment, encompassing elements such as health, security, social relations and self-esteem.
