Trudi Barrow - Design Education

I’m passionate about my subject of Design and Technology. Becoming an AEE has given me the opportunity to share that passion with other colleagues and work with a wide range of teachers from different schools who are at different stages in their careers. I have thoroughly enjoyed leading the new D&T Teacher’s Network for the area and designing the content in a way that I would want to receive it. I also led training sessions for D&T ECTs at the regional day for secondary ECTs, again a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting experience. It felt a privilege to have an impact on the thinking of D&T teachers at the start of their careers. In the D&T Network this academic year we have been unpicking some of the big picture issues surrounding our subject. It was fantastic to see the discussions and debates that came from it amongst a team of motivated and enthused colleagues. We have considered issues that that often don’t get the time to be carefully considered due to press...

At a recent training event I was pulled up by one of the delegates by denigrating  the word ‘craft’. The subsequent discussion lead me to really reconsider the use of the word in the context of D&T and how craft is perceived in our subject. This came about as I was leading a session on ‘deep learning’ I was explaining the concept of the second 50% of excellent learning (the first 50% being engagement, motivation and determination) coming from opportunities for independence, critical thinking, problem solving and most importantly design thinking. I explained that I believe D&T teachers should remove scaffolds for design and make work overtime and ‘not simply create crafters who can follow instruction’. My point was that we often see D&T outcomes from KS3 lessons as deemed more important than the journey to get there. For example: If Jenny has a beautiful gift to give her Mum at Christmas time, has her learning automatically been more successful than Tom who’s product...