The development of a ‘flexible learning’ strategy for design and technology

Traditional approaches towards the teaching and learning of design and technology are becoming more difficult to sustain and the need to consider alternative strategies is becoming more urgent. A number of factors have contributed to the need to consider strategies intended to be more flexible and accommodating : worsening staff / student ratios; the need to provide an increasingly wide range of technological information at the relevant point of design development; a belief that design students and teachers are entitled to relevant technological knowledge in a form which is appropriate to their needs. This paper describes the selection, development and evaluation of trial materials which aim to support individual student learning in design and technology. The initial student groups were identified as first year industrial design and technology undergraduates and A/AS-level design and technology students. This target is continually widening, however, and might also include teachers who wish to develop their own technological capability through INSET.