Designing in food technology – a curriculum intervention strategy in a one year design & technology postgraduate teacher training course

This study builds on previous work (Barlex and Rutland, 2004) exploring the effectiveness of a deliberate curriculum intervention strategy aimed at enhancing the design ability and design teaching skills of trainee teachers on a one year PGCE Design & Technology course. In this new study the focus is on the design ability and design teaching skills of food technology trainees. A parallel study was carried out at another institution and this will be reported in a future publication. The trainee's initial design ability in food technology was gauged in two ways; using an audit tool and evidence provided by the design portfolio produced during the first food technology design activity for all trainees on the course. The development of food technology design ability was then gauged using evidence from the design portfolios produced during two additional food design activities. The study includes two sets of interviews with a sample of food technology trainees following the food design activities and a final interview at the end of the research project. The ability to teach designing with food and its development across the one year course was gauged using data collected through classroom observation; trainee’s teaching practice file and analysis of interviews with the sample of food technology trainees at the end of each teaching experience. The study will report preliminary findings from data collected September 2004 – December 2004 concerning the development of design ability within food technology and the development of the ability to teach designing with food technology for trainees at a single institution.