Bodies of knowledge and design-based activities

The Design Council funded a small-scale project to investigate the relationship between bodies of knowledge and design-based activities. The project team was based at the School of Education, University of Leeds. It was co-directed by Professor Edgar Jenkins and Angela Anning. The research fellow was Sarah Whitelaw. The team worked closely with a group of primary and secondary teachers in the investigation. A report on the project was delivered to the Design Council in April 1996. The paper reports on some of our findings. The research consisted of a literature review, accessing the view of professional designers through interview, and dialogue with and classroom observations of practising teachers of Design and Technology. Issues that will be discussed in the paper are: the complexity of defining what children need to know in order to be able to design; the problems associated with comparing workplace practices with school learning; the need to identify and teach designerly behaviours in schools. In the conference presentation these issues will be illustrated with case study material.