Send me a message.In this episode, I'm excited to share three brilliant opportunities for you to get involved in research that's shaping the future of design and technology education. First, I'll tell you about the Redesigning Design and Technology project I'm co-leading with Ciaran, Andrew, and Amanda. We've identified 18 contentious questions that divide our community and created a survey where you can share your views on these crucial debates. This research feels particularly timely with England's curriculum and assessment review underway, and I believe teacher voices need to be heard loud and clear in policy discussions.I'll also discuss the evaluation I'm leading of the Design and Technology Association's Inspired by Industry resources. Working alongside Kay Stables and my colleagues at Nottingham Trent, we're examining how these resources impact pupils' progress in D&T. It's a fantastic opportunity for participating schools to gather rich data about their own practice whilst contributing to sector-wide understanding.Finally, I'm launching an urgent call for contributors to a new podcast series addressing special educational needs and disabilities in D&T. This is such an under-researched area, yet absolutely vital to our practice. Whether you're facing challenges or have developed innovative approaches, I want to hear from you.Each of these projects represents a chance to contribute to evidence-based practice in our subject. They're about empowering teachers to shape research rather than simply consuming it. The insights we gather will benefit the entire D&T community.What conversations about D&T practice do you think we need to be having more openly in our schools and professional networks?Take part in the Redesigning D&T survey: https://bit.ly/ReDandT_Phase3Join the evaluation of the Inspired by Industry projects: https://bit.ly/IBIinterestSupport the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.Reconnecting with purpose is essential when facing professional challenges. In this  reflective episode, I share my experience of an unsuccessful professorial application and how it prompted me to rediscover why I'm passionate about design and technology education in the first place.The start of a new academic term offers the perfect opportunity to step back from the excitement and apprehension of returning to teaching and consider our fundamental values:What drives us to teach design and technology?Why do we advocate for this subject?These questions matter because when we lose sight of our purpose, we risk becoming mechanical rather than inspirational in our practice.Through conversations with colleagues working on the "Learning to Teach Design and Technology in Secondary School" book and planning a primary D&T podcast series, I've reconnected with what  motivates me – developing children's ability to make design decisions that shape their world and fostering critical engagement with the made environment. This renewed clarity came unexpectedly from various sources, including a chance conversation with my young cousin who simply chose to study subjects she loves.I challenge you to reflect on your own D&T values as you begin this academic year. Perhaps create a mind map, discuss with colleagues, or identify your "word of the year" for teaching design and technology. Where do you find refreshment and challenge that keeps you passionate about the subject? Have you considered what values drive your teaching practice? Share your thoughts, subscribe to the podcast, and if you're using Inspired by Industry resources in your teaching this year, consider participating in our evaluation research project. Your voice matters in shaping the future of design and technology education.Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.Recommended read: Studio Properties: A field guide to design education (edited by Derek Jones ,  Elizabeth Boling,  James Benedict Brown ,  James Corazzo,  Colin M. Gray,  Nicole Lotz)Derek Jones and Alice Hellard explore the concept of design studio as a transformative educational approach that extends beyond physical space to encompass social dynamics, extended cognition, and embodied knowledge.• Design studio is not just a physical space but a collection of practices involving social interaction, extended cognition, and listening in• Virtual design studios reveal important insights about how students learn through observation and "legitimate peripheral learning" • The process of enculturation into design practices requires students to develop confidence in the language and methods of design• Studio practice allows students to externalize thinking through models and drawings as part of the cognitive process• Current assessment frameworks often fail to recognize or value the types of knowledge central to design practice• Implementing aspects of studio practice in secondary schools faces challenges but offers opportunities for more authentic design education• Students need opportunities to design without predetermined outcomes, though this creates tensions with traditional assessment modelsIf you want to support the podcast financially, you can become a patron. Links to SpeakPipe, Patreon and my website are in the show notes.Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.Michelle Gregson, General Secretary and Chief Executive of NSEAD, discusses the relationship between art and design and design and technology education, exploring their distinctiveness while highlighting their shared values and challenges.NSEAD operates as a learned society, subject association, and specialist trade union for art and design educationBoth art and design and design and technology subjects face similar challenges of reduced curriculum time and resourcesMichelle describes a "spectrum of practice" where art and design focuses more on internal/artist expression while design and technology addresses external/user needsCurriculum "blurring" between subjects is often driven by budget constraints rather than pedagogical innovationBoth subjects share dispositions like curiosity, critical thinking, and problem-solving but apply them with different intentionsCreativity exists across both subjects but manifests differently depending on contextChildren lose authentic learning experiences when subjects are narrowed down to what can be taught cheaplyEducation should value children for who they are today, not just as "units of currency for the future"Both subjects uniquely give students opportunities to be in control of their learningFind me at dralisonhardy.com where you can connect with me, support the podcast as a patron, or leave me a voice memo via SpeakPipe with your thoughts or ideas for future episodes.Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.If you are interested in helping the Association evaluate their Inspired by Industry programme, sign up here: https://bit.ly/IBIinterestWhat happens when we look beyond textbook projects and expose 11-14 year olds to real industry design challenges? Tony Ryan, Chief Executive of the Design and Technology Association, reveals how they're transforming technical education from the ground up through their ambitious "Inspired by Industry" programme.Six years into his leadership role, Tony shares his passion for rebuilding design education with a fundamentally different approach: focusing on complex problem-solving rather than simply making products. "If we go to government and say, 'You need to back design and technology because we make stuff,' we're finished," he explains. Instead, they're creating resources that develop future innovators who can tackle "gnarly complex problems" with tenacity and creativity.The Association has partnered with over 300 companies to create authentic, challenging design briefs that elevate student expectations. One example involves a professional designer's project creating dinosaur suits – not just costumes, but immersive experiences that teach ergonomics, materials science, and design thinking. These free resources include comprehensive teaching materials with videos featuring young professionals students can aspire to become.Complementing this secondary focus is remarkable growth in primary school engagement, where 20% of English schools now hold membership. Through initiatives like "Projects on a Page" and equipment loan schemes for 3D printers and sewing machines, non-specialist teachers are gaining confidence in delivering high-quality technical education.The work extends beyond resources to research and advocacy. A planned evaluation programme will measure outcomes, providing crucial evidence for lobbying efforts already yielding results – as seen in the recent House of Lords report calling for "urgent action" to address the decline in design education. As Tony puts it, their mission is creating a subject that's "design-driven" and produces students "not afraid of tackling complex problems and not just replicating what's been done before."Explore how the Design and Technology Association is reimagining technical education for a generation that will change careers 16-17 times and interact with technology "at a pretty high level, whether they like it or not." The future of design education starts here.Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.Max Pownall is a product design lecturer at Nottingham Trent University. Find out more about Max and his work:Instagram (NTU Focussed)LinkedInUni profileFinal Year Degree online degree showMentioned in this episodeEvents with Alison HardyThe Design Thinking Toolboxhttps://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/michael-lewrick/design-thinking-toolbox/9781119629191Tools from the book at - https://en.dt-toolbook.com/tSupport the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.Holistic, summative assessment is essential for properly evaluating design and technology capability, drawing on research by Richard Kimball and Kay Stables that predates the National Curriculum and has been tested across multiple countries and age groups.Effective capability assessment tasks allow pupils to demonstrate ability to respond to an unfamiliar design contexAssessment focuses on students' design capability, not their knowledge of the specific contextTeachers should provide resources for rapid immersion in the context without predetermined solutionsReal-time assessment is more authentic than extended assessments over weeks"Unpickled portfolios" are raw and produced in real time, unlike "pickled portfolios" which become formulaic and focused on presentationSuccessful capability assessment requires student ownership, allowing innovation and prototype testingHolistic judgment approaches like comparative assessment provide reliable evaluation methodsAssessment should support curriculum aims rather than distort themResources and References from Episode 4: Holistic Evaluation: The True Measure of Design & Technology CapabilityResearch by Richard Kimbell and Kay Stables on holistic, summative assessment of design and technology capabilityPre-national curriculum research from 1992 onwardsTested across different countries and age groupsResearch on comparative judgment as a reliable method of assessmentSTEM website where much of Kimbell and Stables' published work can be foundCurrent research and evaluation study mentioned:Dr. Hardy working with Kay Stables and Sarah DavisUsing Kimbell and Stables' work on assessing D&T capability as a pre and post intervention testPrevious episodes in the assessment mini-series:Episode 1: Overview of assessment in D&TEpisode 2: Assessing knowledgeEpisode 3: Formative assessment, design crit and peer assessmentAcknowledgement:Some of the supplementary content for this podcast episode was crafted with the assistance of Claude, an AI language model developed by Anthropic. While the core content is based on the actual conversation and my editorial direction, Claude helped in refining and structuring information to best serve listeners. This collaborative approach allows me to provide you with concise, informative, and engaging content to complement each episode.Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.Formative assessment in Design and Technology requires structured peer feedback approaches to be effective. Research shows a significant gap in assessing technological knowledge, with most studies focusing on design knowledge instead.• Design crits from higher education can be adapted for classroom use through peer feedback• Research from the Netherlands identifies convergent feedback (clarifying ideas) and divergent feedback (promoting creative responses)• Teachers must model feedback techniques and provide clear criteria for students• Effective sentence starters include "I notice your design solves the problem by..." and "Have you considered how your design might work if..."• Using exemplars (WAGOLL) can limit creativity if not implemented carefully• Structured peer feedback reduces teacher workload while ensuring all students receive input• Andrew Halliwell is conducting new research on formative feedback to be presented in July 2025Resources and References from Episode 3: Beyond the Design Crit: How Students Learn Through Giving and Receiving FeedbackResearch from the Netherlands on peer feedback in D&T educationResearch focused on effective convergent and divergent feedback techniquesResearch addressing how pupils struggle with receiving and giving useful feedbackNuffield Key Stage 3 materials with sentence structures for convergent and divergent questionsAvailable on the D&T for D&T websiteChapter by Alice Shutt in the "Debates in Design and Technology" book about the Netherlands research Acknowledgement:Some of the supplementary content for this podcast episode was crafted with the assistance of Claude, an AI language model developed by Anthropic. While the core content is based on the actual conversation and my editorial direction, Claude helped in refining and structuring information to best serve listeners. This collaborative approach allows me to provide you with concise, informative, and engaging content to complement each episode.Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.How do we effectively assess knowledge in Design and Technology education? It's a question with surprisingly few research-backed answers, despite its critical importance to teaching practice.I talk about  this assessment gap in the second episode of my sub-series on D&T research. I remind listeners that D&T knowledge encompasses both conceptual understanding ("knowing what") and procedural application ("knowing how"), forming the foundation upon which capability is built.The limited existing research highlights two common assessment approaches: identifying technological objects and materials with justification, and describing product functions while understanding the relationship between form and function. I illustrate this with a propelling pencil example, demonstrating how students need vocabulary to articulate the tension between physical characteristics and functional requirements.Teacher expertise emerges as perhaps the most crucial factor in effective knowledge assessment. Research clearly shows that teachers must possess secure subject content knowledge to design meaningful tests—a challenge in today's educational landscape with fewer specialist D&T teachers. I extend this requirement beyond content knowledge to include pedagogical understanding of assessment methodologies and curricular knowledge about D&T's structure.For classroom application, I explain that formative assessment can be integrated within larger assessments as targeted checkpoints, allowing teachers to identify misconceptions efficiently. Interestingly, research reveals no particular assessment format (multiple-choice, essays, flowcharts) proves superior to others—what matters most is purposeful design aligned with learning goals.Considering your own teaching practice, how might targeted knowledge assessments enhance your students' overall learning? The limited research presents an opportunity for practitioners to contribute to our collective understanding. Share your effective assessment strategies and join the conversation about balancing knowledge assessment with capability development in D&T education.Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!

Send me a message.How do we measure what truly matters in Design and Technology education? The challenge lies in distinguishing between assessing individual knowledge components and evaluating the holistic capability that emerges when students apply their learning autonomously.In this foundational episode, I introduce a new mini-series focused entirely on assessment in D&T education. Drawing from research literature, I establish the critical difference between two assessment targets: specific knowledge components (which can be tested through formative methods) and overall D&T capability (which requires summative, holistic evaluation). For assessment to serve its purpose effectively, it must be both reliable (consistently marked) and valid (measuring what we think it's measuring).The complexities of D&T assessment stem from its unique nature - we're not just testing what students know, but also what they can do. This incorporates both conceptual understanding and procedural skills across a spectrum of design and technological knowledge. When students respond to design contexts, they independently choose which aspects of their knowledge and experience to apply, making predetermined assessment criteria challenging.This episode sets the stage for deeper explorations in upcoming instalments, where I'll examine research-based approaches to assessing design knowledge, implementing effective formative assessment through peer feedback and design critiques, and developing valid measures of D&T capability. Whether you teach in primary or secondary settings, these insights will help you reflect on whether your current assessment practices truly capture what you intend them to measure.Support the showIf you like the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee to say 'thanks!'Please offer your feedback about the show or ideas for future episodes and topics by connecting with me on Threads @hardy_alison or by emailing me.If you listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, please take a moment to rate and/or review the show. If you want to support me by becoming a Patron click here. If you are not able to support me financially, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing a link to my work on social media. Thank you!