To research and evaluate a more integrated approach in the teaching of Art and DT at KS3. – CLS
Historically, at Olchfa, and at most schools, Design and Technology have been taught as separate subjects, with Design and Technology being largely design and make based subjects and with Art being more creative and less focused on a final product.
My Actions:
I contacted local schools in Wales and used TES to research schools that work collaboratively across D&T and Art. No clear answers; other than it doesn’t happen because they tend to not work well together. Traditionally the Art Department and the Technology department have delivered very different courses to all Key Stages. Olchfa have introduced iCreate which is relying on collaboration between the subjects.
My Observations:
Design a Year 9 project that will “cross-over” between D&T and Art in Year 9. The project was the traditional electronics project with an art twist. The Art department has been working on a ‘Graffiti’ project using artists such as Banksy from the UK, Blu from Bologna, Faile from New York, and Sixeart from Barcelona. Pupils were set a task to use their art work and transfer it to a 2D design document. This would then be laser cut onto acrylic before the pupils assembled it into the outer covering for their electronics project.
The pupils were excited to be doing something different to the other Year 9 classes and could see a real difference in quality between the old style cover and this new idea.
I completed a survey of 12 pupils out of a total of 40 in the two classes. 12 pupils said that they enjoyed the project, 7 stated that they thought that the new style project was better than the old one. And 8 of the 12 said that they were happier to take their project home than they would have, if it had been the old style design.
Conclusions
Did it make a difference? Pupils seemed to really enjoy having more of an opportunity to influence the design of their product rather than using a pre-formed mould with plasticine design vacuum formed onto it.
Have learning outcomes improved? More pupils took the products home, with only those that were absent due to trips not taking them home.
Did students respond positively? Pupils did respond very positively and took far more care of the making of the product, and they were also more open to staying at lunch to finish off.
Did it help provide an answer to the question? Yes, pupils did respond and the cross over project worked.
Will I adopt the change as a regular part of my practice? I will try to build-in cross curricular activities more often. I do as a matter of course discuss science and geography within KS3 and 4 lessons as Technology can be applied in both those topics. I will be sharing this with my department with a view to developing more Art/D&T collaboration in the future.