Developing ‘designerly’ thinking in the Foundation Stage Materials created by Clare Benson, Chris Cannon & Sandie Kendall Contact:

Setting the context The project How it came about Created by Clare Benson, Sandie Kendall, Chris Cannon 10 LEAS in the north; 10 in south All tutors worked through the materials together to finalise

Aims of the project To make a difference at Foundation Stage To increase teachers’ knowledge and understanding of product analysis and evaluation To increase children’s knowledge and understanding about products To extend approaches to teaching and learning in relation to product analysis and evaluation, particularly questioning To increase teachers’ and children’s awareness of the fundamental principles of ‘designerly’ thinking

Overview of content What is d&t? Links to the Foundation Stage Investigating and evaluating products Questioning Practical activities Wider environment Construction kits Follow up work in schools

Product collection Process of choosing products Considerations included: Materials Purpose Mechanisms Everyday experience/familiarity Ease of availability

Activity Look at the product you have been given. What 5 activities would you suggest for using it at Foundation Stage? Feedback and discussion

Evaluation of a product Why evaluate products with foundation stage children? To begin to develop children’s analytical skills To help children to begin to focus on different aspects of a product To model higher order thinking skills necessary to design products well To lay foundation stones for children to develop a range of strategies to use when evaluating products To prepare them to become discerning consumers

Questioning From the evaluations, this was seen as a major focus of the project; little in-depth knowledge/CPD previously Aims of questioning within the project To direct the children’s attention to the product/environment To develop the children’s subject knowledge To increase the children’s awareness of fundamental design elements

Questioning Coverage included: questioning strategies e.g. wait time, distribution of questions, closed and open questions questioning that develops higher order thinking skills e.g. synthesis, evaluation, prediction, speculation, inference, analysis; Adaptation of Bloom’s taxonomy

Questioning Types of questions Moving learning from prior knowledge and recall on to the acquisition of new knowledge Lower order Knowledge or recall Comprehension Application Higher order Analysis Synthesis Evaluation Prediction, inference, speculation

Final report Tutors’ course First CPD for a long time Different expertise led to different perceptions, actions Areas for development Foundation Stage and links to d&t, questioning, product analysis, using the environment, construction kits Difficulty of delivering someone else’s course

Final report Teachers’ CPD Delivery by 2 tutors with different expertise Lack of understanding as to the nature of d&t and how it fits into ELG Importance of questioning Lack of use of wider environment and construction kits One year on Development of children’s thinking skills Increase in confidence to verbalise their thoughts Increase in ability to ask more challenging questions

Developing ‘designerly’ thinking in the Foundation Stage : Activity 2 ( to assemble and join a stable structure that would make a flat piece of paper stand up )

children use their choice of resources to make a ‘flat picture’ stand up

“We are learning about structure and things being stable” ( Anisha ) “Things that won’t move are stable” ( Ella ) developing ‘designerly thinking’ – understanding structure

“I drew a butterfly… I cut it out… I got some white card, and stuck it on, it stands up because the butterfly is sloping” ( Lois ) “I made a bridge by folding the card. I’m going to try to stick my Lion on the side of the bridge. It works! I’ve made a lion-bridge…it has two sides” ( Lewis )

Implication for future CPD The project; changes made to the CPD day in new pilot Greater emphasis on environment/kits Re ordering of questioning activities to aid understanding For CPD courses in general Working with Foundation Stage colleagues; understanding of d&t; making links to Foundation stage; using the environment/construction kits; in depth work on questioning.