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AOs/LOs by level

Technological practice (TP)

6-1 | 6-2 | 6-3

7-1 | 7-2 | 7-3

8-1 | 8-2 | 8-3

Technological knowledge (TK)

6-1 | 6-2 | 6-3

7-1 | 7-2 | 7-3

8-1 | 8-2 | 8-3

Nature of technology (NT)

6-1 | 6-2

7-1 | 7-2

8-1 | 8-2

Design in technology (DET)

6-1 | 6-2

7-1 | 7-2

8-1/2

Manufacturing (MFG)

6-1 | 6-2

7-1 | 7-2

8-1/2

Technical areas (TCA)

8-1 

Construction and mechanical technologies (CMT)

6-1 | 6-2 | 6-3 | 6-4

6-5 | 6-6 | 6-7

7-1 |  7-2 |  7-3 |  7-4

7-5 |  7-6 |  7-7

8-1 | 8-2 | 8-3 | 8-4

8-5 | 8-6 | 8-7

Design and visual communication (DVC)

6-1 | 6-2 | 6-3

7-1 | 7-2 | 7-3

8-1 | 8-2 | 8-3

Digital technologies (DTG)

6-1 | 6-2 | 6-3 | 6-4

6-5 | 6-6 | 6-7 | 6-8

6-9 | 6-10 | 6-11 | 6-12

7-1 |  7-2 |  7-3 |  7-4

7-5 |  7-6 |  7-7 |  7-8

7-9 |  7-10 |  7-11 |  7-12

8-1 | 8-2 | 8-3 | 8-4

8-5 |  8-6/7 | 8-8 | 8-9

8-10 |  8-11 | 8-12

Processing technologies (PRT)

6-1 | 6-2 | 6-3

7-1 | 7-2 | 7-3

8-1/2 | 8-3


Knowledge of design DET 8-1/2

Knowledge of design focuses on understanding the way informed, creative, and critical development of new ideas is achieved and how these are realised into feasible outcomes. Note at level 8, knowledge of design also covers human factors in design that is, there is no level 8 specific for human factors in design. Design concepts at level 8 also relate to future focused themes, principles of good design, and making judgments of a design’s quality in the context of its use.

Learning objective: DET 8-1/2

Students will:

  • demonstrate understanding of complex concepts in design.

Indicators

  • Evaluates the quality of the design of a technological outcome using contemporary design judgment criteria.
  • Discusses the impact of contemporary judgment criteria on design decision making.
  • Justifies the evaluation of a technological outcome’s design.

Progression

Initially students learn basic concepts relating to "What is design?" and how or why something may be described as a "good" or "bad" design. Students’ progress to advanced concepts relating to sustainable design and innovation as related to level 8 of TheNew Zealand Curriculum, and to complex concepts relating to future focused themes, principles of good design, and making judgments of a design’s quality in the context of its use.

Teacher guidance

To support students to develop understandings about the complex concepts in design at level 8, teachers could:

  • provide opportunity for students to explore innovative designing for sustainable futures
  • guide students to examine a range of models of design as recognised by design professionals and organisations
  • provide opportunity for students to develop a contemporary understanding of the "principles of good design"
  • provide students with an opportunity to debate possible and probable future scenarios, the reliability of projections based on uncertainty, and the role of design principles in responding to uncertainty and the mitigation of risk
  • provide opportunity for students to apply the principles of good design to make informed judgments about the quality of a design
  • provide opportunity for students to debate how the principles of good design may have impacted on the design decision-making undertaken during the development of a variety of technological outcomes.

Contexts for teaching and learning

  • Allow students to debate about the difference between art and a technology outcome to ensure they select the right context.
  • Provide students the opportunity to develop a contemporary understanding of the “principles of good design”
  • Look at issues such as sustainability and innovation that can influence behaviour.
  • Investigate criteria that have been used to judge “good design”, such as aesthetics, function, quality of manufacture, emotionally resonant, enduring, socially beneficial, ergonomics, and  affordability.
  • Investigate what other designers say about good design; use their quotes to have a class discussion. Get them to choose a quote that resonates with them and share their thoughts with the class.
  • Get students to collect images of products that they consider to be good design, get them to share with the class their chosen images and the criteria they used to select them.
  • Show students the 10 principles of good design by Dieter Rams, discuss his chosen criteria. Then get students to develop a similar format with their own images of products. Discuss with class.
  • Debate with the students the development of “cradle to grave” to "cradle to cradle", a conceptual shift away from the design of some current industrial outcomes, which generate toxic, one-way, "cradle-to-grave" material flows, and the movement towards a "cradle-to-cradle" system that may use renewable energy, and/or materials.
  • Allow students to debate a variety of outcomes from different eras and cultures in order to develop a shared understanding of each other’s views and judgment criteria used to determine what makes a good design to individuals.
  • Invite an architect, a product designer, and a fashion designer to share their views on what makes a good design.

Literacy considerations

  • Ensure students understand the language associated the specialist language:
    • design (the look and functioning of a technological outcome, building, garment, or product)
    • aesthetic quality ( the nature of beauty and taste, it can be both objective and subjective – the balance between elements like colour, line, shape and how they interact with one another to create a pleasing “whole”. Different cultures, eras have different definitions of aesthetic qualities hence this can be very subjective)
  • Support students to develop a writing frame to guide their thinking and report writing, with key words and sentence enablers.

Resources to support student achievement

Case study material

These case studies give some understanding of contemporary good design. Get students to read them and identify what makes each a good design.

Assessment for qualifications

The following achievement standard could assess learning outcomes from this learning objective:

  • AS91617 Generic technology 3.10: Undertake a critique of a technological outcome’s design

Key messages from the standard

  • Ensure students understand the words associated with assessment, including words used to describe the level of expected performance at each achievement grade:
    • Critiquing (a detailed analysis/evaluation and assessment of the quality of design of a technological outcome).
    • Technological outcome (fully realised products and systems, created by people for an identified purpose through Technological Practice).
    • Explain (is to give a reason or reasons – an explanation answers the question “why?” or “how does that work?” If the text includes “because” or “so that”, it will be to explain something.)
    • Discuss (to discourse about in order to reach conclusions or to convince, discuss implies a sifting of possibilities especially by presenting considerations pros and cons, to examine something in detail so as to reach a decision. This usually means that more than one perspective is put forward and actively considered. So as part of discussions we may get “compare and contrast”.)
    • Evaluate (to examine and judge carefully; appraise to judge or assess the worth of; appraise).
    • Justify (for example, to explain in your report the reason why this is a good design, using contemporary criteria).
  • Ensure students know how to write a report that meets the requirements as set out in the assessment specifications and covers everything asked for in the standard.
  • Support students to understand what evidence needs to be included in the report. Breaking the writing task down into a series of tasks could be done by taking the assessment criteria in AS91617 Explanatory note 2 and rephrase them into questions. For example, for achieved:
    • What is good design as we see it today? Why has the criteria used to judge good design changed over time? 
    • Why is it that different individuals, groups, or collectives may have different perspectives on what is good design?
    • How does the design of a technological outcome meet a set of criteria to make it good design? The following prompts may be useful:
      • explain the concept of good design and why criteria for judging the quality of design change over time
      • explain views of design and judgment criteria used to determine the quality of the design of technological outcomes
      • critique the design of a technological outcome using contemporary design judgment criteria
      • discuss why contemporary judgment criteria are important for design decision making
      • discuss the impact of judgment criteria on design decision making
      • justify the evaluation of a technological outcome’s design.

Last updated June 10, 2022



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