Brief development TP 6-1

• Indicators
• Progression
• Teacher guidance
• Contexts for teaching and learning
• Assessment for qualifications

Brief development is a dynamic process that reflects the complex interactions within on-going technological practice. A brief is developed to clearly describe a desired outcome that would meet a need or realise an opportunity, and takes into account the physical and social environment.

A brief is comprised of:

• a conceptual statement that communicates what is to be done and why it should be done
• specifications that define the requirements of a technological outcome in terms of its physical and functional nature.       

Achievement objectives: TP 6-1

Indicators

Students can:

• identify a need or opportunity from the given context and issue
• establish a conceptual statement that justifies the nature of the outcome and why such an outcome should be developed
• establish the specifications for an outcome as based on the nature of the outcome required to address the need or opportunity, consideration of the environment in which the outcome will be situated and resources available
• communicate specifications that allow an outcome to be evaluated as fit for purpose.
• justify the specifications in terms of key and wider community stakeholder considerations.

Progression

Prior to level 6 students will have explored given contexts and issues and supported to identify a need or opportunity to establish a conceptual statement and specifications that will allow the need to be addressed and evaluated as fit for purpose

At level 6 students identify a need or opportunity from a given context and issue. They then develop a brief for that identified need or opportunity; establish a conceptual statement and specifications that allow the outcome to be evaluated as fit for purpose. The specifications for
the outcome will be based on the nature of the outcome required to address the need or opportunity, consideration of the environment in which the outcome will be situated and resources available. Students will be required to 
justify the specifications in terms of key and wider community stakeholder considerations. 


The Teacher Guidance section provides information that supports teachers scaffolding of learning from levels 1-8 of the curriculum. This allows for differentiation of a programme of learning.

The deliberate use of provide, guide, and support in this section signals that as students' capacity for self-management increases, teachers progressively reduce the level of scaffolding provided.

• Provide – the teacher should take full responsibility for introducing and explicitly teaching new knowledge, skills or practices.
• Guide – the students have a level of understanding and competency on which they can draw but the teacher remains primarily responsible for continuing to develop these.
• Support – the students take primary responsibility for their own learning, drawing on all their previous experiences to consolidate and extend their understanding. The teacher is supportive rather than directive.
• The Teacher Guidance also uses the term ensure to indicate when the teacher plays a monitoring role to check that conditions critical for learning are present.

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Teacher guidance

Teachers could support students undertaking brief development at level 6 to:

• provide an appropriate context and issue that allows students to access resources (including key stakeholders) and guide them to take into account wider community considerations
• support students to identify a need or opportunity relevant to the given issue and context
• support students to understand the physical and functional nature required of their outcome
• support students to develop specifications and justify them based on key and wider community stakeholder considerations.

Contexts for teaching and learning

The importance of students understanding the difference between context issue, need or opportunity is key to students progressing from level 6-8 in Brief development. It is also a means of differentiating programme design as teacher and student responsibility shifts as the progression moves from level 6 to 7 and finally to level 8.

• The teacher provides a given context and issue, students will then explore this context and associated issue in order to identify a need or opportunity. The given context and issue must allow students scope to explore a broad range of needs before selecting one to address. Examples of possible contexts include such things as: storage, afterschool snacks, outdoor living, sustainable energy, sport, educational software, digital data display, data management, street-wear, portability, and laminated furniture. Teachers would also then specify an issue related to the context chosen. Issues could include [Storage] "There is a lack of cheap storage solutions for electronic gear that appeal to teenagers".
• Ensure students understand the importance of the initial exploration of possible issues, and the process of determining possible needs or opportunities (rather than jumping to the solution and writing specifications without undertaking this initial exploration).
• Students will research the issue and related context to determine a specific need or opportunity to be resolved. Students will undertake brief development to communicate the nature of an outcome which will resolve the need or opportunity rather than moving immediately to a solution and writing specifications without undertaking this initial exploration.

• Stakeholders must be accessible to students. There is no point choosing a context or issue if there is not a range of obvious and available stakeholders. The stakeholders need to remain available and committed throughout the brief development process, as students will need on-going access to them.
• Brief development is a dynamic and iterative process. Students need to go through a process in order to arrive at a final brief which is derived by on-going feedback, interaction with the context, issue and need or opportunity. This process is likely to involve exploring the context, issue within the given context/environment, establishing and refining the attributes required in the outcome through on-going research and functional modelling, seeking on-going feedback from stakeholders, developing the required attributes into specifications, and on-going consideration of the context. Further information on the brief development process can be found in the explanatory paper on brief development (see the link below). Students’ understanding of, and ability to undertake, brief development will be increased if they have a good understanding of other components of technology, and particularly "Characteristics of technological outcomes" and "Technological modelling".
  • A conceptual statement that clearly communicates what will be developed, for whom, where it will be situated, and why it should be developed. 
  • Initial attributes of the outcome.
  • Initial specifications based on research and consultation.
  • Updated conceptual statement and specifications based on functional modelling/conceptual design development. If the student is carrying on to develop a prototype from the conceptual statement then there will be a final conceptual statement and specifications based on prototyping.
  • Ensure students have a clear understanding of specifications and attributes and the relationship between the two. A brief includes specifications that define the requirements of a technological outcome in terms of such things as appearance and performance. Specifications are an explicit set of requirements that are measurable and need to be satisfied for the outcome to be judged as "fit for purpose". Identifying attributes is a common precursor to specification development. Initially attributes may have been suggested by the stakeholder(s), or determined by the student as part of the early brief development work. It is essential that these attributes are refined into specifications as the student works through the brief development process.
• Students will need explicit teaching and support to develop their understanding of how to undertake brief development, including such things as:
  • how to prepare questionnaires and surveys to establish the needs of the stakeholder/s and wider community 
  • how to write the findings from these interviews/surveys into an initial brief that may be a mixture of attributes and specifications of the outcomes 
  • how to analyse similar existing products identified at the first consultation of the stakeholder/s (use of criteria/tables/PMI charts/fishbone diagrams/brainstorms)
  • how to select a range of potential ideas (concepts) and determine the presentation modes to gather feedback from the stakeholder. It is important that the student communicates clearly what they are trying to achieve as not all stakeholders will be able to visualise what the designer “sees”. It may be helpful to discuss with the student ways to clarify their thinking with the stakeholder for example by taking material samples along to look at them in the intended environment or 3D sketches that show their ideas look 
  • writing up the considerations from these interviews to inform the brief 
  • functional modelling, establishing the purpose of the modelling and how evidence is used depending on the audience (designer, stakeholder, wider group)
  • how to explore a range potential concepts to identify potential materials and or functional aspects to the design (this could be based on research historical and contemporary through a range of sketches and/or functional modelling to explore the physical nature) identify how the outcome looks/appears, and functions/how it could possibly operate within the identified environment 
  • what evidence is provided when exploring the social nature (who would be using the outcome) consideration of the stakeholders' age: baby – child – adolescence – 20-30 – middle-aged – elderly, gender, culture, wider community and potential numbers involved using the outcome, indoors – outdoors social acceptability
  • how to maintain on-going consultation with stakeholder(s) as this is essential to ensure good quality brief development. (Use of simple planning tools to schedule meetings at strategic times of the project – Gantt chart/predictive diary/calendar/ on-line tools such as Trello.)

Literacy considerations

Support students to understand the specialist language associated with brief development such as "conceptual statement", "specifications", "physical attributes", "functional attributes", and "fitness for purpose", "intended environment / social & moral considerations".

Students also need to have a clear understanding of terms such as "issue", "context", and "need or opportunity". Context is the overall focus of a technological development or of a technological learning experience, while issue refers to a specific subset of the context that will allow needs and opportunities to be identified. For example the context could be "storage" and an issue associated with that context could be: "There is a lack of cheap storage solutions for electronic gear that appeal to teenagers". From that issue students then identify possible needs and/or opportunities. In a digital technologies learning environment the context in programming could be programme development in education, with a specific issue of developing suitable mathematics educational software for a given group of students.

A need in technology refers to an identified requirement of a person, group or environment. A need is identified from an issue, and sits within a context. Technological practice can be undertaken in an attempt to meet an identified need. For example, the need in the context of seating was to develop a seat appropriate for a school garden where students could meet for discussions.

An opportunity in technology refers to an identified possibility for a person, group or environment. An opportunity is identified from an issue, and sits within a context. Technological practice can be undertaken in an attempt to realise an identified opportunity. For example, the opportunity was to create a gift for a sale at the school market day.

Attributes are broad descriptive aspects of the physical and functional nature of a technological outcome, that is, the desired characteristics of the outcome that will possibly fit for purpose. Specifications define the requirements of the physical and functional nature of the outcome in a way that is measurable. For example, an attribute may refer to the outcome being small enough to be comfortably held, whereas the specification would give the precise measurement in terms of length, width and depth.

Students also need to understand the significance of words such as describing, explaining, prioritising, justifying as it is not possible to undertake brief development at this level without the level of thinking implied by these words. Students will need to be able to confidently communicate the following:

a) Generic understanding of the academic terms

• To describe is a statement that gives details about the outcome or idea.
• To explain is to describe in detail with reasons – often including the how and why.
• To discuss requires an explanation that is comprehensive, detailed, broad and show evidence of some complexity in thinking. It may be a reasoned argument presenting a particular point of view, or a comparison and contrast between two ideas or concepts; or it may be a detailed reasoning and relationship between several complex ideas.

b) Contextualised examples in the context of the standard

• Identify: For example, identifying the need or opportunity. (To identify is to clearly state the issue as a result of investigating and undertaking research of the given context.) 
• Describe: For example, describing the outcome to be developed. (To describe is a statement that gives details about the outcome; for example, what it looks like, what it will do.) 
• Explain: For example, explaining the physical and functional attributes required for the outcome. (To explain is to describe in detail with reasons the physical and functional attributes required and why they are required.) 
• Prioritise: For example, prioritise social and physical environmental considerations. (To prioritise is to consider and justify the importance of the various social and physical environmental considerations.) This is not merely assigning a list order but a reasoned argument as to why one aspect is more important than another.
• Justify: For example justifying the specifications. (To justify is to provide reasoning as to why the specifications were selected.)

Students will also need to develop other literacy skills such as:

• developing questionnaires and questioning techniques to gain understandings of the issue being explored 
• undertaking research and using this to inform their work – sift, sort and synthesise information 
• using the information to reflect on findings to evolve the identified attributes into specifications that clearly detail the outcome to be produced 
• collating their findings into a portfolio (could include a variety of media – written, digital) that provides coherent evidence of the process undertaken to develop the brief.

Resources to support teaching and learning

• Introductory section of the senior secondary teaching and learning guide for technology
• Safety in Technology Education: A Guidance Manual for New Zealand Schools. 
• Resources for brief development
• Indicators of progression
• Progression diagrams
• Brief development in action

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Assessment for qualifications

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

• AS 91044 Technological Practice 1.1: Undertake brief development to address a need or opportunity

Key messages from the standard

• Explanatory note 2 refers to the social and physical environment in which technological development occurs, Students must reflect on-going consideration of the social and physical environment where the outcome will be developed and situated as they work through the brief development process. At level 6 students need to reflect on-going consideration of the social and physical environment where the outcome will be developed and its intended environment, including the reflection of key stakeholder feedback within the decision making process.
• Explanatory Note 3 emphasises the importance of the beginning point of the student work, that is the teacher provides the context and issue for exploration and the student will identify the need or opportunity and undertake the process of brief development from that point. The end point tis a final (often referred to as the refined or final brief) brief that will communicate the nature of the outcome that resolves the need or opportunity.
• This Explanatory Note also restates the important definition of the key terms of the standard
  • A need refers to an identified requirement related to a person, group or environment (social and physical).

• An opportunity refers to an identified possibility related to a person, group or environment (social and physical). 

• Explanatory note 4 states an outcome is a conceptual design for an outcome and/or the technological outcome itself (prototype). This means the brief development work for this standard can be for either a conceptual design or for an actual outcome. There is no requirement in this standard that the outcome specified in the brief is actually produced by the student – this standard is assessing brief development work and not the students’ ability to produce a conceptual design for an outcome or to actually make the outcome. However as teachers will appreciate students will often be more motivated with the brief development work if they know they are going to actually produce the outcome that they are developing the brief for.
• Teachers should ensure students do not move to a preferred solution prior to doing the necessary preliminary investigation. There should be an investigation of the given context and issue in order to identify a possible need or opportunity. If the student gives some rationale for selecting one possibility to move forward it will strengthen their ability to justify why they are developing the attributes and specifications toward a resolution.
• Students should submit a final brief and evidence of the process they have followed to develop that brief. The final brief should have two sections:
  • A conceptual statement that communicates the focus and justified purpose of the technological practice to be undertaken to develop a Technological Outcome. That is, an explanation for what is to be done and why it should be done. Students should be producing this statement based on findings from the exploration and, analysis of the context and issue from which the need or opportunity driving the project has been identified.
  • Specifications that define the requirements of a technological outcome in terms of such things as appearance and performance in a way that is measurable. Students should be presenting a set of requirements that need to be satisfied for the outcome to be judged as "fit for purpose".
• The final brief should have specifications that cover the required physical and functional nature of the outcome. The specifications should be sufficiently detailed to allow for the development of the outcome and the final evaluation of the outcome to assess its fitness for purpose.
• Note this requirement for high quality specifications is regardless of whether the intention is for the student to carry on and develop the outcome or not.
• Note that for brief development undertaken when developing a prototype specifications should be taken to "manufacturing" specifications. These will be different to those final specifications developed in only the conceptual design standard. Manufacturing specifications will have material specifics / actual sizes / parts and so on. In relation to this standard the requirement is to produce specifications that allow for the eventual evaluation of the completed outcome, but the actual process of doing that final evaluation against the specifications is not part of the evidence required for this standard.

For the most up to date information, teachers should be referring to the latest version of the standards, conditions of assessment and assessment resources on TKI and the moderators reports, clarifications documents and student exemplars on the NZQA website. See links below.

Resources to support student achievement

• Achievement standard
• Clarifications document 
• Conditions of assessment and assessment resource 
• Annotated exemplars

Last updated October 16, 2020

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