Elementary students' beliefs about designers and designing

This paper will describe Phase 1 of a three-year study that is investigating how students learn to make design decisions. Three research questions drove this phase of the study: (a) What do students believe designers do? (b) What do students believe about the knowledge and skills designers must possess? and (c) What do students believe about the design decisions made by the designer of a given product? Data was collected using two questionnaires administered to one class of Grade 6 students. The first, administered prior to students attempting a Capability Task, has provided base-line data for the remainder of the study. The second questionnaire was administered after students had completed a Capability Task and its associated Resource Tasks. Analysis of the data involved descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. Analysis of the data has revealed that students, who had no previous experience of design and technology education, demonstrated a considerable knowledge of not only what designers do, what skills they need to have and their personal characteristics, but also substantial knowledge of what designers need to know in order to design a range of products. It appears as though their experiences and perceptions of the designed world provide a significant fund of knowledge relevant to learning to design.