Photo-stories from Durham: a case study on assessing design innovation

In 2002 the DfEE and DATA Strategy Group for design & technology recommended that research be undertaken to examine the extent to which - and the ways in which – innovation and team-work might be more fully recognised and rewarded in assessment processes, particularly within GCSE. As a result of this, in January 2003 the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) asked the Technology Education Research Unit (TERU) at Goldsmiths College to undertake a research and development project, ‘Assessing Design Innovation’, to develop a system of assessment that would measure and reward design innovators. This paper focuses on the ‘live’ classroom activity carried out as phase 2 of the project, designed to examine the activity and the pedagogy in use with teachers that enabled them to promote innovative performance in their students. It presents a case study of one such project that: • outlines the factors influencing the phase 2 project structure and content; • explores and the impact of handling and modelling collections on having and growing ideas; • traces the emergence of a ‘photo’ storyline and its impact on learners and assessors; • examines how the findings of the project influence phase 3 of the Assessing Design Innovation project, the construction of assessment activities that would explicitly promote evidence of the process of design innovation.