Could your curiosity be the key to unlocking new frontiers in design and technology education? This episode is a celebration, not just of the rigorous academic process, but of the spirit of learning that's at the heart of teaching. I talk about how Alex's approach to research, his refreshing transparency, and the significant topic of 'non-academic intelligences' gives a new way of thinking about research.
Ciaran Ellis posted a thought-provoking question on LinkedIn recently: Do design decisions involve value judgements?
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Alison Hardy:
I hope you enjoyed the Tuesday's episode with Alex and Sam. That was a bit of a new one for me as part of this PATT 40 series, having both the researcher and the person who was interested in the paper on the podcast. We decided to do that, sam and I, because we thought there was so much in the paper that we wanted to explore with Alex that it was better and fairer to have Alex on the podcast to come and talk about it, which is what we did, and I think we could have. We could have talked for so much longer than we than we did, but there's just some things there that I want to kind of go back to about Alex's research and some of the things that we talked about. So what I found really exciting is that Alex is very much a novice researcher and I don't think he would be surprised by that sort of definition of him. He was quite upfront when we spoke and he's been upfront in conversations we've had since about him wanting to do more research but realising that he's still learning how to do research. I think I think we all do. I think we're all still learning. Even though you know I might have a doctor, it doesn't mean I know how to do it all by any stretch of the imagination. So what I really admired about Alex and I would hope that this gives teachers who listen to this podcast some hope and belief that they can do it if they've got some research that's interesting is to come on and talk about it, is to do the research rather to just do it. I mean, PATT is a really lovely environment in which to present that, but you don't have to have anywhere to present it. So I think that was really exciting about Alex and the fact that he's open to kind of feedback and comments and discussion and reflections on it, and I think that's the same as you would be if you were. You know, when Alex is a designer, you know I think that is part of the culture within design and technology has been open to that feedback and that response.
Alison Hardy:
So when I look at Alex's research, there were some things that that kind of made me wonder about how he how he'd done it and whether what he could claim was true. So that's sort of what I wanted to unpick a little bit is that if you look at Alex's paper, part of the reason why I think it could be quite difficult to engage with is that he had so much going on, and that is very common, very common amongst new researchers. They want to solve the world in one study, and I'm talking very grandiose. I'm going to say the world, but you get what I mean. It's very difficult to focus on what's the particular thing that we're wanting to investigate or trial, and then being aware of how that, how I might design that that study and so I think that was a significant thing for me in Alex's study is that he was putting so much into it that it was difficult to find your way through in places. That's not to say that his work doesn't have power or impact. It does, but from my perspective, that was something that I looked at. And then, when I looked at his conclusion, I wondered if he kind of over claimed and again, that's something that we all do in our research Well, this happened, I did this and this changed.
Alison Hardy:
So that happened because of what I did, whereas that isn't necessarily the case, because there are lots of other things that are impacting on what's happening in the classroom. It's the time of the day, is it after break, before lunch, end of the day, is it a Friday afternoon? Is it a Monday morning? What did they have beforehand? All of these things you don't know what the teachers and the lessons beforehand said about their behaviour, their work, whether they had something positive, whether they slept well. All of these things can have an impact on how the children might have responded to the different questions.
Alison Hardy:
But I think the most pertinent thing that I sort of take away from Alex's research is that he's looking at what he calls non-academic intelligences, so he's looking at something that he believes that is sidelined, and this really speaks, I think, to the heart of what doing research whether it's in design and technology or elsewhere, but I'm talking about design and technology is doing something that is relevant for you as a researcher, as a teacher, as a practitioner. It's got to be something that you want to know more about. And Alex, when he was doing his teacher training, working in classrooms this was his thing he felt that this aspect of design and technology was undervalued by the way things were tested, and then, as you'll hear in the episode with Sam, we talk a little bit about Midias and Yellis, and that really took me back to when I was teaching that he then used this data that was collected by an external agency, obviously within the school, externally, and he used that to identify pupils a different way of measuring giftedness or, use his language, non-academic intelligences. So he found ways through, he found things that were already in existence and he used those in his research. He then also used this RPM, which I'd never heard of before and I put a link in the show now, from Tuesday to it is something you have to pay for and I think he had access to it through his school, through the send hub, as he called it in his placement school, which is a non-verbal test for problem solving and the processing of virtual information. And again, I think that was really interesting that he tried to find this very different way.
Alison Hardy:
Now, if you look at the National Curriculum in England, that's not something that's recognised as valid, that needs to be assessed. Again, I think that's really interesting that he's bringing this very fresh perspective. So, again, if you think you're doing something different in your research or in your thinking about your practice, don't shy away from it. I think that's another message to take away from Alex's research is, you know, he really took some risks in a way, he tried some things out and he used some established tools that he modified, you know, such as this Raven's Progressive Matrices, but he used them and he tried them to try and help himself and his pupils. That's what he was driven by his seeing helping his pupils see that there was value in their non-academic intelligences, that they were good at it. So please take heart from this piece of research. There are issues with it which we're exploring.
Alison Hardy:
The podcast on Tuesday Alex is very open that he's new to this but he wants to do more, which I think is really exciting. But the fact that he had a go, that he had a go and it caught the eye of Sam Booth and other people at the conference. I know from other colleagues that it was a well attended presentation and he had lots of really powerful feedback. So if you don't start, if you don't do it, you don't get anything to get any feedback on. So I'd really encourage you, if you're thinking about doing some research, to have a go at that. I'll put some links in the show notes about getting started with research, as I normally do, but I'm keeping you short and sweet this week. Thanks for listening. There's another one out next week. That's all about the PAP 40 conference.