Design and Technology
Scan the code to view The 2021 HSC online exhibition.
Cultivating Speculators According to the American psychologist Jerome Bruner, the main thing about teaching is that it opens up a wider range of possibility. “You teach students about something in the past or the present, but you hope that your teaching will have the good effect of leading them into the world of possibility. That’s where intelligence lies. To get students to go beyond the information that is given, to get them to speculate.” Italian Engineer and sociologist, Vilfredo Pareto, states a similar view, though cautions that not all people are up for this challenge. He asserts that the world could be divided into two groups of people; the ‘rentier’ and the ‘speculator.’ The rentier being the routine, steady going unimaginative, conserving people. The speculator being constantly preoccupied with the possibilities of new combinations. The process of designing that our Year 12 Design and Technology students embarked on, is a journey of inquiry and discovery to identify a genuine need or opportunity for a major design project. Much time is spent by teachers clarifying to students how they can better observe, frame questions and speculate on what else might be. Students photograph and video people around them who engage in activities that could be improved. They analyse the tasks and operations being completed and seek entry points for improvement. However the human brain is hard wired to be critical and to overcome this barrier students are provided with a bag of tools to promote lateral and creative thinking. Reframing view points, combining unassociated ideas, generating
22 • The Barker • Issue 133 • Summer 2021
provocations and pushing the critical evaluations to the side until later takes practice, commitment and repetition. In short it requires as James Webb puts it, ‘training the mind in the principles and methods which are at the source of all ideas. And not accepting that which is satisfactory, but demanding something new that is a radical idea, something that goes beyond what is expected. Going beyond what currently is, takes more than knowledge, it requires imagination. You can then work backwards with knowledge to determine how to get there.
Year 12 Design and Technology, Industrial Technology and Textiles and Design Major Projects. Congratulations to our Year 12 students who have finished their major projects for Design and Technology, Industrial Technology and Textiles and Design. They have persevered this year to complete creative and ambitious projects and the quality of work they have produced is exceptional. Following are some examples of our Year 12 students' work. Darren Woodrow Head of Design & Technology
