Design+Rationale

The unit of work, ‘Designing A Playground’, has been designed for a Year 5 level and complies with the Essential Learnings for Technology. The curriculum focus consists of students developing their ability to work technologically by generating, assessing and communicating design ideas and by selecting, manipulating and processing resources, to collaboratively design and construct products. It requires students to analyse how technology influences and impacts on people, their communities and environments. Students are also required to reflect on their learning and evaluate products and processes. The unit of work has been designed to meet the curriculum focus, and to enhance and extend students knowledge and skills in technology. Online scaffolding of the unit has been achieved through the successful production of a wiki. Other online tools have been embedded within the wiki to encourage collaboration and extend student knowledge. Assumed prior declarative and procedural knowledge for this cohort of learners is that students possess rudimentary knowledge of the Technology Practice Cycle phases; have basic technology skills; are familiar with group work, gathering and representing information from various sources, evaluating and making improvements to own work; and are able to create drawings representing relevant information.

Learning has been scaffolded using the Technology Practice Cycle to assist students in designing a playground that meets the requirements of a design brief. The intended learning outcomes will be achieved through active participation in all tasks over a period of ten lessons. In the investigation phase students gather knowledge, ideas and data to meet the design challenge by investigating local playgrounds, completing activity sheets and conducting a survey to elicit preferred equipment of peers. In the ideation phase students have collaborative discussions about the purpose for playgrounds and identify that playgrounds are designed purposefully for particular groups of people. YouTube clips are used as a digital tool to support the discussion and to provide images of equipment suitable for each playground. In this phase students generate ideas, modify and refine designs and communicate them through sketches and annotated drawings. Information sheets are employed to broaden understanding of design requirements. A SWOT analysis is embedded within the ideation phase to encourage students to evaluate their design by identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Students participate in higher order thinking by analysing their design using Edward DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats. The summative tasks for this unit of work are completed in the production and evaluation phases. In the production phase students communicate the details of their design by using various materials to construct a three-dimensional representation. The evaluation phase requires students to reflect on their design and the Technology Practice Cycle to identify new understandings and future applications. This is achieved through the creation of a Prezi, which is then presented to the class through an oral presentation.

‘Designing A Playground’ is an authentic unit of work that requires the production of a three-dimensional representation of a playground to meet the requirements of a design brief. A life-like context was established in an attempt to engage students in the unit and provide a meaningful context for learning. According to Davis and Dargusch (as cited in Lynch and Knight, 2010, p. 101), “students are more likely to learn when they need to use their knowledge and skills in meaningful ways.” By using a meaningful context as the vehicle to the learning, students are required to use processes to make decisions, clarify confusions, create new products and ideas, solve problems and analyse systems, as well as using their content knowledge (Marzano & Pickering, 2002, p. 190).

Within the unit students are required to complete tasks that promote higher order thinking and intellectual quality. Edward DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats were employed to encourage higher order thinking and create smaller more direct questions that allow students to give a more cohesive, analytical overview of the task. A SWOT analysis was completed within the unit of work, which required students to critically analyse their designs, which in turn encouraged students to think at a higher level to provide constructive feedback, which increased student learning. Information sheets were provided within the learning sequence and students were encouraged to use their knowledge from the information sheets to improve their design. This promoted a higher level of thinking as students needed to critically analyse which equipment and structures would be appropriate for the task requirements. Continual evaluation of product designs also increased student learning by enhancing their knowledge, skills and understanding in technology.

The unit of work supports the social constructivism theory by involving learners utilising peer collaboration to construct meaning and enhance understanding. Social constructivism involves learners constructing meaning in a social context through peer collaboration that extends their learning further than would have been individually (Snowman, Dobozy, Scevak, Brer, Bartlett & Biehler, 2009). Connectivism is enhanced through the reflection of peer feedback and the refinement of knowledge through access to a wide variety of resources. This process has been designed to encourage students to filter extraneous information through the use of higher order thinking tools (Siemens, 2004).