Making Thank-you Cards – TEALS case study
Background
Gateways and learning outcomes
Defining the brief and establishing the attributes
The production line and quality control
The iced-biscuit production line
Visiting a shoe factory
Designing and selecting the card
Designing a production line
Assessment gateways
Background
This case study illustrates the Technology Assessment Framework (TAF) in practice. It describes the learning of an individual student, William, in a year 1–2 class in 1999. The school employs teacher aides and usually purchases cards to thank them for their work in the school. The class teacher identified this as an opportunity for the year 1–2 students to explore the design and production of cards in the production and process area of technology. This enabled them to:
- identify the characteristics of a thank-you card for an adult;
- develop an understanding of sequencing and the inputs and outputs in a production system that ensures consistency and quality of product.
For many of these students this was their first school experience of technology education. For others, a previous technology unit had introduced a simple production line so this unit of work provided an opportunity for them to consolidate their understanding. None of the students understood the concepts of inputs, outputs, and processes as related to a production system.
The teacher decided to use stamps to overcome the students' limited technical skills in writing. A related unit of work in English (Written Language: Poetic Writing/ Exploring Language) was planned to enable the students to identify the appropriate language to use in making their cards, and focused on extending their oral and written language development.
The students had access to computers. Community resources included:
- a commercial card maker who provided expertise and resources (in the form of stamps);
- a local shoe factory (for an example of a production line);
- adult helpers (who assisted with capturing students' ideas in writing).
Gateways and key learning outcomes
During the planning stage, opportunities that would enable students to meet pre-determined key learning outcomes were identified. Each of these outcomes provided a gateway to manage the teaching process and assess learning (see glossary for definition of gateway).
The first gateway centred on identifying sequential steps for the shoe factory and putting pictures from this visit in a sequence. The second gateway focused on students' understanding of production systems.
During the unit, the teacher negotiated a third gateway to determine whether the students could play an active role in a production line to manufacture products to an agreed quality.
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