A Singapore design & technology pedagogical act for teaching sketching to design

Abstract

One emphasis of Design and Technology (D&T) is design thinking through sketching to generate and to develop design solutions. This study aims to investigate the supporting pedagogical scaffolds of how D&T students learn sketching and at the same time externalising their imagery thoughts visually as part of the process of designing. Students learn to express typically in words and numbers; non-verbal visual expression is not intuitive. Sketching is not mainstream learning in schools; it features perhaps only in the Art lessons. In D&T, sketching as the language to think and to express is emphasised. The use of underlays as templates to scaffold the learning of sketching and designing will be discussed. It calls for teacher facilitation of students through pedagogical acts where the teacher deploys scaffolds (templates and underlays) to help them acquire progressively the language of sketching for design thinking and expression. This is underpinned by the teacher’s expertise in sketching to carry out live demonstrations confidently.