| In this paper I describe two courses from the Open University: E880 Design and Technology Module, OU PGCE, and E626, Design and Technology in the Primary Curriculum. The former is a pre-service course, and the latter an INSET course for experienced primary teachers. Both courses are studied for some of the time by the teacher working on specially produced mixed-media materials in their own home.
The courses share similar aims, for example:
- to help teachers develop their view of the nature of design and technology in the world;
- to help teachers develop their personal rationale for including design and technology in their children’s learning experiences;
-to give teachers personal practical experience of a technological design task, and to allow them to reflect on their own children’s experience of such activities;
- to provide teachers with the basis for developing learning experiences in design and technology with their own children, through reflecting on their own classroom practice and the work of others.
Although both courses could be studied by a teacher in isolation, in practice the materials are used in schools in conjunction with teacher colleagues. For example, E626 is a so called ’designated course’. Groups of primary teachers are funded to study the open learning material as part of a longer course offered by a Local Education Authority (LEA) which includes face-to-face and handson sessions. The University appoints the LEA tutor and is responsible for overall quality assurance procedures. In this way the benefits of supported self-study can be merged with the need for communal practical work in a mode of teacher education that ensures the school is the locus for action, reflection and assessment. | 
Ph.D., Lic. Theses
