Design and Technology Education is an excellent vehicle for the development of the so-called 21st-Century skills, such as creativity, critical thinking and cooperation. However, the development of these skills through design projects does not yet reach its full potential. Formative assessment is able to support the learning of 21st-Century skills.…

In this paper, we explore the divergent and convergent nature of design feedback and the various responses to this feedback from a group of 24 young novice designers (primary school children age 9-11) taking part in a co-design project. Earlier research emphasizes that feedback can encourage a designer to take divergent as well as convergent paths…

In Dutch Design and Technology Education the beginning of a process of learning is usually determined by the teacher. In this paper it is argued that a beginning, determined in interaction with the students, is more profitable as the interaction will lead to joined-up exploring, creating and thinking and an increased motivation to learn.…

The use of context-concept education alongside existing approaches is valuable. In this article we introduce a three-domain model for concept-context learning that supports both the design process as well as the idea of concept learning. The model shows how practical and abstract knowledge should be combined to improve context-concept learning.…