Using design critiquing in A-level design and technology 

Why did we want to use design crits with students at A-level?

Kierl (2021), discusses when critique is well structured and conducted, it can lead to multiple questions, present new challenges and create opportunities for further design and development. We recognised the importance of developing these opportunities for our A-level students if we wanted them to become confident and competent in their design capability.

We wanted our A-level students to have richer reflections on their own work, richer discussions with each other about design concepts and processes, and, ultimately, develop more independence to analyse, evaluate, reflect and critique.

Hardy (2021), highlights that emerging features of students’ design capability over time might include developing design knowledge and skills in a creative and purposeful way, thus allowing students to make informed judgements about design decisions and their design process and allow them to make modifications to their design work in light of personal reflection. Similarly, we wanted students to be working in the classroom in a way that reflects professional practice of design and did some wider research around the use of design crits as part of critique in the design process of practicing designers. This, and ideas from the following articles, enabled us to develop specific structure and dialogue format for our design crits, which is illustrated below.

Two online articles we found particularly useful with gaining an insight into what design crits are how critique is used by design professionals: https://digitalblog.coop.co.uk/2018/03/28/how-to-run-a-design-crit-and-why-theyre-important/ and https://medium.com/farewill/design-crits-how-we-make-better-products-by-sharing-openly-6d03d35bf32 

How did we embed use of design crits into the curriculum and our pedagogy?

We wanted to ensure students were clear on the purpose of the design crits and how it allows them to develop as designers, and also help inform their design thinking and own process. We found from research that emphasis on critique being about the design not the designer was particularly important, as well as showing students how to offer constructive criticism.

We trialled two formats of design crits:

• a whole group critique, where a student presents their ideas to all of their peers and teacher and invites feedback; and

• smaller group/paired feedback, where students are giving each other feedback 1:1, allowing for more discussion/question-based reflection and critique.

In order to scaffold and support students’ thinking, we developed a set of prompts for students. These are drawn from a bank of useful questions provided by Kierl (2021) which cover a range of areas for critique. One that we particularly liked was considering the ethical implications and wider value-base of the design, considering what good comes from concepts students have developed and how it makes the world a better place.

Our questions also include the general considerations of particular design features, what informed those developments, including the use of stakeholders in the design process and anticipating potential future pitfalls . However, the overall aim remained to develop deeper critique skills.

Keirl (2021) suggests that “As pupils learn to critique, they learn to manage their thinking in particular and fruitful ways that enhance their learning, the understanding of technologies and develop their creativity for designing”. 

We encouraged critiquing at various stages of a design, including sketching, modelling and prototyping. The images below show some of the design work and full-scale modelling used. We found it particularly interesting that, where students were able to create full-scale mock ups of design concepts, there is the opportunity for richer discussion. This arose from other students being able to physically see, touch and test design concepts. 

What emerging benefit and impact have we see from design crits in our curriculum? 

Ultimately, we hoped that students would be able to work in a more designerly way, further develop their design thinking, and be more capable and independent with critiquing their own and others’ work. We also wanted them to take more responsibility for the form and direction of their design work.

We have seen that from initially using this with students and making adaptions to the format along the way, it is certainly achieving these aims.

We have seen more thoughtful design responses from students. They are also able to articulate and reflect on their design journey and thinking in a much clearer, purposeful, proactive and comprehensive way.

One of the most pleasing outcomes has been seeing students use their developing skills more independently in their designing  across the A-level curriculum, to inform their NEA work. It has encouraged more expansive/divergent thinking with design developments and iterations, with many more perspectives and points for reflection that students can draw upon.

We have clearly seen from our students and their work that “critiquing holds particular value in its relation to design thinking, designerly behaviours and critical attitudes towards technologies”, Keirl (2021).

We continue to develop this as part of our curriculum and pedagogy and we would be interested to connect with other schools who are doing similar work, to share best practice. You can connect with us on Twitter: @LiamTAnderson or @TrinitySchDT.