The purpose of the study reported here was to investigate the effectiveness of a conceptual design unit as part of the Design and Technology curriculum for 14 years old pupils in England. One research question drove this study: What sort of designing do pupils do when they design without having to make what they have designed? Data consisted of…

This study discusses findings that replicate and extend the original work of Burns and Vollmeyer (2002), which showed that performance in problem-solving tasks was more accurate when people were engaged in a non-specific goal than in a specific goal. The main innovation here was to examine the goal specificity effect under both observation-based…

Describes the relationship of the textbook author to its illustrator and proposes that either the educational technologist, the author, or the designer begin to systematically consider illustrative strategies which will enhance learning. The attentional, explicative, and retentional roles of illustrations and the need to coordinate them are…

A forthright discussion of recent British universities, with an important message for American campuses. (Author)

Emphasizing more effective use of existing equipment, this article highlights distributed computing design considerations applicable to educational environments; identifies potential roles of networking in the provision of adequate teaching aids; presents a networking model; and describes the development of a distributed computing configuration at…

Discusses the design criteria and educational objectives of computerized business games when used as an adjunct teaching method. Project UNCLEBURT (University College London Experiment on Business Research and Training), which uses computer games to simulate the management environment in undergraduate business education courses, is described in…

This discussion of the design of user-initiated help systems in computers focuses on the information that users actively seek to help them with their tasks, with emphasis on how to help users ask the questions that will bridge the gap between the initial internal (mental) form of the query and their information need as expressed by the system.…

This document was produced to provide architects, planners, and builders with an educational design brief for Dorset, England school grounds. The County Education Planning and Development Department will use it as an educational and curriculum statement to complement their more detailed and specific building briefs. The brief uses many of the…

Formulas used in the calculation of cooling loads and indoor temperatures are employed to demonstrate the influence of various building parameters--such as thermal transmittance (U-value), solar absorptivity, and thermal storage--on the indoor thermal environment. The analysis leads to guidance on ways of limiting temperatures in naturally…

The elements discussed in this book reflect answers to questions dealing with the relationships of book accessibility to book segregation, fetch-and-take to sit-and-read, browsing to studying, book protection to student encouragement, discipline to comfort and relaxation, and talking to silence. Intended as a guide for all those who are concerned…

The project goal was to make available to higher education the advantages of the system developed for English school construction. This bulletin describes the various stages in the project. Differences between building system and single building design are discussed; results of investigations into user needs and general performance specifications…

Reports on a class project that examined the manufacture of boxes and packaging to teach about design and technology. The class discovered basic manufacturing techniques by examining and disassembling cereal boxes. Field trips to stores provided more examples. Appraises the children's final projects and discusses acquiring materials. (MJP)

This report continues and extends the information provided in an earlier report (ED 035 238) by providing design data for students in further and higher education. The principle underlying the work is that equipment dimensions are determined from observation of student performance and that dimensions should be related to body size. Data on the…

Faced with reduced numbers choosing to study foreign languages (as in England and Wales), strategies to create and maintain student interest need to be explored. One such strategy is to create "taster" courses in languages, for potential university applicants. The findings presented arise from exploratory research, undertaken to inform…