Demonstration and its Implications for Design Based Craftwork

Abstract

The us.e of 'demonstration' as a means of imparting knowledge and practical skills will be a familiar technique to all those involved in the teaching of art, craft, design and technology. Whilst using this technique myself on many occasions I have observed that after such a period of instruction the children still make substantial errors. When faced with this situation my first assumption was that my demonstration had in some way been defective. Sandham, Wilmore and Brown make the same assumption, 'If the majority of children are going wrong after a demonstration find out where your teaching has been at fault'. However, despite subsequent efforts to improve my instruction I was often faced with the same result; no visible change in the behaviour of some children to indicate that any learning had taken place. This is further referred to by Sandham, Wilmore and Brown, 'Even after a careful and well constructed demonstration it is amazing how many wrong ways of doing the job some boys will find'. Although this is an excellent descriptive statement it does not bring us any nearer to an explanation. It is my «ontention that the 'wrong ways of doing the job' may in fact be a valuable source of analysis. The amount of pupil error generated by any given task could be seen as an indication of the task in relation to the ability of the children and may also be regarded as a reflection of their understanding of the situation. In this respect pupil error is of vital importance to the teacher because of the information it may convey.