This resource will help teachers and schools identify strong links between Design and Technologies and the capabilities. It will also help teachers design learning activities.
The resource assumes familiarity with the Design and Technologies curriculum. It links aspects of this curriculum with Ethical Capability, Critical and Creative Thinking, Intercultural Capability and Personal and Social Capability.
Note: It is a school decision as to which capabilities are linked to which learning area(s). To help support these decisions, this resource provides general advice on teaching and assessment, as well as specific illustrative advice related to Design and Technologies.
The knowledge and skills learnt through the capabilities are highly transferable across learning areas and are applicable throughout schooling and in later life.
The capabilities support Design and Technologies in developing student ability to:
Identifying a strong link between a capability and Design and Technologies supports learning in both curriculum areas. There is strong justification to link a learning area and a capability in instances where:
For more information, see the following PowerPoint, with speaker notes, from the 2022 VCAA webinar ‘Linking Design and Technologies and the capabilities’. An accessible Word version is also provided.
Looking over each capabilities curriculum, we begin to see broad links between the strands in different capabilities and in aspects of various strands and sub-strands of the Design and Technologies curriculum.
Linking the Critical and Creative Thinking strands to Design and Technologies
Critical and Creative Thinking consists of three interrelated strands. The table below provides an overview of each strand and how it links to Design and Technologies.
Questions and Possibilities
Explore the nature of questioning and a range of processes and techniques to develop ideas
Design and Technologies and Critical and Creative Thinking mutually support students to …
generate innovative design ideas
Reasoning
Explore how to compose, analyse and evaluate arguments and reasoning
Design and Technologies and Critical and Creative Thinking mutually support students to …
critique and communicate designed solutions
Meta-Cognition
Explore the use of strategies to understand, manage and reflect on thinking, problem-solving and learning processes
Design and Technologies and Critical and Creative Thinking mutually support students to …
manage and reflect on the application of design and systems thinking and design processes to generate a designed solution
Linking the Ethical Capability strands to Design and Technologies
Ethical Capability consists of two interrelated strands. The table below provides an overview of each strand and how it links to Design and Technologies.
Understanding Concepts
Understanding and applying key concepts and ideas concerned with ethical issues, outcomes, principles and values
Design and Technologies and Ethical Capability mutually support students to …
identify ethical issues in a range of contexts relevant to design and technologies, and analyse stakeholder perspectives
Decision Making and Actions
Understanding ways to respond to ethical problems and factors and challenges that influence ethical decision-making and action, and applying this understanding to different contexts
Design and Technologies and Ethical Capability mutually support students to …
analyse the economic, environmental and social impacts of a designed solution that is in response to an individual or community problem; discuss the value and potential harms and benefits of a designed solution for society and the environment; and critique the ethical aspects of design processes
Linking the Intercultural Capability strands to Design and Technologies
Intercultural Capability consists of two interrelated strands. The table below provides an overview of each strand and its broad links to Design and Technologies.
Cultural Practices
Describing, observing and analysing characteristics of their own cultural identities and those of others; and using critical reflection to better understand the perspectives and actions of individuals and groups in specific situations and how these can be shaped by culture
Design and Technologies and Intercultural Capability mutually support students to …
identify when and how culture can be a consideration influencing design solutions, and analyse the ways intercultural relationships and experiences contribute to the development of design solutions in relevant contexts
Cultural Diversity
Understanding the nature of cultural diversity and critically examining the concept of respect, challenges and opportunities created by cultural diversity and the way in which cultural diversity shapes and contributes to social cohesion
Design and Technologies and Intercultural Capability mutually support students to …
understand the challenges and opportunities associated with working on design solutions in an interconnected and culturally diverse world
Linking the Personal and Social Capability strands to Design and Technologies
Personal and Social Capability consists of two interrelated strands. The table below provides an overview of each strand and its broad links to Design and Technologies.
Self-Awareness and Management
Develop the knowledge and skills to regulate, manage and monitor their emotions and interpret and assess their personal characteristics in the context of development of resilience
Design and Technologies and Personal and Social Capability mutually support students to …
develop knowledge and skills to work independently and show initiative
Social Awareness and Management
Learn to participate in positive, safe and respectful relationships; critique societal constructs and discrimination; and negotiate with others and work collaboratively
Design and Technologies and Personal and Social Capability mutually support students to …
develop skills for collaborative problem-solving and to critique societal constructs when creating and communicating designed solutions
Asking the following questions can be a first step in identifying strong links:
- Which of the learning area content descriptions reflect concepts or other knowledge and skills in a capability?
- Would explicit teaching and learning related to the identified link support progress towards the achievement standards for the learning area and/or capability?
The example below identifies a link between a Levels 7 and 8 Design and Technologies content description and Levels 7 and 8 Critical and Creative Thinking content description. The identified link is between the generation and representation of ideas to support a designed solution (Design and Technologies) and strategic thinking when undertaking this (Critical and Creative Thinking).
Once a strong link is identified, a learning activity can be designed that enables progression towards the appropriate Design and Technologies achievement standard as well as the appropriate capability achievement standard (again, see the example below). This may involve incorporating other relevant content descriptions to create a sequence of learning.
Example: Linking a Levels 7 and 8 Design and Technologies content description and a Levels 7 and 8 Critical and Creative Thinking content description
This table includes a selected content description and achievement standard extract for both Design and Technologies, Levels 7 and 8, and Critical and Creative Thinking, Levels 7 and 8, plus linking notes and an activity idea.
| | Design and Technologies, Levels 7 and 8 | Linking notes and activity idea | Critical and Creative Thinking, Levels 7 and 8 |
|---|
Content description | Generate, develop and test design ideas, plans and processes using appropriate technical terms and technologies including graphical representation techniques
(VCDSCD050) | Can both Critical and Creative Thinking and Design and Technologies help us to represent and discuss ideas? Yes. Design and Technologies can help us understand how to represent ideas and Critical and Creative Thinking can help us understand representation as a strategy, while both curriculum areas help us to explain and justify our representations to others. Students explore different graphical representation techniques and explicitly consider their strengths and limitations. They use this knowledge to work with others to select a graphical representation and use it to communicate effectively with audiences, and then reflect on the results. | Consider a range of strategies to represent ideas and explain and justify thinking processes to others
(VCCCTM040) |
Achievement
standard extract | By the end of Level 8, students … create and adapt design ideas, make considered decisions and communicate to different audiences using appropriate technical terms and a range of technologies and graphical representation techniques. | By the end of Level 8, students … use a range of strategies to represent ideas and explain and justify thinking processes to others. |
How do we assess the capabilities?
Student understanding of a capability’s knowledge and skills is assessed against its achievement standards. The key to formative and summative assessment is explicit teaching of the discrete knowledge and skills underpinning the capability’s content descriptions in such a way that students are supported to progress towards the targeted achievement standard. Explicit teaching builds shared understanding of knowledge and skills, which provides a foundation for setting transparent expectations of what should be shown in student work and for feedback.
For general advice on teaching and assessment and transfer of learning, see
General resources for the capabilities.
Examples of learning activities that link Design and Technologies and the capabilities
All examples are illustrative only and assume familiarity with the Design and Technologies curriculum.
Learning activity idea: As part of the creation of a designed solution, students use personal preferences to evaluate the success of their design ideas, processes and solutions. They are guided to reflect on how their personal preferences influenced their thinking, including their choice of action when creating a solution to a challenge, such as caring for the environment, in creating their solution.
This activity would strengthen learning in both Design and Technologies and Critical and Creative Thinking through fostering greater self-awareness about their own preferences and how this influences thinking when creating designed solutions where the needs of the environment and often the needs of others should also be taken into account (see Critical and Creative Thinking content description
VCCCTQ002).
Learning activity idea: As part of the creation of a designed solution, students explore the different uses of materials in a range of products from a given region of the world. Students are guided to identify how considering the relationship between use of materials and community needs in the given region is an intercultural experience and to reflect on what they have learnt about themselves and others.
This activity would strengthen learning in both Design and Technologies and Intercultural Capability through engaging students in a focused intercultural experience and building understanding of how cultural context can influence the creation of designed solutions (see Intercultural Capability content description
VCICCB006).
Learning activity idea: Students work collaboratively on creating a designed solution, including negotiating criteria for success. They are guided to identify why conflict may occur during negotiation and are introduced to strategies to support the resolution of conflict.
This activity would strengthen learning in both Design and Technologies and Personal and Social Capability through building understanding of why conflict can occur when collaborating on creating a designed solution and explicitly introducing strategies for conflict resolution in a purposeful context (see Personal and Social Capability content description
VCPSCSO033).
Learning activity idea: As part of a sequence of lessons on how designed solutions can respond to problems for individuals and the community, students explore a range of examples to consider why there are sometimes competing factors involved in meeting community needs for preferred futures, including how what is preferred often involves different perspectives on the most significant values, harms and benefits. Students are introduced to criteria to help them identify and justify a perspective on what are the most important considerations and to explain how this might differ from other perspectives.
This activity would strengthen learning in both Design and Technologies and Ethical Capability through building a deeper understanding of why there might be alternative perspectives on what the most important considerations are in responding to a problem, and how perspectives can be analysed and justified (see Ethical Capability content description
VCECU016).
Learning activity idea: Students complete a series of lessons where they work collaboratively to create a designed solution. When investigating materials used for different designed solutions, students learn and apply a range of techniques to test validity within and between arguments. They establish detailed criteria for success, including sustainability considerations. Students shift perspective when generating and connecting design ideas and processes of increasing complexity, and they justify their decisions. They reflect on the effects of shifting perspectives. Students develop, justify and refine criteria to evaluate the quality of ideas, proposals and thinking processes. They use criteria for success that they have developed to evaluate their design ideas and designed solutions and processes, and they reflect on how these could be refined in the future.
This activity would strengthen learning in both Design and Technologies and Critical and Creative Thinking through introducing strategies for generating and reflecting on design ideas, and building capacity to explicitly construct and evaluate arguments for and against different alternatives over the course of producing a designed solution in response to an identified need (see Critical and Creative Thinking content descriptions
VCCCTQ045,
VCCCTR050,
VCCCTM051 and
VCCCTM053).
For more resources to support the teaching of all four capabilities, see the individual capability resources webpages and
General resources for the capabilities.