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Who am I? My name is Angus Lafferty, before I became a teacher I was a Civil Servant for 26 years. During that time I passed an apprenticeship, got married, bought a house, gained an Honours Degree in Technology & Management, brought up a family etc. etc. At work I gained experience of aerospace engineering, testing and implementing computer systems, project management, change management, business support, customer relationship management, and this continues as a teacher of Resistant Materials/Graphics and most recently Construction. I became a teacher because I wanted new challenges and I certainly didn't want to 'sleepwalk towards retirement'. To be honest, I also wanted to give something back. After-all it is the teachers, instructors and lecturers over the years who have encouraged me to develop the skills I have, and so allowed me to experience the diverse career I've had to date.
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What is the focus of your investigation? How can I improve the quality of GCSE Coursework in Resistant Materials and motivate pupils, particularly boys, to meet deadlines?
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What was your approach and/or what evidence have you gathered? Using my first-hand experience of motivating two resistant materials classes totalling 31 Y11 pupils, I 'brainstormed' all of the elements I could think of surrounding the issue of motivating pupils to achieve coursework deadlines. I interviewed several Y11 pupils before they left school in the summer term. I am preparing to test and evaluate methods of motivation on the current Y10 class I teach.
Y11 Interviews Class of 2005 updated 16 July 05
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What resources / references have you found helpful? The Times Educational Supplement website www.tes.co.uk Design & Technology 'staffroom'
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What results have emerged? This is a question of great concern to many Design and Technology Teachers and indeed to teachers generally of other subjects. There does not appear to be a straight forward solution to the problem. For example, there are lengthy online discussions about this topic on the Times Education Supplement website. There are references to the issues surrounding boys' achievement in PGCE course readers. There is plenty of advice as to methods that are used by teachers to motivate their pupils to do coursework. None of them claim to have all the answers.
Highlights from the TES Design and Technology website
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An example of the work produced by a highly motivated pupil
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Examples of student work
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Project Diary - "Dear Diary..."
Project Diary - Updated 16th July 05
This diary records how different techniques were used to motivate pupils to achieve coursework deadlines and how effective they proved to be.
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