CoP 3 - Project Statement

Project Statement to show explicit links between essay and practical.

Holly O’Connor – CoP 3 – Project Statement

The title of the essay is ‘What role does Graphic Design play in Primary Education?’, it explores how graphic design can be effectively used in a primary education setting and in turn how resources can best be designed to maximise learning. It touches on a range of teaching theories, however there is a main focus the theory of Constructivism as this lends itself better to explore, discuss and analyse existing resources and helps to understand what is already out there, what works well and how design can be applied to achieve optimum learning potential.

A number of different texts, journals and articles were read and looked at in order to gather different opinions and statements on constructivism. One main theorist was obviously Piaget in his book ‘Psychology of the Child’, Piaget is seen as the pioneer of constructivism, his underlying idea is that the teacher’s role is to facilitate learning by providing a variety of experiences and also suggesting that a child’s knowledge is ‘formed from an individual’s environment and experiences.’ Also Vygotsky’s social learning theory which suggests that within a classroom environment children can learn from one another and discusses the importance of children having a dialogue between each other. Another poignant point discussed within the essay is Clements and Battista’s idea of using games and everyday situations to put learning into context and create a more engaging learning atmosphere.

Therefore, when writing the practical brief, it was important to bring together the key points and perspectives of constructivism discussed above and within the essay to create the optimum and best learning resources for children to construct knowledge, learn new things but whilst receiving enjoyment from it. The practical brief proposes a number of considerations; building on children’s existing knowledge, experiences and environments, the importance of group work, encouraging working together and dialogue between one another, engaging and innovative design and a final design that is easy to understand therefore pupils can interact with the resource independently from the teacher.

The initial idea of creating a set of playing cards was informed by the perspectives of Clements and Battista, specifically taken from when they discuss modifying old games such as Old Maids to then be able to be used to teach mathematics. Which then in turn relates to Vygotsky’s social learning theory as Clements and Battista also discuss the idea that ‘Games give rise to compelling reasons for pupils to think and to agree or disagree with each other.’ Therefore, games encourage children to interact with one another, rather than directly with the teacher. The concept behind the images and symbols used on the cards relates to Piaget’s opinion that ‘Knowledge is constructed based on personal experiences and hypotheses of the environment,’ therefore concentrating on what children enjoy, their rewards and relatable everyday happenings means that the game speaks to them on their level and in turn they will gain more from it and are able to use existing knowledge to put new ideas into context.

In conclusion every aspect of the final design has been chosen with constructivism in mind and more specifically the main perspectives and opinions which constructivist theorists hold. It takes the most important points discussed throughout the essay and by academics and uses them cohesively to create a teaching resource which will maximise children’s learning potential.