Problem solving
5
Making progress at KS2
1. Strategies progress to include: Practice and planning
Children now see the need to practice skills before beginning to design and make and will readily engage in focused practical tasks, if they see that these will support subsequent Design & Make assignments. They use their problem solving strategies to begin to understand how the working characteristics of tools and materials relate to how they are used. They can make informed choices when planning and start to draw labelled diagrams, but do not necessarily follow these. They need to discuss what can realistically be made within the constraints of time, resources, and their own expertise, and be flexible in changing their plans as they design and make.
Teachers can:
- use examples of flexible professional designers and makers in the local community;
- encourage verbal planning and evaluation of plans.
2. Showing and evaluating
Young children often show and share their work openly, but older primary pupils can be sensitive to the subjective opinion of others. Making design specifications explicit at the start of a Design & Make assignment sets the criteria for assessment, and can enable more objective evaluation from peers and adults, or at least some recognition of value judgments. Older children can use their problem solving strategies to evaluate how their products relate to their intended function, how they have been used and the views of the users.
Teachers can:
- support pupils in setting their own realistic design specifications;
- highlight areas of success in the both process and product, and help suggest improvements;
- relate these evaluations to National Curriculum level descriptions, so that pupils are aware of their own progress.