A spotlight on Design and Technology study in England
Auteur(s) : Sam Tuckett
Editeur(s) : Education Policy Institute
Date : 03/2022
The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has published a new study on the state of D&T, ‘A spotlight on Design and Technology study in England: trends in subject take up and the teacher workforce’.
The research, which is the first study to comprehensively examine trends in the subject over the last ten years, shows that 44% of students took D&T GCSE in 2009, but this fell by half to just 22% of students in 2020.
Entries for students at A level have also declined over the same period, as more students now opt for vocational engineering qualifications. The analysis finds that GCSE students attending free schools and sponsored academies are less likely to enter D&T, while at A level, students in independent schools are most likely to enter the subject.
The report also uncovers significant local and regional variation in D&T take up, with entries in local authorities ranging from nearly 40% of pupils taking D&T at GCSE in Herefordshire, to just 4% of pupils taking the subject at GCSE in Middlesbrough.
Choosing D&T as a subject at GCSE level is shown to be particularly critical to continuing study in the subject at 16-19 level. Of those who did not study D&T at GCSE, less than 2% opted to take up the subject at the next stage of education.
This shows that without the option or encouragement to begin studying D&T an early age, students are far less inclined to pursue D&T subjects at a higher level of education.
The study identifies several developments that have coincided with the considerable decline in take up. Between 2011 and 2020, the number of D&T teachers fell by half from 14,800 to 7,300, with the government failing to meet its D&T teacher recruitment targets. Significant school accountability reforms such as the EBacc and Progress 8, and qualifications reforms, such as the introduction of new GCSEs, also occurred during this period.
The new findings on the state of D&T come as the government continues to roll out a series of major reforms to vocational education in England, including the introduction of T levels, apprenticeship reforms, and Institutes of Technology.
Télécharger le document : https://epi.org.uk/.../
mot(s) clé(s) : enseignement et formation professionnels
