Research into portfolios pays off

Malcolm Welch and David Barlex received an Elliott Award for a Travel Fellowship in Education from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario to investigate the use of portfolios in design & technology education. As part of this work they interviewed professional designers. Guess what? They ALL keep sketchbooks ....

This is a typical response.

“My sketchbook is where I keep all the odds and ends that I find appealing. It’s not linked to any particular job or project but it does maintain my creativity. I put almost anything in there – photos, postcards, cuttings. I add notes, doodles and sometimes colour. Anything that takes my fancy goes in. And when I leaf through it I get all sorts of ideas. I’ve got sketchbooks going back years.”

We thought that if it was this useful for professional designers then it would be good for students too but when we interviewed design & technology teachers and teacher educators they didn’t mention sketchbooks – not even once!

So we’ve produced a guide to developing a personal sketchbook for both teachers and students. It’s just a first attempt at the moment but you can download it by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page. If you try it out for yourself or with your students we’d love to hear from you. Our contact details are in the guide. You can find out about Queen’s University Education Faculty by visiting www.educ.queensu.ca/index.shtml.