Computer aided design lessons and resources for fashion and textiles teachers

Abstract

The new syllabus for VET Fashion and Textiles launched in 2019, introduced the subject focus of Digital Media. The VET Fashion and Textiles curriculum is a formative assessment-based syllabus, and it is based on different levels of attainments while at the same time focusing on specific learning outcomes. Educators were offered a four day training course during October 2019 on the use of Adobe Illustrator®, a CAD software that can be used in the fashion industry. Some of the teachers found the course very challenging and some lost interest after the first session. This research project study adopted a qualitative methodology that assisted the researcher to address the research question: ‘How to enhance the pedagogies of Fashion and Textiles teachers in relation to CAD?’ Hence, this research aimed to investigate the pedagogies that could be utilised to help VET Fashion and Textiles teachers successfully teach Adobe Illustrator®, and to facilitate the teaching and learning of CAD to subject teachers and their students. A resource pack that includes a teacher’s handbook, a set of lesson plans and a number of resources were developed to assist the Fashion and Textiles educators in the teaching of Adobe Illustrator®. An information session for the participants was later organised in order to further explain the use of the handbook, lesson plans and resources before the trialling. An overview of the trialling process and the main aims of the resource pack were given during the session. Feedback was recorded through a form given to VET Fashion and Textiles teachers on each trialled lesson. The trialling of the resource pack among the participants revealed that the teacher’s handbook, lesson plans and resources were helpful, attractive and interesting for the teachers to teach this particular subject focus when using Adobe Illustrator® albeit sometimes challenging due to pandemic circumstances and time restrictions.