Evaluation process

Evaluation team:
Grace Horne Researcher / Knifemaker
Jeff Durber Expert Knifemaker / Lecturer in Metalwork & Jewellery
Julia Keyte Lecturer in Metalwork & Jewellery
Nicola Wood Researcher / Multimedia Designer
Chris Rust Principal Investigator

Preliminary meeting: The team looked at some of the learner's knives and decided that, with the group having very different aspirations and experience, it was neither possible nor desirable desirable to judge one against another. To enable each to be evaluated on their own merit, a brief questionnaire was sent around the group to gather information about the background of each learner, how they felt about the knife they had made, and what they thought of their learning process.

Main evaluation meeting: A pack was assembled for each learner with their knife, images of the development work they had submitted to the learning resource wiki, their feedback from the questionnaire and images of any previous knives they had made. In addition Grace Horne and Jeff Durber brought examples of their own knives and we had a range of commercially-available folding knives; some traditional Sheffield knives, Laguoile knives from France, and Spyderco knives from USA. This material was considered by the team to evaluate what each learner was capable of and what each had achieved.

The two knifemakers drew comparisons with their own learning experiences; in particular Grace had brought along the first folding knives she had ever made. These had been made without any instruction at all and she had been unable to make the mechanism work, the factor that had brought her to Sheffield to work with the traditional craft practitioners in the first place. Jeff had learned through trial and error, spending many hours taking knives apart, making minor adjustments and putting them back together. In addition the two lecturers in Metalwork & Jewellery drew comparisons to what they would expect of a group of undergraduate students at an early stage of their learning.

As a result of this process the team felt confident in asserting the level of achievement for each learner, a summary of which is provided in the next section.

Evaluation outcome

This group of learners started with a negligible understanding of how to make a folding knife and they had a variety of aspirations and a variety of previous experience. They have all made folding knives with a mechanism that conforms to the basic requirements; they stay closed, they stay open, and there is a degree of slack to allow them to move between the two positions.

On the basis of the early knife making experiences of the two expert knife makers on the evaluation panel, we feel the learners have achieved something they would not have achieved without a reasonable amount of instruction or a large amount of time on their own constructing from first principles. Their results are considered at least as good as, and in some cases better than, would be expected of first year undergraduate Metalwork & Jewellery students.

The learners have come up with a concept and been able to carry it through to making a knife that integrates the form and mechanism. Considering the images and descriptions provided of their previous work, the quality of the knives they made is at least as good as, and in some cases better than, what we would expect them to be capable of achieving. Their feedback shows that they have also achieved a degree of critical evaluation; they are aware of the shortcomings of what they have made and how they could improve upon them.

We feel that at least half of the group have the potential to carry on knife making at a high level. One of the learners has sold a folding knife he made, having previously felt his work was not of sufficient quality for sale. Another has been accepted as a probationary member of his country's Knifemaker's Guild based on the folding knives he has subsequently made.

Conclusion & further research

During this research, collaborative work between a designer and expert learner was successfully used to elicit, record and transmit complex craft skills. The research has provided two contributions to our understanding of craft learning: an elicitation strategy that employs an expert learner to uncover the skilled knowledge of master craftsmen, and a transmission strategy based on the concept of bridges to assist the design of learning resources for novices.

The novices, including makers who relied purely on the online resources and support from their online community, were able to move on within a few weeks to making very competent folding knives, not only demonstrating the ability to make a technically functional knife but to produce knives that were innovative in their form.

One of the ideas behind this research has been the hope that it could help recapture some of the quality of the pre-industrial approach to craft skills, in which artistry and innovation were a normal feature. The industrial craft tradition in many fields of work has tended to emphasise utility and the more creative aspects of the work have devolved to professional designers. This project has shown that we can use new methods to transplant skills outside the industrial setting into the hands of people who have the motivation to innovate.

In a subsequent short research project, these methods were used to develop a learning resource to support design students in the University workshops at Sheffield Hallam. The outcome indicated that this would be a good way of taking pressure off technical and teaching staff and supporting learner autonomy.

Areas for future research include finding ways of developing learners' use of wikis as a collaborative medium. This would allow students to share ideas and learn as a group, as might be expected in a more traditional skills learning setting. There is much development in this field in informal, online learning communities and we feel they have the potential to influence the design of more formal learning environments.

In addition, we feel there are potential wider applications for this research in other practices which involve skills with a significant element of tacit knowledge. In future research we would hope to involve partners from areas such as healthcare, performance, catering, music and sport.