He is currently responsible for teaching Design and Communication Graphics to trainee teachers of Engineering Education. His special interests include freehand technical sketching and pedagogical approaches in Engineering Graphics Education.

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Research (Lane et al., 2010b, 2010c), concerning the development of expertise in freehand sketching among students within an Initial Technology Teacher Education (ITTE) programme provides significant indicators that sketching is a teachable skill. Analysing and reporting on any development in sketching expertise can sometimes be difficult and become subject to debate, particularly where casual observations and independent opinions are solely relied upon (Verstijnen, 1998). This paper reports on the application of a visual and verbal protocol analysis tool (Middleton, 2008) to measure pre-instruction sketching behaviour of third year undergraduate students. Forty one students volunteered to take part in visual and verbal protocol analysis which was carried out simultaneous to a Design and Communication Graphics module. A core element of this module was the development of sketching expertise and the ability to engage in creative discovery within a specially designed model (Lane et al., 2010b, p.88). Considering the richness of the data gathered using visual and verbal protocol analysis, it was deemed appropriate to solely analyse and report on students who perceived their sketching ability as "advanced beginner" (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986). It was found that the "advanced beginner" students did not engage in any significant level of exploration during a prescribed sketching based design task. This could be related to their perceived "poor" level of sketching ability and their inability to graphically communicate. The research argument presented in this paper is based on the application of Middleton's (2008) visual and verbal protocol analysis model which attempts to establish the attributes that students need to develop in order to reach a high level of sketching expertise. The findings have potential to inform the future direction of pedagogical practices that focus on freehand sketching within graphical education.

Educating for a broad global context and developing problem-solving capacities are fundamental for living in an ever-changing global society. The ability to construct meaning and apply knowledge in a broad context is crucial within education 1 and it is the teacher's responsibility to facilitate this within the subject. This focus is difficult to embrace within the traditional formal schooling structures. Students can often achieve quite well by traditional assessment measures but often have difficulty when required to use this learned knowledge in new styles of problems 2. Often students pass through the entire schooling system, and perform quite well, but are unable to utilise this learned knowledge in broader contexts 3. It is future graphics educators that must establish the cultural norm. To do this an ability to apply and transfer knowledge from one context to another is crucial. With the objective of analysing the complexities of applying previous graphical knowledge to a new context, groups of student teachers were given an applied analytical task based on the geometry of the regular polyhedra to solve. Prior to the prescribed task, students were given the opportunity to develop their graphical analytical knowledge and spatial skills through the completion of a coursework portfolio based on the content of the puzzle. A visual-verbal protocol analysis, similar to Montagueet al. 4 was employed to evaluate students' approaches to solving the puzzle and their ability to transfer previously learned knowledge and skills to a new situation as well as their ability to work collectively and communicate their ideas. The findings indicate a significant inability to transfer knowledge and skills developed in the coursework portfolio to the new applied analytical task. Despite students' high level of performance in both the portfolio, which assessed graphical knowledge, and the Purdue Spatial Visualisation Test (PSVT), which examines ability to mentally rotate threedimensional objects, many students were unable to employ an efficient approach to solving the applied analytical task. The paper discusses some key variables relating to performance in the applied analytical task and forms the basis for further research in the area.

Much of formal educational provision correctly focuses on developing critical numeracy and literacy skills. Contemporary living in a digital image culture supports education now developing what Fish 1 describes as our visualizing instinct. At second level the national graphics curriculum in ________ has moved from Technical Drawing (TD) to Design and Communication Graphics (DCG). The traditional vocational focus is now replaced with learning graphics through design driven activities, which encourage outcomes of innovation and creativity. While students still develop subject specific content knowledge, drafting skills and communication skills, the approach to learning is concerned with the design process as a vehicle for transferable learning. Capturing the process of learning and not the product can be a challenge for conventional assessment methods. This paper explores the impact of determinist and non-determinist approaches to assessment on the nature and outcomes of the learning activity. The method employed an offset cohort analysis type study to explore the performance and output of two homogenous groups of initial teacher education students (stratified sample n=40). Group one were given defined assessment criteria, while the second group were expected to define the criteria based on their definition of graphical capability. The paper highlights the variance between groups in selecting, applying and executing appropriate graphical principles and medium, while solving an identical design brief. The paper concludes by highlighting the importance of understanding the impact of assessment criteria on student performance. Students, who constructed not only their own meaning, but also the rationale for their meaning, demonstrated a higher level of graphical capability.