Innovating Innovate: Addressing Barriers to Submission in the V&A’s National Schools Challenge

Sponsor:	Victoria & Albert
Sponsor Liaison:	Joseph Giddings, David Houston, Vanessa Weibel
Student Team:	Brooke Adams, Adam Faucher, Alexander MacTaylor, Ella Mesheau
Abstract:	In the UK, design and technology education for students in Key stage 3 has been on the decline. Because of this, programs such as the V&A Innovate National Schools Challenge have had issues with engagement. Through surveys and interviews with educators and staff, as well as case studies of similar design challenges in the UK, we have put together a comprehensive list of recommendations to enhance the submission rate of V&A Innovate. We produced a sample lesson plan, reorganized the existing materials, and offered other recommendations including a page dedicated to “First-time Innovators” and ECT’s.
Link:	V&A IQP Final Report V&A IQP Final Presentation

Executive Summary

Problem

Design Thinking competitions have been increasingly recognized as valuable tools for enhancing student creativity, collaboration, and real-world preparedness. These competitions have become even more important as state schools in the UK have eliminated design and technology (D&T) programs over the last decade. These D&T programs were the primary method of implementing Design Thinking into schools, and as they have fallen out of use, other institutions have stepped in to fill the gap. Programs such as Innovate, the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum’s National Schools Challenge, aim to work with schools to introduce students to Design Thinking in a collaborative and competitive environment. Though the importance of Design Thinking in education has been widely acknowledged, participants in these competitions often face barriers, such as limited teacher capacity, curriculum integration challenges, and varying levels of institutional support. Understanding and addressing these barriers is critical to ensuring equal access to Design Thinking education, especially as D&T programs become less ubiquitous in schools.

Goal/Objectives

The goal of this project is to determine why many schools that register to participate in the V&A Innovate National Schools Challenge fail to submit entries. Based on our findings, we offer possible solutions to encourage increased submission and have produced a sample template to be utilized by the V&A Innovate staff. To achieve this goal, we first identified and completed the following four objectives: 

1. Evaluate the submission process and tools of similar school challenges in the UK  
2. Identify characteristics of the V&A Innovate National Schools Challenge that explain their low conversion rates.  
3. Identify the incentives and barriers teachers face that shape participation in the V&A Innovate National Schools Challenge. 
4. Recommend how V&A might raise conversion rates.

Methods

To achieve these objectives, we used a collection of methods including case studies, questionnaires, surveys, and interviews. We first conducted background research on comparable design challenges and the ways they have utilized lesson plan templates on their websites. To deepen our understanding of the V&A Innovate program we then performed interviews with staff at the V&A. This step also further clarified the extent of our deliverables and the direction of our research.   

To gain firsthand experience on the process educators face we then gathered preliminary field data at the Schools and Academies Show, developed and distributed surveys to teachers, and engaged in interviews with participating educators. 

Our final deliverable is a set of evidence-based recommendations aimed at strengthening participation and increasing submissions for Innovate and a sample lesson plan to be implemented on the V&A’s Website.  

Findings and Discussion

We have broken down our findings into sections including Timeline Issues, Resource Accessibility & Communication, Missing Resources, Teacher Delivery, Themes Relevance & Real-World Connection, and Awareness of Recognition. Each of these issues contains a brief description and a suggestion for a possible solution.   

In our recommendations we suggest creating a lesson plan for teachers to use to improve both teacher and student preparedness in completing the Innovate program. The lesson plan exists to balance flexibility and structure for educators; ideally the lesson plan will be usable both as-is, which will benefit teachers who are time tight and/or lack experience teaching design, and editable, so veteran Innovate participants can change the plan as they see fit. This lesson plan incorporates more specific suggestions relating to the majority of the following sections, however other relevant suggestions conclude each section. It should also be noted that this lesson plan is incomplete, as we felt it would be better for the V&A Schools Team to assemble such a resource, however prototype pages are included in this section for reference. The two prototype pages are also included as full-size pages in Appendix H. 

Timeline Issues

Figure 1: A reformatting of existing Innovate resources into Lesson Plan format

Although the V&A is piloting an extended timeline for Innovate during the 2025 cycle, feedback suggests that this change alone will ameliorate only some of the issues participants face. Survey responses report that the current suggested timeline for resource use does not align with a realistic timeline required to generate a strong submission; as one past participant noted, “[The resources provided by the V&A] are useful, but if I were to use them as the guidance we would not get as far as a final submission in the time given.” This concern was echoed by the V&A Schools Team, as they identified engagement drop-off as a persistent issue.  

To remedy this, we suggest a selection of check-in options the V&A could implement, including in-person sessions at the museum at both the beginning and intermediate stages of the timeline and school visits to the V&A throughout the process.  

Resource Accessibility & Communication

Figure 2: Prototype of “Session 0” of an Innovate lesson plan; includes relevant introductory material to the program and design thinking

Teachers consistently report difficulty accessing and utilizing resources provided by the V&A, despite recognizing their values. Survey results revealed teachers found the given resources useful but also were unable to find many resources that would make their experience easier. In other words, teachers utilize and enjoy the resources they can find and access. Additionally, the absence of recorded webinars detailing how to implement Innovate and other relevant CPD leaves teachers, specifically those new to teaching, Innovate, and/or D&T, without the additional support they may need to run the program. One teacher noted “the training took place on my days off and at times where I need to collect my son from school” and that “a recorded catchup version would be more helpful.” In interviews, the V&A Schools Team has expressed interest in producing such materials, however these have not yet been implemented. Design competition organizers also felt that the resources provided by the V&A were at times broad and difficult to navigate in comparison their own resources; these organizers suggested offering a clear, lesson plan format to fix this issue.

In addition to this, many teachers are unaware of the valuable, often vital, communication channels provided by the V&A. One survey respondent said, “we had a [Microsoft] Teams meeting with two of the organizers which was very helpful, especially as it was the first time we have participated,” underscoring the importance of direct contact. Without this support, first time participants have struggled to pilot the program in their schools. Thus, we suggest including a direct point of contact within all Innovate resources; we provide relevant contact information at the bottom of all pages of the prototype lesson plan (see Figures 14 and 15). 

Consolidating all necessary resources into a single place, such as a lesson plan, should provide teachers a clear pathway to navigate through the resources. Suring up the backstop of recorded resources (i.e. offering teachers live and recorded webinars) will also help this issue. Some of this is already done (there are links and QR codes embedded within the Teacher and Student Toolkits), but ideally every vital resource should have a clear place within the Innovate process. 

Missing Resources

Through analysis of the existing materials, there are a few areas where Innovate lacks teacher resources. While the toolkits provided to students and educators contain valuable content, they do not introduce both the program and design thinking broadly in an introductory manner. This finding was corroborated by survey and interview responses; one respondent stated that “more input from the V&A, maybe some live sessions, or introducing it” would have been valuable for their run.” In our own analysis of resources, we also found a dearth of resources that introduce the program, and design thinking more broadly. Including these introductory assets would build a strong foundation on which the rest of the competition can be run; a strong foundation is critical for improving both teacher and student confidence.  

Notably, most of our survey responses came from educators trained specifically in D&T, which reinforces the idea that teachers from other backgrounds may face additional challenges when running Innovate. Also, in our research regarding other design competitions, we found a similar lack; providing introductory materials to design thinking would help set Innovate apart from its counterparts. We have constructed a “Session 0” (Figure 15) to act as this introduction.

Teacher Delivery

Our findings point to teacher capacity (in terms of workload) as another issue barring completion of the Innovate National Schools Challenge. This issue is multifaceted, encompassing systemic issues, structural problems within Innovate, and pedagogical problems faced by teachers themselves when implementing the program. Key aspects of the competition that increase teacher workload include misaligned timelines and other timing issues, inaccessible or sometimes insufficient resources, and a lack of clarity for first time participants in Innovate, particularly for ECTs and non-D&T teachers. 

When teachers struggle to effectively run Innovate, due to the aforementioned reasons, students also struggle. Issues with rollout may inadvertently result in lack of confidence, interest, and drive in students. This issue compounds with other issues affecting student interest in Innovate and similar programs, resulting in limited submissions. Providing teachers with a concrete plan to follow will reduce preparation time and offer them a resource to turn to should they face issues.  

Themes Relevance & Real-World Connection

Another issue facing students is the lack of local relevance for students. Compared to Design Lab Nation (another V&A program run by the V&A Schools Team), which heavily integrates local community partnerships, Innovate can feel abstract, especially in its theming. Survey respondents noted that students benefit most from Innovate when they can see how their work connects to the real world; one teacher felt that “having members of the public to come in and talk about their needs for products” would be beneficial to students. Innovate encourages these connections in provided materials and resources, but actually building these real-world connections is difficult. Some interviewees also believe that past Innovate themes may have been too broad and suggest giving students more concrete starting points. 

To fix this issue we suggest the teams have more time dedicated to coming up with relevant connections to the themes. This solution is incorporated into our primary recommendation of a lesson plan, which gives participants time specifically to form connections to themes. 

Awareness and Recognition

Students and teachers alike should be made more aware of the awards and recognition offered by the V&A. Survey responses confirmed that students are not motivated by prizes, but by the feedback and acknowledgement of their achievement. All student teams receive feedback regardless of their placement in the competition; this point should be emphasized to communicate to students that their work is valuable. The V&A encourages in-school “presentation days,” in which teachers run a smaller version of Innovate’s final presentation day. This is important for encouraging participation within schools, but they should not be used as a means of weeding out stronger submissions from weaker ones; the V&A wants all projects to be submitted. Data from the SAAS questionnaire supports this: outsiders feel Innovate needs better advertising, more engaging themes, and a stronger focus on existing methods of recognition within the program.  

To alleviate this issue, we recommend that the V&A offers a greater selection of sample projects from years before on the webpage, including submissions that were not short-listed.  

Conclusions & Future Recommendations

The overarching aim of this project was to enhance the conversion rate of the V&A Innovate program by identifying and addressing barriers to student submissions. Across our case studies, educator interviews, and analysis of Innovate materials, we found that the current program structure may overwhelm teachers at times due to a combination of inaccessible resources, missing resources, timeline misalignments, and general difficulty with piloting a design thinking program such as Innovate. These issues are particularly hindering for ECTs, first time Innovate participants, and educators not trained in D&T education. These issues compound into reduced student engagement, which in turn leads to unfinished projects and submission drop-offs. Our comparisons with other UK design competitions and suggestions from former participants determined that clear, concrete, well-sequenced lesson plans, stronger introductory materials, and clear examples of final deliverables are key to supporting educators and students alike during the Innovate process.  

Future research should first assess the impact of the changes already planned by Innovate; namely, the extension of project timelines and the enhancement of educational resources. It is essential to determine whether these interventions meaningfully improve the submission rate and overall student engagement. We recommend that this evaluation should be both quantitative (i.e., tracking changes in submission volume) and qualitative (i.e., collecting teacher and student feedback on usability and engagement). 

If submission rates remain low despite these improvements, further investigation will be needed to explore additional structural barriers, particularly those related to the academic calendar and curricular constraints that affect teacher participation. Our findings suggest that time limitations were one of the most frequently cited challenges, and so refining the schedule or offering flexibility may be areas for future experimentation. Continued feedback regarding the accessibility of Innovate resources should also continue to be taken; if the V&A decides to refresh their resources as we suggest in the section above, feedback regarding the changes should be taken into account. This thinking holds true for all of our other recommendations as well; teacher and student opinion is paramount.  

Thus, we recommend that the V&A continue periodic feedback collection, similar to the teacher survey we conducted, as part of its ongoing evaluation of the program. It must be noted that the V&A already collects large amounts of teacher feedback data; this research would have been impossible without such data. Future research could also benefit from expanding the sample of interviews/surveyed schools and teachers, potentially looking more closely at demographic or geographic trends in engagement to ensure that program access is equitable and inclusive across different schools.