Object-based learning: active learning through enquiry
Object-based learning: active learning through enquiry
Dr Vicki Dale; Dr Nathalie Tasler; and Dr Lola Sánchez-Jáuregui
What is the idea?
Object-Based Learning (OBL) is a well-established teaching method; Korda (2020), for example, documents how objects were used in 19th century school teaching in Europe. However, it is only relatively recently that its potential has been recognised in UK higher education, popularised by the work of Chatterjee et al. (2011). It has been defined as ‘a mode of education which involves the active integration of objects into the learning environment’ (Chatterjee et al., 2016, p.1).
The University of Glasgow Hunterian Museum’s extensive collections lend themselves to enquiry-based learning across the disciplines. This gives us a unique opportunity to introduce OBL within our Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP), in our Creative Pedagogies for Active Learning course. In partnership with museum colleagues, this raises awareness of the potential for its use in learning and teaching in various degree subjects.
OBL supports active participation through aisthesis (Bleakley, 1999) and embodied learning (Chatterjee et al., 2016); the combining of the working with the head (cognitive dimension), the hands (psychomotor dimension), and the heart (affective dimension); thus, it is a powerful pedagogy for facilitating critical thinking and behaviour change.
This chapter defines OBL, and using examples from practice, illustrates how it may be used online and on campus, not only drawing upon specific collections, but also everyday objects that stimulate inquiry and active learning.
Why this idea?
We are surrounded by objects. With its origins in ethnography, material culture is the study of objects and how they came into being and are used culturally (Willocks, 2016). While this preempts us to think about museum artefacts, and the ethics of their collection, display and potentially repatriation, OBL can be extended to any physical object that exists, human-made or natural. Scientific equipment, specimens (animal, vegetable, or mineral), works of art, historic manuscripts, all come under this category. However, everyday household or personal objects can also lend themselves to learning; the use of such objects in art and design education for example has been shown to elicit a ‘wow’ response from students and facilitate analysis and critical reflection (Hardie, 2015). As well as subject knowledge, objects can facilitate transferable skills such as communication, team working, lateral thinking, and observational and drawing skills (Chatterjee, 2011).
How could others implement this idea?
While objects for learning can be sourced from everyday life, you may wish to liaise with colleagues in institutional museums or special collection libraries to source materials of a historical, art-based, or scientific nature. Colleagues in museums and libraries play a valuable role in identifying and using objects for learning, not ju