11 Layers of interaction: Object-based learning driving individual and collabora
11 Layers of interaction: Object-based learning driving individual and collaborative active enquiry
Object-based learning driving individual and collaborative active enquiry
Maria Kukhareva; Anne Lawrence; and Katherine Koulle
Introduction
Our ambition as educators is to support students in developing academic competencies and subject knowledge through facilitating conditions for deep and meaningful learning; through individual and collaborative enquiry; and through creating processes which build on students’ curiosity and creativity (see Alvarado and Herr, 2003; Hardie, 2015; Chatterjee et al., 2016).
In this chapter, we share our experience of designing and facilitating a pedagogical approach built around artefacts from our institutions’ special collections, with a view to promote active learning through exploration of objects and images. We are drawing on our reflections from a series of workshops: staff development events at University of Bedfordshire (UoB), and two national conferences; Playful Learning (Playful Learning, 2018), and the Active Learning Conference 2017 at Anglia Ruskin University (2018), which featured colleagues and students in our respective institutions (i.e. Foundation Level Business Studies; Final year undergraduate Education Studies; and Academic Writing for Postgraduate Music Education students). Here we share our practice in relation to the pedagogical method, Layers of Interaction, which underpins our design, and insights that transpired while facilitating these sessions and observing the dialogue between the participants and the artefacts.
Exploration through practice was our core aim: we wished to offer learners an alternative method of engaging with the discipline-related topic, including the underpinning academic skills, whereby the innovative element resided in introducing additional Layers of Interaction. In other words, we wished to introduce interactions with historic artefacts to facilitate activities, which would often be taught through the use of less complex methods, such as group or pair discussions. In so doing, we followed the core principles of the action research approach, to inform the steps of our exploration (cf. Somekh, 2006; McNiff, 2013). We then used participant feedback and our observations to inform our next steps, both in terms of feasibility of the method and further developments and adaptations.
Literature Review
There has been a growing recognition of the potential of special collections as catalysts, or ‘conductors’, of active learning in HE, stimulating both the sense of curiosity and playfulness, and responding to the expectations and demands of the specific discipline. Chatterjee et al. (2016) provide a detailed and convincing discussion on ways in which ‘multisensory’ interaction with objects facilitates active enquiry and meaning making in the classroom. Similarly, Hardie’s (2015) exploration of object-based learning offers activities that meet key learning outcomes and are engagin