Engaging the Senses: Object-Based Learning in Higher Education

Helen J. Chatterjee, Leonie Hannan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317143406
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Arte
• Subtopic: Studi museali

The use of museum collections as a path to learning for university students is fast becoming a new pedagogy for higher education. Despite a strong tradition of using lectures as a way of delivering the curriculum, the positive benefits of 'active' and 'experiential learning' are being recognised in universities at both a strategic level and in daily teaching practice. As museum artefacts, specimens and art works are used to evoke, provoke, and challenge students' engagement with their subject, so transformational learning can take place. This unique book presents the first comprehensive exploration of 'object-based learning' as a pedagogy for higher education in a broad context. An international group of authors offer a spectrum of approaches at work in higher education today. They explore contemporary principles and practice of object-based learning in higher education, demonstrating the value of using collections in this context and considering the relationship between academic discipline and object-based learning as a teaching strategy.

PART I
The Pedagogical Value of Object-Based Learning

Chapter 1
Engaging Learners through Engaging Designs that Enrich and Energise Learning and Teaching

Kirsten Hardie

Introduction

This chapter considers objects as powerful pedagogic tools and examines how they can provide active learning experiences that engage learners, enrich learning and energise teaching. The discussion examines the value of object-based learning in higher education through consideration of first-year undergraduate graphic design students’ engagement with objects from the Museum of Design in Plastics at the Arts University Bournemouth. It considers how objects can generate deep learning opportunities and can offer important and memorable learning experiences that engage students in a variety of ways. The discussion presents an enquiry-based learning and active learning pedagogic approach where students are encouraged, and indeed challenged and provoked, to critically examine physical objects and to interrogate design concepts, contexts and issues, and ultimately to make their own design judgements.

The study is based upon the author’s teaching experience (over 27 years) using objects in a variety of activities and is informed by established literature that considers objects from a variety of perspectives. In particular, this chapter is based upon students’ critical and reflective consideration of their object-based learning experiences. The discussion considers qualitative data drawn from questionnaires used to evaluate a specific learning and teaching activity. Notably, this chapter is based on evidence drawn from 220 first-year undergraduate Graphic Design students’ formal evaluations (from 2012 to 2014) of a specific object-based learning activity: A Matter of Taste. This activity illustrates how students learn by doing: how they scrutinise objects and, as a ‘community of practice’ (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) engage in active learning (Biggs, 2003), work in groups and share their initial response to objects, discuss their interpretation and evaluation of the designs, and work together towards their judgement of examples in relation to notions of aesthetic preferences – taste. The discussion evidences that objects can generate deep learning opportunities as they can arouse curiosity and encourage critical and analytical investigation and evaluation. This chapter aims to contribute to established knowledge and offers a particular object-based learning approach that can be used by others.

Background

The Museum of Design in Plastics (MoDiP) at Arts University Bournemouth is:

the only accredited museum in the UK with a focus on plastics and it is the UK’s leading resource for the study and interpretation of design in plastics. MoDiP houses three distinct collections: the MoDiP collection, consisting of predominantly twentieth- and twenty-first-century mass-produced artefacts; the Plastics Historical Society collection, which includes examples of the very-first man-made plastics; and the Worshipful Company of Horners collection of artefacts made from horn, a natural plastic. (MoDiP)

The Museum of Design in Plastics grew from initial collections of graphic ephemera that were amassed by both students and staff (c. 1987) to support graphic design projects. In 1988 the Design Collection was established as more diverse objects, such as hairdryers, kettles and toasters, were collected for use in pedagogic activities across a range of disciplines (Hardie, 2002). The collection aimed to enhance learning and provide access to international, historical and contemporary design examples from c. 1880 onwards. Specifically the Collection’s aim is ‘to develop student critical awareness and understanding of design, manufacturing processes, materials, style, marketing and consumerism within relevant historical, social, cultural, political and economic contexts’ (MoDiP). The Design Collection became a registered museum in 2001, and in 2007 the Museum of Design in Plastics was established, as Arts University Bournemouth focused upon the specialist plastics collection which had become a particularly significant and unique aspect of the museum.

The Museum of Design in Plastics’ mission is ‘to increase understanding and appreciation of the use and significance of plastics in design during the 20th and 21st century’ (MoDiP). Its purpose is ‘to collect, research, interpret and present artefacts made of, or including components of, plastics, and thus add unique value to the Arts University Bournemouth as a learning resource, a resource for collaborative, experimental and interdisciplinary research, and as a gateway to the Arts University Bournemouth’s wider environment’ (MoDiP).

The Museum’s extensive plastic design collection, which is complemented by its comprehensive digital resource (Museum of Design in Plastics Digitisation Project), is augmented by a studio handling collection comprising a variety of items from a range of categories (mainly non-plastic), including, for example, graphic design ephemera, fashion, electrical items, lighting, newspapers, packaging and costumes. The Museum of Design in Plastics’ entire collection offers rich pickings and important opportunities for a host of research and scholarship activities and, importantly, object-based learning and teaching. All students are introduced to the Museum of Design in Plastics early on in their course. The hands-on resource facilitates empirical study of historical and contemporary objects, for example the evolution of particular items such as computers and cameras can be explored. Access to real objects can provide a certain intimacy, a sense of ownership perhaps, and unique learning opportunities.

Object-Based Learning

The power of objects to appeal to individuals and to communicate specific meanings has been discussed extensively (for example, Baudrillard, 2005; Bayley, 2012; Berger, 1972; Barthes, 1957; Forty, 1986; Norman, 2004; Sudjic, 2008). Our use of design objects is a daily affair and our connection with them can vary significantly. Our relationship with objects can go beyond their use value; as Sudjic (2008, p. 49) observed, ‘there is something to understand about objects beyond the obvious issues of function and purpose’. Objects can ‘transmit meanings’ (Forty, 1986, p. 6) and may represent and be given or associated with certain values, social and cultural positions and meanings. Objects may appeal to us because of their form, status or cost, or for many other reasons, and we fill our homes with a myriad of items; moreover, as Pink (2005, p. 34) noted, ‘abundance is responsible for well-designed consumer products that transcend functionality and appeal to us on an emotional level’.

In learning and teaching, objects can provide a valuable focus for the exploration of design, culture and society, and indeed the study of a host of cross-disciplinary concerns and perspectives. As Hooper-Greenhill (1999, p. 21) observed: ‘Objects can be particularly stimulating in relation to learning processes when handled and studied closely. Objects can act to ground abstract experiences, can enable recall of knowledge, and can arouse curiosity’.

Whilst it has been claimed that ‘the techniques for teaching with objects are not frequently taught to teachers’ (Hooper-Greenhill, 1999, p. 21) and ‘little appears to have been written on ways of using university museum collections to enhance student learning in H[igher] E[ducation]’ (Duhs, 2010), in recent years there has been a flurry of events, projects and publications that have helped to explore and address these points (for example, Boddington, Boys and Speight, 2013; Hannan and Chatterjee, 2013; Hennigar Smith, 1999; Hooper-Greenhill, 1999; Jandl and Gold, 2012; Lambert, 2013). Increasingly, a number of case studies evidence a variety of object-based learning approaches and activities in higher education using museums and university collections, and they underscore the importance of learners’ engagement with objects (for example, Boddington, Boys and Speight, 2013; Chatterjee, 2010; Chatterjee and Duhs, 2010).

As Chatterjee (2010) observed: ‘Objects can be employed in a variety of ways to enhance and disseminate subject specific knowledge, to facilitate the acquisition of communication, team working, practical, observational and drawing skills, and for inspiration’. Whilst perhaps familiar tools of the trade for a design lecturer, objects offer a multitude of uses and opportunities for teachers across disciplines as, importantly, ‘interaction with artefacts deepens students’ learning’ (Schultz, 2012, p. 185). Objects can provide important enquiry-based learning opportunities: enquiry-based learning is identified by Kahn and O’Rourke (2005, p. 1) as ‘a broad umbrella term used to describe approaches to learning that are driven by a process of enquiry’ where ‘the tutor establishes the task and supports or facilitates the process, but the students pursue their own lines of enquiry, draw on their existing knowledge and identifying the consequent learning needs. They seek evidence to support their ideas and take responsibility for analysing and presenting this appropriately, either as part of a group or as an individual supported by others. They are thus engaged as partners in the learning process’.

In learning activities where students study objects, important enquiry-based learning and active learning may be achieved. Prince (2004), citing Bonwell and Eison (1991), confirms that active learning ‘requires students to do meaningful learning activities and think about what they are doing’ and that: ‘The core elements of active learning are student activity and engagement in the learning process’. This study explores an example of object-based learning that evidences enquiry-based learning and active learning: a teaching and learning activity called A Matter of Taste.

Object-Based Learning: A Matter of Taste Activity

The introduction of graphic design students to design examples and issues in relation to historical, social, cultural, economic, political and technological contexts is an important aspect of their first-year study. Their consideration of notions of form and function, consumerism, taste and design appraisal are critical to their own design practice and professional development. It is imperative that students develop their ideation, research, communication and critical and analytical skills, and develop a confidence and competence in group work. A variety of pedagogic activities may be used to facilitate learning. Activities that can provide active learning experiences to ensure deep learning are important and, where possible, should be fun.

The A Matter of Taste activity aims to provide enquiry-based active learning that addresses key needs whilst offering an entertaining experience. Structured as a two-hour small group-work session that is not assessed, it engages students (usually a cohort of between 55 and 85) in object-based learning. The activity usually takes place annually and is positioned within the first-year undergraduate Graphic Design curriculum at an early to mid-point stage in the programme. Prior to this activity, a variety of different sessions introduce students to design concepts and contexts, and key theoretical approaches to the understanding of visual culture. These sessions consider notions of consumerism, popular culture and semiotics, and aim ‘to develop students’ knowledge and understanding of, and the ability to use, the language and approaches that are used to define, decode and decipher how we communicate and read and judge the visual across a variety of contexts’ (Arts University Bournemouth, 2012).

The A Matter of Taste activity follows and builds upon a specific hybrid lecture (presentation and debate) that provides an introduction to the notion of taste, for example, consideration of ‘Taste – the acts and arts of appreciation, discrimination, critical judgement and the pleasurable showing of man-made artefacts’ (Lloyd Jones, 1991, p. ix). This session considers notions of high and low culture and the critical judgement of a variety of examples in relation to key contexts and perspectives. The session introduces students to material culture: ‘Material culture is the study through artefacts of the beliefs – values, ideas, attitudes, and assumptions – of a particular community or society at a given time’ (Prown, in Clark and Brody, 2009, p. 220). The session provides an initial object-based learning taster by presenting items, such as plastic cutlery (purchased from a 99p shop), that imitate authentic ornate silver counterparts. Objects are passed around the group to generate discussion of experiences, ideas, preferences and views. The A Matter of Taste activity then facilitates students’ further analysis and discussion of another diverse collection of objects so that they may explore issues and attitudes relating to taste, popular culture, trends and styles, and develop their design analysis skills. Similar to the object analysis process offered by Prown (in Clark and Brody, 2009, pp. 224–5), this activity requires students to analyse particular designs and to make sense and draw meaning from their forms.

A Matter of Taste involves objects, selected by the lecturer, positioned on tables in the student’s studio. The activity is explained and collaborative learning – ‘students work together in small groups toward a common goal’ (Online Collaborative Learning in Higher Education, cited by Prince, 2004, p. 1) – is anchored. The students work in groups of five to consider key points relating to each object; they capture their ideas on large sheets of paper. First, students are encouraged to record their immediate subjective response to each item – how does it make them feel? What do they think of the object’s appearance? In this way students’ immediate personal responses – their aesthetic judgements – are established. They are encouraged to discuss these with their colleagues to consider viewpoints and potentially different perspectives and experiences so that they may recognise that ‘Tastes (i.e. manifested preferences) are the practical affirmation of an inevitable difference’ (Bourdieu, in Clark and Brody, 2009, p. 28).

Referencing the work of Chickering and Gamson (1987), Bonwell and Eison (1991, p. iii) confirm that ‘to be actively involved, students must engage in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation’. The A Matter of Taste activity encourages students to identify, position and evaluate their own views and reactions to objects. Then, following object appraisal, critical analysis, research and group discussion, students are encouraged to reflect and potentially re-evaluate their initial responses. In this way the activity enables experiential learning, as Kolb and Kolb (2005, p. 194) observe: ‘Conflict, differences, and disagreement are what drive the learning process. In the process of [experiential] learning one is called to move back and forth between opposing modes of reflection and action and feeling and thinking’. Thus, the activity evidences a key characteristic of active learning: as Bonwell and Eison (1991, p. 2) state, in active learning: ‘Greater emphasis is placed on students’ exploration of their own attitudes and values’.

A number of further questions and considerations are set to prompt students’ interrogation of items: for example, what is the object’s function?; how is it used?; consider the object’s form – its colour, size, weight, and shape and style; what material/s is it made of?; where was it made and who was the designer and manufacturer?; consider the production process in the manufacture of the item; who is/was the target audience and does the item reflect or relate to particular lifestyles?; what comparable, potentially competing designs may be identified in relation to the object?; what is the financial cost of the item and what is its social and cultural value? Students are encouraged to develop their learning through research.

The activity aims to develop students’ knowledge and understanding through their examination of examples. Students are encouraged to explore key design ideas raised in previous sessions, such as Modernist architect Mies van der Rohe’s proclamation that ‘Less is More’ and architect Robert Venturi’s retort that ‘Less is not more, less is a bore’. Through the consideration of examples that illustrate distinct and contrasting design approaches, a better understanding of concepts may be achieved. Design theory may be put in to practice – for example, students are encouraged to consider ergonomics; the hands-on scrutiny of designs enables them to better gauge the form, fit and hence the potential effectiveness of designs. The activity can inform, excite and inspire learners’ creative ideas as they consider design strengths and flaws, and suggest how designs may be improved.

When advised by the lecturer, the students move from table to table to experience different designs. At the end of the session, the lecturer anchors whole group discussion to share responses to the objects and the activity. Group discussions offer important learning opportunities, as Kolb and Kolb (2005, p. 208) confirm, citing Keeton, Sheckley and Griggs (2002) and Bunker (1999): ‘Making space for good conversation as part of the educational process provides the opportunity for reflection on and meaning making about experiences that improve the effectiveness of experiential learning’.

This student-centred session enables the lecturer, as facilitator, to step back. The objects are required to talk to the students rather than the lecturer’s transmission of facts. Generally no information is provided by the lecturer, unless questions are asked or specific details (such as date, function or designer) are volunteered to help signpost particular or...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Contributors
• An Introduction to Object-Based Learning and Multisensory Engagement
• Part I The Pedagogical Value of Object-Based Learning
• Part II Object-Based Learning Environments and Contexts
• Part III Object-Based Learning, Museum Education and Creative Practice
• Index