By Anna Berlekamp, PhD Student in Middle Eastern Studies and CCTL Graduate Fellow
- Provides direct links with a topic, making difficult concepts more real,
- Helps students develop important skills of drawing conclusions based on an examination of evidence, as well as the limitations and reliability of evidence when making conclusions,
- Generates group and class discussion,
- Promotes the value of museums and collections,
- Builds classroom community by supporting multiple interpretations and activities beyond transmitting information,
- And fosters creativity, openness, divergent thinking, problem finding and solving, and a willingness to take risks.
- asking questions that seek information
- modeling the types of questions learners should ask
- making confirmations of observations
- explicating the hidden surrounding the objects
- help make connections and juxtapositions between objects obvious and transparent
- assist and encourage students to develop their own reflections and applications, taking their new knowledge and making something original with or of the object.
- Students are asked to list the questions they are asking of the object, rather than any hypotheses or assumptions they are making about materiality, context, origin. Students then work together to classify the questions, exploring in terms of what they might be able to answer by looking closely at the object and what they can only guess at. These questions will create more leading questions. This exercise serves to examine the nature of questions within the context of logical reasoning and affective responses, and to explore what is assumed, what is tacit and therefore unarticulated.
- Students can sketch the object, observing finer details, like shape, decoration and texture, and mechanical interactions. Why did a student emphasize something in their sketch?
- Re-create the object using whatever materials, either on hand or similar materials to the original. This can be tied to subsequent student research projects and class discussion. Re-creating can open questions about the decision-making process of the original maker, how an object was used, and the level of skill demonstrated in making the object.
- Virtual modelling of an object by using digital technologies to represent and analyze objects, encouraging close observation, problem solving and creative interpretation. The finished product may be the least important part, but students can recognize their strengths and weaknesses in digital literacy, while employing close observation, haptic connections, and transform the experience of the student from passive to active.
- Time: planning and execution, often requiring involvement of staff from museums or libraries.
- Logistics: lack of accessibility to objects or space to accommodate this kind of learning, especially in a large class.
- Assess learning outcomes and goals: what core concepts do you want students to conceptualize?
- Select suitable objects: what is the balance between challenge and skill? Is the object too complex or puzzling to demand engagement? Has it been de-contextualized or re-contextualized in regard to where it is located? If a task is too easy, it can result in boredom and apathy, while if it is too difficult, students may feel that the task is impossible. Set a more difficult task that is still within a learner’s emerging skill set.
- Novices tend to focus on surface features, while experts categorize on the basis of more implicit features. Object-Based Learning is more beneficial for upper-level students through the tangible consolidation of previously gained knowledge than a lift in that knowledge for novice learners.
- Access: how and where will students access the object?
- Methods of engagement: how will students interact with this object?
Object-based learning is an educational approach that actively integrates objects into the learning environment, combining both active and experiential learning. Centered on multi-sensory engagement, students learn through engaging with objects directly and then applying new knowledge from the objects in other contexts. By engaging with knowledge more fundamentally through an object, the learner is required to think as well as physically do, further generating knowledge and meaning.
Objects can be used to facilitate and act as a tangible representation of concepts: sparking curiosity, connecting to abstract ideas, developing skills, extending knowledge, and encouraging close looking and examination. This means that objects are the sites for interpretation and sources of information, not just the information itself, and invoke a variety of senses by encouraging interactive and experiential learning. Knowledge and meaning are generated through the interactions, requiring students to think as well as develop meaning by engagement through physical touch. Object-based learning encourages students to construct learning on their own, develop investigative skills, and create an embodied learning experience.
Using objects involves active touch; integrating human interaction with the environment through touch has the potential to initiate long-term memory, concept associations and higher-order thinking.
But it isn’t just touch; students are encouraged to use all of their senses when engaging with objects. Objects can also enhance student interest in and understanding of a topic in a multitude of ways. Object-based learning:
Object-based learning is fun for students and instructors. It explores new concepts in unexpected ways, promoting thinking outside the box. Object-based learning promotes self-reflection when working independently with an object, and also encourages students to work together with their peers. It also helps increase student motivation because students feel like they become experts on their objects, supporting student personal development and growth.
Object-based learning is not a substitute for other formats and is best used in a scaffolded approach to create dynamic and interactive learning experiences. Combining object-based learning with traditional classroom formats enhances the classroom experience: lecturing provides important context information, group activity provides opportunities to develop social skills, while individual follow-up activities provide space for students to critically analyze, compare and interact with other objects or interpretations. Student self-reflection helps students understand, record, analyze and apply knowledge to new experiences.
An “object” can be anything! Objects are physical items that can be seen, touched, or experienced.
Traditional examples of objects available in museums or cultural institutions include specimens, artifacts, artworks, manuscripts, and rare books or archival items. However, objects do not need to come from a museum or be historical to be used for object-based learning. Objects can also be everyday or personal objects, or on a larger scale, objects can include physical spaces, such as parks, gardens, natural and cultural heritage sites.
Objects carry stories of real people and make abstract concepts tangible and current by encouraging group and class discussion, providing a direct link to the past, and engaging the senses. Objects afford personalized connections by connecting to prior knowledge and something that will be a ‘past experience’ for future interactions. Individual objects may be easily read or may be difficult to interpret, depending on the familiarity and complexity of the objects, but the role of objects in object-based learning is not simply as a thing that contains knowledge, but rather as a thinking device, acting as a conduit to further creativity, knowledge and interpretation. Objects are made by someone or selected by someone and so their meaning is not neutral, but rather constructed. Consequently, many meanings may emerge from viewing an object. The meaning of the object relies on its place within its context, both in the object’s history and its current situation, such as in a museum collection. Because of this plurality of meanings, determining the correctness of interpretations can shift to the learner from the instructor. Reading objects entails making meaning as well as sense.
Multiple activities can be constructed around an object, resulting in multiple meanings.
Instructors should model the types of observations learners should be making as they engage in the activity by:
Questions should not be emphasizing right or wrong answers, but instead helping students work through the stories these objects have to tell on their own and making connections so that the objects become relevant to students’ lives.
Instructors can also help students read objects by creating an interactive and responsive environment and by being available for students to interact with during and after engagement. Instructors and other authority figures of the objects, such as museum staff, serve the important role in object-based learning by:
Integrating objects into the classroom requires:
When developing object-based learning activities, instructors must consider:
There are many museums and collections available on campus that graduate student instructors can work with to integrate object-based learning into the classroom.
Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC)
The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) houses ancient artifacts from West Asia and North Africa. Museum group visits are free for all University of Chicago groups and guided or self-guided tours can be arranged. Contact the ISAC Education Department to make a reservation. Past tours include post-colonial tours of the ISAC Museum, magic and medicine, law, and queens and princesses, while other specially requested tours can be organized. E-mail isac-education@uchicago.edu for more information.
To view objects not on display with a class, contact the Tablet Collection (access to ancient Middle Eastern clay written documents), or the museum registration (for all other museum objects) the term before class starts to begin making arrangements.
Smart Museum of Art
Comprising over 18,000 objects, the collection at the Smart Museum represents art from across the globe, from antiquity to the present day. Admission to exhibitions is free and open to the public.
The Feitler Center study room can seat up to 35 students for direct interaction with the art, while the galleries can be used for guided and self-guided visits.
For more information, see here.
The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center in the Regenstein library supports a diverse range of classes centered on rare books, archives and manuscripts, including guided classes on special collections, self-taught classes integrating the objects, and introductions from special collections.
For more information, see here.
Visual Resources Center (VRC)
The Visual Resources Center (VRC) houses art historical objects, materials and tools for instructor and student handling. Objects can be brought to the classroom and students can directly interact with the objects.
The VRC also offers a number of instructional sessions and workshops that can be customized to fit student needs, while student- and course-curated exhibitions can also be presented in the Cochrane-Woods Art Center, providing a supported environment for short-term exhibitions.
For more information, see here.
Additional Resources
Chicago also has a plethora of museums and collections. Some other suggested resources include:
The N.W. Harris Learning Collection at the Field Museum
Chatterjee, H. 2020. Touch in Museums: Policy and Practice in Object Handling. London: Routledge.
Chatterjee, H. and L. Hannan. 2015. Engaging the Senses: Object-Based Learning in Higher Education. London: Routledge.
Kador, T. and H. Chatterjee. 2021. Object-Based Learning and Well-Being: Exploring Material Connections. London: Routledge.
Paris, S. G. 2002. Perspectives on Object-Centered Learning in Museums. New York: Routledge.