I was really nervous about this session! But I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. It was so fruitful to sit through colleagues sessions, see different teaching styles in action and try out new things- something I usually have minimal time for in the academic year.
The focus for our micro teach was object based learning (OBL).
OBL is a form of active learning and experiential learning (Chatterjee, 2011). Objects offer a palpable experience for students, which challenges them to question the object and conceptualise their ideas. Though the teacher facilitates this session, the students construct meaning for themselves through their interactions with each other centered on the object (Chaterjee et al., 2015). This approach allows students to explore ideas, processes and events related to the object and further link their observations to more complicated abstract ideas and concepts.
I find OBL is an effective way to encourage learners curiosity and have fun whilst exploring a new topic. It can also aid in explaining techniques and skills in a way that is easy to understand for visual learners. OBL is something I do a lot in my technical role. With teaching the session online, and not in person, this presented some new challenges and removed some of the joy of learning through use of a physical object and its tactility.
IDEA
I have to deliver a new session in the future to students to help them think about how to go about creating a creature design. I have noticed in the past students have jumped right into the visual aspects of design without thinking about it holistically. I wanted to get the students in a relaxed and fun way, thinking about what makes good creature design and why, with the hope that it would help them explore not just the visual side of the design.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
The intention of the micro teach was for my students to find engagement in their chosen creature and use their observational and communications skills, their design awareness and knowledge and critical analysis by thinking of a successful/ unsuccessful creature and why it is so. I also wanted them to work in teams to take inspiration from each other, as it was my hope that students may be exposed to new creatures they had not heard of or seen before.
THE OBJECT
Being unable to use any physical objects, it was constraining at first but then actually quite freeing. I decided that the object would be any creature of the students choice, rather than one of mine. I hoped that this would give me more of an insight into the things that students like rather than studying something that I provide, and also give a diverse range to draw inspiration from.
THE TASK
I had so may ideas around a task, but again, this part was constrained by the online delivery. I decided to start the session by putting students in pairs and asking them to find out each others favourite/most memorable creature they have seen for 5mins. I then asked that they feed this back on the white board for around 2mins. I then gave them 3mins to think about why this creature stuck with them and feedback to the write board.
After we chatted about the reasons why these creatures where memorable I showed a few slides about things to think around creating a believable creature.
For the final part of the session I asked the group to select one creature to dissect, analyse its success and consider its inspiration.
REVIEW
The session seemed to go well. The group engaged well and my hesitancy of both the subject matter- not everyone is into creatures, and giving complete freedom to the group to choose turned out to be fine! The fact that the genre was constrained in one sense, but also very open meant that everyone could contribute regardless. An interesting thing happened though- the group chose an image that I had put up on a slide to dissect. Which made me think more about the images I include in my slides and their purpose. Yes they are there for inspiration and a prompt- but I was really hoping that I would hear the students voice on and their own original thought. Something to think about for future sessions. It would have been nice to have been less rushed too in future I think the larger group task at the end could be extended further and have more time to collaborate on a space like padlet. A follow up session could be based around groups designing a creature together in some way.
I very much enjoyed attending the other sessions run by Ocean, Kangan, Karen and Larry. Each teaching style was slightly different but there was one running theme throughout- at the beginning of each session there was an image (or moving image) with limited context, but TIME, and space to sit with the image quietly to think. I found this style really successful- having the space to think on my own, before diving in gave me time to become more confident in my ideas as I had more time to collate my thoughts for more valuable contribution- rather than feeling the pressure of needing to contribute the first thing that comes to mind. And even though these sessions were short there was still ample time and space for thinking. This was a huge take away for me. My instinct is to fill the space with activity, especially online, to keep students active and engaged, but what this technique demonstrated to me was not to be afraid to put something out to the group and give silent alone space for thought before asking for contribution. I do believe part of the success of this was also the group size so that is something to also keep in mind.
Reading:
Chatterjee, H. (2011) Object Based Learning in Higher Education: The pedagogical power of museums, UMAC journal, accessed here:
https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/18452/9349/chatterjee.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Chaterjee et al. (2015) Engaging the Senses: Object Based Learning in Higher Education, Routledge, accessed here: