Student perceptions of object-based learning

Since returning to face-to-face teaching post COVID-19, UK higher education has needed to adjust to significant challenges, including the acceleration of the role that GenAI and personal screens have in the student experience. Whilst screens now mediate the learning experience to a large degree, we have turned to the materiality of object-based learning (OBL) as a multisensory, experiential pedagogy with the potential to stimulate criticality and build confidence in in-person communications amongst taught students. This paper details a research project into student perceptions and experiences of OBL at the University of Leeds. Taught students participated in experimental OBL workshops and then reported their experiences in a questionnaire. Participants were overwhelmingly positive about taking part in OBL workshops, particularly in relation to working with others, engaging with materiality, using their skills of analysis and interpretation and the active nature of learning in this context. OBL requires a classroom dynamic in which academic staff facilitate and guide discussion, rather than conforming to traditional didactic patterns of teaching.

Students of Sociology and Social Policy taking part in the study saw the direct relevance of the objects under discussion to their disciplinary area, and the results of this study are assisting the school in strategically implementing OBL within the curriculum, specifically in a new module for third year undergraduate students, The Sociology of Objects.