I’m a big fan of visual frameworks for aligning, problem-solving, and enabling different points of view, `I use them all the time in my practice workshops and designing consultancy projects
In a deliberate attempt to develop new skills, I attended the Thinking through Drawing workshop with Ilga Leimanis FHEA . From a teaching point of view I wanted to attend a workshop that is totally different to anything I currently teach myself to see what learnings I may have for my own practice.
Ilga’s view is that too often we think of an idea and try to draw it, this keeps our thinking in the rational side of our brains. To unlock alternative thinking she advised we need to try not to think.. just do (it all sounds very Jedi) and see what emerges
As you can see I’ll never have a career in illustration (!) but accessing a different part of my brain around one of my work topics on the future of work design was enlightening and indeed gave me alternative thoughts on how to talk about tackling it.
the workshop
The workshop was online with approx 12 attendees. The steps that Ilga took us through reduced my worries about being able to draw, she made it very clear that the workshop was not about drawing ‘skills’ but about thinking and unlocking thinking. We worked individually for an hour or so as she guided us through various stages which involved inputs of words to help us iterate and develop our thinking, laddering through ideas.
We then moved to Padlet where we shared content, talked through our work and how we found the experience, Ilga then offered ideas and thoughts on how to develop the work further, in my case that meant not using so many words but perhaps using shapes in their place.
reflections
Ilga’s tone was measured, thoughtful and encouraging. This encouraged a relaxed learning environment where I felt confident to explore and less worried about comparing my output to the other attendees (all of whom seemed to be from either illustration or fine art courses!). I hope I deliver an encouraging learning context for my students but I do feel I sometimes rush through content, I would like to bring more ‘breathing space’ into the teaching I do, more reflection, and ‘ease’. This relates also to my other blog post on learning environments and time to think.
Ilga runs this workshop often and her use of the technology and smoothness with which that worked was evident, this in turn ensured she was relaxed. Her expertise in this topic was clear – a reminder of the benefit of testing tech and smooth transitions between tools used
At the end was a link to a very simple questionnaire to understand what value we had taken from the workshop – I would like to test using a simple Typeform survey at the end of some of my teaching sessions or perhaps a more engaging, playful way of getting feedback.
I’m keen to encourage my students to attend this workshop or perhaps use this technique when planning teaching to see what options it unlocks
“Object-based learning (OBL) is an experiential pedagogy concerned with the close and tactile study of material things, such as artworks, specimens, texts and artifacts… Like its historical antecedents, object lessons and object teaching, contemporary OBL practice draws its strength from the power of sensory experience.”(Barlow, 2017, p.27)
Barlow, 2017, p.27
first thoughts
On reading the Moodle brief for this exercise I had three immediate questions
1. what is object-based learning and why have I never heard of it before? 2. what constitutes an object in this context? 3. how could this be relevant to the course I work on?
As someone who feels the need to ‘ground’ concepts and make them relevant and meaningful, I needed to clearly understand in my head what a potential outcome might be from an object-based teaching session and I was struggling to see an outcome. In my professional practice, I work with organisations where the workshops I run are very outcome oriented and I’m learning that there is a mindset shift for me to make with regard to the difference between commercial facilitation and higher education teaching.
unlocking an approach
I read an article by Dr Francesca Baseby on Edinburgh Universities ‘Teaching Matters’ blog that offered a moment of clarity on how to structure the session and how an object could be used. Dr Baseby comments that ‘it is about looking beyond the object as a container of information (whether textual or graphic) and considering what its physicality can tell us about the context in which it was created, consumed and preserved’.
I decided to structure the micro-teaching as if the audience were students on my course. The idea was to teach how objects can be another way of helping them think differently about inquiry and design insights, this would be as part of the Design Management Research and Critical Practice unit.
Approaching it in this way meant that the object did not need to be connected to any particular topic – it needed to pique curiosity, prompt questions and then help the students stretch their considerations of what ‘research’ may consist of and encourage them to think about how to use objects in their own contextual research or as inspiration starting points.
The core thought: when we do research, we often have a linear process, starting with data gathering through to insight, inspiration and leading to a designed outcome, I wanted to explore ‘if we start with the designed outcome and think backward, what different conversations or insights might we open’?
My intention was for the students to learn one way of using an object in their research approach, to reflect on the usefulness of this technique, and to stretch their perceptions of what research might be.
designing the teaching session
My core design principles were as follows:
have clear learning objectives
give context
assess the learning from the group
choose an object to pique curiosity and create conversation to give a sense of fun and energy in the room. I am interested in the idea of playfulness in higher education as based on Lisa Forbes’s work and her findings that ‘play is under-utilised and devalued in higher education, and the idea of play seems to intuitively connect to object-based learning https://jtl.uwindsor.ca/index.php/jtl/article/view/6515/5264
I created a short PowerPoint deck to support the session as I wanted to be clear on the learning objectives, to ensure students understood what we were planning to do, and to give some context around how we do research and where this exercise might fit in that process.
Learning Objectives
I gave the session the name ‘Thinking Backwards’. Naming something can give identity, indicate purpose, and give meaning from the start, so I wanted to test if that was the case for this session.
To give some context I created one slide to demonstrate how we often approach research in a linear way, explaining we were going to use an object to reverse that process and think from the outcome backward.
Context of research practice
I then placed the object on the table. Without touching it I asked the students a simple open question “what do you think this is”?.
I was interested to see how the conversation progressed from only being able to view the object through to touch and a more sensorial engagement. So, I then invited the students to pick up the item, touch, feel, and build on their initial assessments, this created a different relationship with the object and we started to discuss what its purpose might be and what design inspiration may sit behind it
At this point I told them that the object was a product called The Ostrich Pillow, one student knew the object, but the others did not.
I then posed the following question to the group:
Group Discussion – around the table
This opened up discussion around insights and human needs, and indeed expanded out into more considerations about work & society, and I captured the discussion using a mindmap technique
To assess learning I had a separate question, in all honesty, this felt like a slightly loose and unstructured way to assess learning or value. I felt I had rushed my thinking on how to assess the learning – I was so relieved to think of a way to use an object that I didn’t give the assessment process the attention deserved.
Final assessment question
reflections / what I feel took place
I had some very insightful and useful feedback from my group, which was positively delivered and constructive, this feedback combined with my own reflections is synthesised below.
Overall the feedback indicated it was an immersive experience, partly from ‘teasing’ the item first, creating a lower-risk situation for exploration and conversation, and having a playful structure to the session. There was a sense of relaxation as no one knew what the object was and this seemed to have an equalising effect as the students built on each other’s guesses and suggestions and it seemed there was no risk in speaking up or participating. Additionally starting with an open question seemed to bring immediate contributions – the question was not based on students’ knowledge, simply a point of view.
I felt that starting with the learning objectives should help the group understand the purpose of the session and this clarity of aims and objectives was appreciated.
My concerns about assessing learning were realised, in that we ran out of time to address the final question, and feedback from the group indicated bringing this question forward would have been helpful. Finishing with a summary or key takeaways would have rounded off the learning effectively in place of exploring the final question.
Additionally, clarification on some terminology would have been helpful, I had felt this might be a concern and had included an image to help with the understanding of the research process which the group felt had been useful.
The object analysis did seem to open up both specific design considerations with regards to what human needs may have led to its creation, and also a more wide-ranging discussion on societal expectations of the culture of work, why a product such as this may be needed, and what that means for society?
what to do with this learning?
My key takeouts would be
building on the idea of play to de-risk learning, and to encourage more equal participation
continuing to simplify using visual language for concepts in line with theories on cognitive load
always include learning objectives at the start of each teaching session
further consideration on how to build assessment of the learning objectives a session into the design of the learning activity
with more time I would ask students to capture their own thoughts but in the interests of time I participated as a facilitator of the discussion as shown below.
