Abstract
This chapter is an introduction to object-based learning, the application of object-based learning in university classrooms, and the complimentary use of objects as concrete referents for abstract concepts. Objects are physical, three-dimensional entities created by humans, and object-based learning is a student-centered approach to using objects to facilitate learning. Slow looking is introduced as the core activity of object-based learning as slow learning allows students to build context, or “disambiguate” the object. Once disambiguated, the object can then become a concrete referent. Lastly, three examples of this process are shown to develop a list of characteristics that best support student participation in object-based learning.
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Notes
- 1.
Some scholars use the term object-centered learning (Paris, 2002). The terms are interchangeable.
- 2.
This exercise is a methodology developed by Dr. Mary Alice Casto for her 2015 doctoral dissertation Categories of Design for Sustainability: A Wearer’s Perspective of Classic Design.
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Acknowledgments
The examples in this article were conducted, while the author was the Dora Wallace Collections Assistant at the Goldstein Museum of Design (GMD) at the University of Minnesota and as a teaching assistant in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota. The author wishes to thank GMD for their support of these experiences, especially Lin Nelson-Mayson, Jean McElvain, and Eunice Haugen, and the support of University of Minnesota lecturer Pat Hemmis.
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Oberg, C.S. (2021). When a Pen Is More than a Pen: Object-Based Learning and the Value of Objects as Concrete Referents. In: Hokanson, B., Exter, M., Grincewicz, A., Schmidt, M., Tawfik, A.A. (eds) Learning: Design, Engagement and Definition. Educational Communications and Technology: Issues and Innovations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85078-4_19
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