MICRO TEACHING – Object Based Learning 3rd February 2025
One of the most challenging tasks to date on the course was the 20-minute micro teaching activity. Not the activity itself, as I went on to discover, but the anticipation. Object Based Learning (OBL) is not a pedagogy I use in my teaching. The guidance provided suggested giving your activity an introduction to provide context for the participants, but this would have given the game away. After reading the HEA paper recommended, Hardie, I decided to adopt the method outlined in case studies 1 & 2; promoting an element of surprise.
The object I chose was a monster which represents the 3rd year student dissertation\extended essay. To reveal, object as metaphor, at the beginning would have changed the exercise. I was pitching the OBL activity at the other teachers in the room not the neurodiverse students I work with. The feedback indicated that this was the right move.
All neurodiverse students are unique, but we can make some assumptions based on evidence and students’ disclosures about common challenges many face; getting ideas down on paper, sourcing and applying relevant research, processing information, planning and structuring written work, editing techniques. Students report issues with concentration and focus. Not that they cannot concentrate and focus but find it difficult to focus on what they need to do to plan and execute the extended essay. Time management can be a big issue, not just dealing with competing priorities but knowing what to prioritise. They can see the big picture but are unable to visualise the component parts.
Students internalise often negative experiences from previous brushes with education. They report, because they have been told, that they are slow readers, slow to understand and comprehend key information, unable to organise workload, procrastinators and not very good at writing down ideas.
Often students project this negative self-image onto their approach to written work and are perfectionists or may feel ‘what’s the point’. Therefore, the prospect of writing a dissertation plays to their deepest fears. How can we help to change this mind set or at least provide enough scaffolding to allow the student to approach the task while minimising stress levels? In my experience support needs to be based on a concrete concept, nothing too abstract, and broken down.
So how can the monster help? Monsters are socially constructed, as are academic conventions. How can students be encouraged to deconstruct the monster and make it less fearsome?
For the OBL activity I provided a worksheet and asked participants to response to some basic questions. What do you see when you see the monster? Why do you think you have these initial responses to the monster? Emotional responses, fear or thoughts of childhood. When they felt afraid! Metacognition is key to academic enjoyment and my logic is, getting students to think about the basis for their fear of monsters might enable them to think about the basis of their fear of their dissertation and repackage into something they can work with.
Worksheet for Object Based-Learning (OBL) 3rd February 2025
‘If I cannot inspire love I will cause fear’ (The Monster, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein)
Skills I want students to develop through this activity
● Communication
● Understanding of key concepts
● Research skills and confidence
● Inspiration
Key learning aim. Does the activity work?
Broad research question questions to help students formulate ideas about the object and reflect on initial responses.
- What do you see when you see the monster?
Starting point could be own experience of monsters (might talk about emotional responses, fears or thoughts of childhood or be more interested in how it is made?). These responses might be grouped as philosophical frameworks and physical techniques.
2. Why do you think you have these initial responses to the monster?
3. Who/what might the monster represent?
4. Where might monsters and their manifestations lurk?
5. How might you rationalise and deconstruct your relationship to the object (given that it is only an object)?