Grandeur Improvements of a Teaching Process Report (Assessment)

Introduction: When Theory Is Put into Practice

Teaching is one of those spheres which are constantly developing yet always aiming at the same issue, i.e., helping the students understand the essence of the issue and be able to apply the obtained knowledge to solve a specific problem. The two newly developed ideas, the one concerning the use of objects to help the teacher get the message across and the one dealing with the aesthetics of teaching, are bound to make the process of teaching considerably easier once they are properly applied.

Summarizing Newly Learnt Ideas: Crucial Issues

Before dealing with the means to use the new ideas in the teaching process, one has to offer a concise summary of the three approaches. A closer look at the newest theories concerning the teaching process will help realize the prospects that await teachers in their work.

Aesthetic experience: a trip into the world of harmony

The first article tells about such element of the learning process as aesthetics. It is worth mentioning that, unlike any other elements of the learning process, the aesthetic component is quite often overlooked; however, the fact that it is often forgotten about does not mean that it is insignificant enough; on the contrary, learning aesthetics is one of the issues worth remembering when dealing with the lesson plan.

Parrish explains the concept of the aesthetic learning basing on the ideas offered by John Dewey. Despite the fact that the connection between art and studying has not been fully recognized, according to Parrish, there are sufficient reasons to consider that the role of the aesthetic in the studying process is quite impressive. It is also worth mentioning that the idea of introducing the aesthetic into the studying process belongs to the specialists in the sphere of instructional design.

However, before introducing aesthetic principles to the sphere of learning, the phenomenon of art must be defined, which Parrish offers in both the narrow and the broad sense. According to the author, art in its narrow sense means either fine arts, or popular arts (Parrish 2006). However, in its broad meaning, art can be defined as a specific, professional manner of applying one’s powers to express certain ideas or feelings in a new and unique manner.

With that in mind, the idea of applying arts to the process of studying must be reconsidered. Viewed as an inquiry, art seems an integral element of the studying process; once a problem that needs a solution is interpreted in a specific manner, the aesthetics of learning becomes apparent. Likewise, when an idea or a hypothesis requires a certain solution which, in its turn, demands a specific approach, the elements of art and, hence, the aesthetics of learning, can be observed in the process of searching for the solution. Thus, it can be suggested that each inquiry corresponds or can be considered as a specific aesthetic experience which students can and should have in the course of a lesson.

Therefore, it is obvious that the aesthetics of a lesson cannot be referred to as a couple of artificial details which are supposed to somewhat glue a poorly developed lesson plan together; on the contrary, the aesthetic element must be the continuation of the key topic and its further explanation. In addition, the very nature of the learning aesthetics has not been explored yet.

Traditionally referred to as the “desire to learn in students” (Parrish 2006), the phenomenon can be approached from different standpoints, which either narrow it down to merely making the students interested in a certain problem, or presuppose a considerably broad context, i.e., helping the students choose the means to apply the given theory to practice. In addition, the very term “aesthetics” also presupposes the broad and the narrow context; starting with the narrowest approach possible, i.e., focusing on “arts” and the means to integrate them into the learning process, to the broadest context of the students’ “artful performance” (Parrish 2006).

Learning with objects: when things come to life

Another peculiar strategy that can improve the existing system of learning, the idea to involve objects in the studying process seems extremely alluring. In the world where technologies have changed people’s perception of reality and now offer much more than one can possibly experience, the idea of suing newly developed devices to show the specifics of a certain phenomenon min a more graphic way seems to be a perfect plan.

However, there are several concerns that must be expressed before applying the newly developed technologies to practice. First of all, according to Parrish, the use for technologies in the course of a lesson is the very case when “quantity” does not mean “quality”; on the contrary, the abuse of various technological advances can lead to students’ distraction and, therefore, the teacher’s failure to focus on the lesson topic.

Therefore, using objects as the means to help the students absorb the studying material better is fully justified and can be used on a regular basis to make the lessons more engaging and memorable. It is worth keeping in mind several “preventive measures” and mind that the devices used for the lesson should not distract the students’ attention from the key topic and rather support the lesson topic than be in the limelight instead of the lesson issue. With that in mind, the idea of using technological advances for the sake of keeping the lesson engaging seems flawless.

When things start talking wrong

As it has been mentioned previously, the idea of teaching certain subjects with the help of objects which can visualize the information and, therefore, help the students to perceive it, is really impressive. However, it must be mentioned that, like any other theory, it offers certain challenges when being put into practice. Moreover, there are certain issues arising in the course of applying the idea to a specific lesson, which must be taken into account when learning with objects.

On the one hand, it hardly seems possible that the idea of using objects to make the lesson more colorful can turn into a downside in any possible way. Indeed, with the help of various objects, students can see in the most graphic way the manner in which certain phenomenon takes place or the ways according to which the given phenomenon appears. However, there are cases when the use of objects during the lesson can cause quite a problem.

According to Parrish, the use of technology, even during a lesson, presupposes that the people who are using it miss out on a number of alternative means of communicating the same idea with the help of a conversation or any other means of basic human interaction: “It is difficult for us to realize what we give up when we use our technologies (e.g., physical contact with others, the oral tradition, forms of computation and creative expression that are less technology-bound)” (Parrish, 2004).

As a result, the process of learning is slackened considerably, which affects the quality of a lesson and prevents the students from absorbing the newly obtained knowledge and train the newly learned skills. Even though it has been states that the given issues can possibly be avoided once the lesson is planned with due care, there are still chances that learning with objects can turn out a less inspiring issue than it seems to be.

Thus, it is clear that the excessive use of objects during the lesson not only distracts the students’ attention, but also can turn the whole lesson in a complete mess of images and ideas. Therefore, it is obvious that one must use such visual help as learning objects with caution. Once choosing the appropriate way of presenting the topic top the students, one will be able to choose the objects which will represent the issue in question in the most appropriate way and at the same time enhance further, more detailed study of the problem.

In the Current Professional Context: Applying the Theory to Practice

It must be admitted, though, that, no matter how incredibly alluring a theory can sound, it still remains a project until it is tested in a real-life situation. Thus, the ideas explained above are going to be considered solely as strategies for my profession, i.e., a teacher.

Aesthetic experience in learning: the art of getting inspired

Sadly enough, when it comes to teaching, the aesthetic experience takes the last place in the process; as a rule, the concern whether the students are able to get the general idea, learn the basic principles and be able to apply them to a real-life problem is by far the greatest concern. However, if considering the learning process as an opportunity to develop esthetically, one must admit that aesthetic experience is possible – moreover, it is extremely easy to help the students have one during classes.

It is also essential that aesthetics of learning can be enhanced with the help of learning objects. On the one hand, there is little connection between the two; on the other hand, though, it is quite clear that learning with objects presuppose that the objects in question have a certain aesthetic element, otherwise the lesson would be quite flat. Once there is certain aesthetics either in the object which is used for the lesson, or in the idea which the given object conveys, the learning process boosts the creative thinking process among the students, which is doubtlessly an advantage (Mogharreban & Guggenheim, 2008).

However, herein lies an obvious obstacle – although it seems quite easy to choose an object for the lesson, its aesthetics can still be questionable. As Mogharreban & Guggenheim explain, “Another hindrance is the lack of support for separation of learning objects, page layout, and aesthetic parameters into discrete, transferable data objects” (Mogharreban & Guggenheim, 2008).

Thus, not any object chosen for the lesson can convey specific aesthetics. Only driving parallels between the object and its significance, as well as aesthetic elements it contains, one can offer a decent lesson material. In addition, it seems that the efficiency of learning objects can slightly decrease once these learning objects are used irrationally in the course of the lesson; as Kurilovas & Dagiene (2009) explain, “The lack of common low-level definitions and models is a threat to interoperability, technical quality as well as for the acceptance of the LO concept itself” (p. 129).

To be more specific, such learning objects as iPods can be used for the lesson to be able to demonstrate the students the way things work, or to help them remember the key elements of a certain issue. For instance, as Leacock & Nesbit (2007) claim, “High-quality presentations incorporate aesthetics, production values, and design of instructional messages in ways that are consistent with principles from research and theory in cognitive psychology and multimedia learning” (p. 44).

Hence, learning objects allow not only to communicate the key lesson issues in a more efficient way, but also to help the students understand the material better. For instance, for the English class, such learning objects as pictures with the objects to describe, or pieces of paper with the words to make sentences of, help me greatly in conveying the key message of the lesson and at the same time are much more entertaining and, therefore, memorable, than regular tasks.

Another good example of applying learning objects to practice is using various objects that show graphically the ay a certain program operates; for instance, for one of the computer lessons, a simple Ball of Whacks toy helped to illustrate the way in which data processing is carried out.

As it can be observed in the example offered above, a lesson can be structured in such a way so that the students could have an essential aesthetic experience and at the same time absorb the new knowledge quickly. Applying the principles of aesthetic learning, one can achieve several goals in the course of the same lesson. Thus, aesthetic learning has proven an extremely peculiar theory which can and should be tried in real life lessons.

Learning with objects: when students need something tangible to learn from

As it has been already mentioned, learning with objects cannot be considered the newest idea in the history of pedagogy – the use of objects as the first and the foremost visual aid must have been practiced since the day people started creating images and hieroglyphs that helped them communicate. Therefore, the use of objects in the learning process seems crucial for a teacher.

Indeed, if considering Parrish’s idea about learning objects being a “fun, and perhaps in the end equally effective, way to ponder them is to pretend you’re preparing a standup comedy routine about them” (Parrish, 2008), one will see distinctly that using objects to make the learning environment more relaxed, one will be able to help the students be more active and will spawn a number of responses from students. Therefore, the key thing is to apply the learning objects in the right way and at the right time.

Taking some pieces of my own experience as an example, I have to admit that learning with objects can prove quite an efficient means to teach the students the basics of English and computers. To start with, it can be a good idea to incorporate the dry lectures about the way a computer works together with memorable and colorful slides, which will help the students to memorize the key information, as well as be able to visualize the whole process of a certain computer operation, or the layout of a certain device.

As for the English classes, I must admit that the use of learning objects will be very helpful in the given sphere as well. Apart from numerous interactive programs that can help one memorize the vocabulary and train it with the help of engaging exercises, learning objects will also make the border between the meaning of a foreign word and its meaning merge; thus, the students will be able to drive parallels between the phonetic and the denotative element, i.e., the way the word sounds and the meaning it has. It can be argued, though, that the use of learning objects leads to the fact that there is little time left for other activities that involve speaking. However, this is a small drawback in a plethora of advantages.

Hence, it can be concluded that the process of learning with objects can be rather efficient, yet it is still necessary to draw the line between using objects as another way to render the idea and the ultimate learning strategy; the latter is highly undesirable, since the availability of all sorts of learning objects can lead to the situation in which students are likely to stop thinking on their own and rely on the learning objects which are bound to tell all the secrets of the course material.

It is clear that at certain point, learning materials stop being a useful means of conveying an idea and turn into the “weapon of mass distraction”, i.e., the thing that does not allow the students to focus on the topic. However, it is still important to stress that, when incorporating lectures, class activities and learning objects, one is likely to achieve the most impressive results.

Trouble with learning with objects: a teacher or a juggler?

However, as it turns out, the excessive use of learning objects in the course of the lesson can cause a number of problems, too. In spite of all their helpfulness, learning objects can also turn into major distraction; moreover, if chosen wrong and not serving its purpose for the lesson, learning objects can become even misleading and, thus, cause the students’ confusion about the purpose a the lesson, the material they need to learn and the key postulates they have to remember.

Hence, it must be admitted that learning objects are a good idea only when applied with the respectful caution. To prove the given idea, I will have to share some of the least successful and the most controversial episodes from my work as a teacher and show graphically how bad the abuse of learning objects can be.

Speaking of the computer classes which I had to be in charge of, I tried once to use both a mind map which the students created in the course of the lesson and the PowerPoint slides, which finally led to the most deplorable results. The students could not focus on either of the learning objects and failed to understand the main ideas that I was trying to convey. Analyzing the above-mentioned situation, I must admit that the key mistake I made was not only the abuse of learning objects in the course of the lesson, but also the fact that I combined digital and reusable learning objects, thus, confusing the students even more.

According to the remark by Polsani (2003), “A LO can avail itself of the flexibility, scalability and adaptability offered by information technology only when the object in itself is predisposed for reuse by multiple developers in various instructional contexts” (4). Thus, comprising the flexible learning object with its exact opposite, I made a mistake which resulted in the students’ inability to learn the lesson.

As for another experience which I had as I tried to incorporate several learning objects at once, I recall the case that I had during one of my English classes. Like in the previous example, I wanted to comprise the advanced learning objects with the traditional ones, following the idea offered by Gomes, who claimed that a two-concept approach can prove rather efficient for both the aesthetics of learning and at the same time for processing and absorbing the necessary information better.

Thus, I included both the plastic models of fruits and vegetables for the students to learn the names of fruits in English and the cards with the images on them. The result, however, left much to be desired – the students had the images mixed and could not decide whether to refer to the three-dimensional learning object or to the image of it when remembering its name and translation.

Thus, it was clear that I missed Gomes’ key idea concerning the use of two or more objects in the course of learning, which was the fact that “Acknowledging that our ordinary thought does commit us to this realism about phenomenal properties means that we must show how we can replace the two-concept approach with a unitary account of our mental concepts” (Gomes, 2007, p. 14-15).

Therefore, it is clear that there is no need to incorporate several learning objects – one will suffice or a standard lesson. Moreover, it is necessary that the learning objects should be colorful yet not distractive and that the students could pay attention not only to the learning object, but also to the lesson topic. It cannot be doubted that learning objects are extremely helpful in making the lessons more intriguing and exciting, yet a teacher with several lesson objects to handle reminds much of a juggler who is trying to use too many things for his trick and eventually drops all of them. The more specific and simple learning objects are, the better.

Conclusion: There Is Still a Lot to Strive for

The techniques described above are, doubtlessly, very promising ideas that can lead to developing really good teaching strategies which, in their turn, will lead to fascinating results. Realizing the aesthetics of teaching and knowing how helpful objects can be in the process of teaching, one will be able not only to develop a perfect lesson plan and make the students understand the topic perfectly, but also to help the students take a creative approach towards the problem.

Reference List

Gomes, A, 2007, ‘The role of aesthetic experience’, Postgraduate Journal of Aesthetics, vol. 4 no. 1, pp. 1-17.

Kurilovas, E, & Dagiene, V, 2009, ‘Learning objects and virtual learning environments technical evaluation criteria’, Electronic Journal of e-Learning, vol. 7 no 2, pp. 127-136.

Leacock, T L, & Nesbit, J C (2007). ‘A framework for evaluating the quality of multimedia learning resources’, Educational Technology & Society, vol. 10 no. 2, 44-59.

Mogharreban, N & Guggenheim, D, 2008, ‘Learning pod: a new paradigm for reusability of learning objects’, Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objects, vol. 4, pp. 303-315.

Parrish, P E 2004, The trouble with learning objects, Educational Technology, Research and Development, vol. 52 no. 1. Web.

Parrish, P E 2006, Learning as aesthetic experience: John Dewey’s integration of art, inquiry, and education. Web.

Parrish, P E 2008, ‘Learning with objects’, in Shank, P., & Carliner, S. (eds), The e-learning handbook: a comprehensive guide to online learning, Pfeiffer, San Francisco, CA, 215-241. Web.

Polsani, P, 2003, ‘Use and abuse of reusable learning objects’, Journal of Digital Information, vol. 3 no. 4, pp. 1-10.