Teachers have a responsibility to engage pupils with ranging abilities as best as possible and active/object based learning is a route that assists the success of this, ‘’The tactile system involves receptors in the skin. When you run your fingers over a surface, your tactile system gives you information on texture, shape, and temperature.’’ Grant (1983, p.151) mentions the ‘tactile’ system introduces tangible abilities in retaining information. She explains the relevance of this sensory learning method in relation to how the rest of our body assists in acquiring different bits of information at one time. From a young age, children use their senses to establish characteristics and properties of an object, ‘’They handle a new object, look at it from all sides, listen to any sound it makes, smell it, and often put it in their mouths both to taste it and to explore it with their tongues.’’ Grant’s (1983, p.144) point here supports object based learning and stresses that this type of learning has been innate in pupils from their early years. Continuing the use of such learning and teaching in the design and technology classroom benefits pupils and supports their instinctive behaviour, as well as expanding their cognitive development.
It is crucial for structure to be present in the process of analysing objects and collaborative discussions in active/object based learning. This is seen in pivotable research from Jean Piaget’s four stages of development:
The Sensorimotor stage: where the learning takes place through touch and feel; The Pre-operational stage: where the ability to arrange objects logically starts to develops; The Concrete Operational stage: where the ability to think logically about objects and events starts to become structured and The Formal Operational Stage: where abstract thinking and verbal reasoning starts to develop. Bates (2016, p.48-49).
Piaget’s theory explains people learn differently in relation to their stage of cognitive development and argued that learning takes place through touch and feel and the rational arranging of objects, leading onto thinking about those objects in a more structured way for advanced verbal reasoning. When applying these theories in classroom settings, we can implement stimuli that will encourage the development of ideas through structured, guided thinking for pupils to consider and have learning and outcomes take place, tying in with the national curriculum. ‘’Investigation and discussion of the objects provide practise in oral language and stimulate questions and interests which may be used in future activities’’ Grant (1983, p.174) mentions here that concrete tangible example objects that pupils can relate to, expands pupil knowledge building a bigger picture for them through allowing critical discussion and investigation to take place, in addition to specific language and questions explored during initial handling of objects.
Museum visits/learning is another type of active/object based learning that provides
