Abstract:

Covid-19 has forced practitioners who teach practical courses to radically redesign modes of delivery. The nature of experiential learning has had to be reconceptualised; professionals have had to adapt to new technologies; students have had to accommodate new virtual settings. The very foundation of learning through doing has been challenged; arguably, there is no practical without students being able to 'do' something. As a Professor teaching the history of science, the pedagogical premise of working with objects has been disrupted: I already subscribe to the instructional strategy known as the ‘flipped classroom’ and I broadly structure courses on the experiential learning theory. But Covid-19 necessitated the forced recourse to technological modes of teaching and virtual classroom settings. Visits to museums, collections and archives were replaced with online tours and computer audio; engagement with objects and artefacts replaced with home-sourced substitutes. In short, the disruption caused by Covid-19 augured a new world. But amid this disruption new possibilities have emerged. In responding to Covid, I have found new possibilities for practical learning within our virtual confinement. Moments of liberation even. In this paper I share the pedagogical changes I have been forced to undertake using three distinct examples. In responding to Covid-19 I found positive possibilities and garnered new insights which have largely dispelled my initial negative projections. There are of course some caveats. Not all objects easily translate to online teaching and not all students embrace and enjoy online activities. I was also learning on the job and made my fair share of mistakes. But there have been long-lasting lessons to extract from this forced experience. The importance of physical activity enriches learning and can be effectively deployed online. The acquisition of knowledge moves from the realm of the abstract to become a concrete experience that particularly appeals to kinesthetic learners but can be developed to all four modalities of students learning: visual, auditory, reading/writing as well as kinesthetic. At the end of this paper I consider the longevity of my discoveries. I ask if the pedagogical changes made merely represent a temporary disruption to the old order of things or if they are a harbinger of a new pedagogy that radically reinvents experiential learning?

Keywords:

Covid-19, practical, objects, pedagogy, online, experiential, innovation.