In this post, Lucy Thomas shares her experience of participating in a course that merged theory with direct practical applications through creative activities like sensory walks and art-making workshops. Lucy is a recent graduate of Human Geography from The University of Edinburgh. This post is part of the Learning and Teaching Enhancement theme: ‘Learning how others learn’↗️.
Participating in the ‘Student-staff co-design of an undergraduate course: investigating the “who”, “where”, “how” as well as the “what” of teaching and learning in Geosciences’ workshop, facilitated discussions of what works and what doesn’t work in our experience of education in Edinburgh. Merging perspectives with students from different Geoscience courses, stages and interests we envisioned what a ‘dream’ course would look like for all of us. Our discussions ranged from how we have experienced lectures, tutorials, seminars and assessments, and we workshopped together what we wanted from our courses, what we liked, didn’t like or wished there was more of.
A point many of us agreed upon was the longing for something different. The traditional lecture we experience day in, and day out leaves a lot to be desired. At the crux of it all, we wanted something more memorable, and overall a more engaging way for lecture content to be delivered. Whilst we all agreed on the value in expert academics providing content that can guide assessments and key understandings of the course, we felt often the most important information is lost in a pool of words, that are monotonously copied and pasted into notes.
I had a unique perspective of how content could be delivered in a more exciting and memorable way, by taking the course ‘Space, Place and Sensory Perception’ in my final year.
This course was designed differently from traditional course structures. It utilised both lecture and tutorial structures yet rarely were we sat listening to lecture content for more than an hour per week. What made this course so successful for me, was the balance of time spent listening to content and the equal if not larger amount of time spent utilising this theory in practice.
This course incorporated geographical theory with sensory walks, creative explorations of geography through art and even activities like karaoke silent discos. It is safe to say that this course ventured far beyond the boundaries of traditional learning.
Some of these activities undoubtably pushed me outside of my comfort zone, yet they provided me with a whole new experience of a learning environment. Leaving the sometimes uninspired and stagnant classroom and getting out into the city was the most effective way for me to learn and understand theory related to space, place and the overarching theme of sensory perception. Particularly for a Geosciences course, there was significant value in visualising the theory we had been taught in our lectures and readings.
I realised by engaging in activities that contradict a traditional learning environment, I was forced out of robotically copying and pasting from the slides and letting my lecturers’ words wash over my head. Instead, I had to work and think harder to make links between the activities we were doing, and how to utilise this for assessments and critical engagement with theory. Furthermore, the experiences I had both in lecture and tutorial time, provided countless inspiration for assessments as I had multiple unique experiences to guide my writing. Whether or not I enjoyed the activities, they all left an impression on me, and challenged my perspective as a geographer.
Admittingly, the nature of a course based on the sensuous experience of space lends itself to a more creative approach to teaching. However, I do not believe creative teaching should remain solely in the cultural/human geosciences. Whilst accessibility and time constraints are all valid reasons for this style of teaching to prove challenging, I highly encourage the use of an outside-the-box style of teaching to move beyond the traditional lecture and move towards a more creative form of learning.
Lucy Thomas
Lucy Thomas is a recent graduate of Human Geography from The University of Edinburgh. She discovered an appreciation for the slightly alternative sides of Geography, developing a passion for subjects like Anarchism, the Geography of Art and Sensory Perception. Currently, Lucy is working at the University of Bath in the Doctoral college, while harbouring aspirations of pursuing her own master’s degree in the future. Eager to continue her love for the quirkier subsections of geography, she writes about her findings in her personal academic blog.
Blog: https://pickledlily.blog/↗️
