An Object Lesson by Boston Public Library

An object lesson is a

teaching method A teaching method comprises the principles and methods used by teachers to enable student learning. These strategies are determined partly on subject matter to be taught and partly by the nature of the learner. For a particular teaching method t ...

that consists of using a physical object or visual aid as a discussion piece for a lesson. Object lesson teaching assumes that material things have the potential to convey information.

Description

The object lesson approach is promoted in the educational philosophy of

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (, ; 12 January 1746 – 17 February 1827) was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who exemplified Romanticism in his approach. He founded several educational institutions both in German- and French-speaking r ...

, who held that teaching should begin with observation of objects which help students recognize concepts. In his teaching and writing he emphasized the concept of '' Anschauung'', which may be understood as "sense training." Pestalozzi taught that children were first to develop sensation, then perception, notion, and finally volition, learning how to act morally based on an individual view of the world.

History

Object lessons were important elements in teaching during the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

of the mid- to late-nineteenth century.

Elizabeth Mayo Elizabeth Mayo (18 June 1793 – 1 September 1865) was a British teacher and educational reformer. She was credited in the Hadow Reports with being one of the founders of the formal education of infant teachers in Britain. She was the first wom ...

's books ''Lessons on Objects'' and ''Lessons on shells'', which were about object lessons and were published during the Victorian Era, were revolutionary as they were the first to explain education to infant teachers. Mayo's book ''Lessons on Objects'' showed how young children could be introduced to new ideas by examining 100 objects like a wooden cube, a pin, a rubber or a piece of glass. The book supplied example dialogues between teacher and child and a list supplied for an object like a pin to get the children to recognize the parts and the qualities of this object.Lessons on Objects
, Elizabeth Mayo, 1861, Roehampton University, download, retrieved 1 January 2014. By the early twentieth century object lessons were widely used in religious instruction. The popular Baptist educator, Rev. Clarence H. Woolston wrote a number of books about using everyday objects to aid instruction, including ''Seeing Truth: A Book of Object Lessons with Magical and Mechanical Effects'', ''Penny Object Lessons: 25 Lessons for 25 Cents'', and ''The Bible Object Book: A Book of Object Lessons Which Are Different, Written in Plain English and in Common Words''.

References

Teaching {{Edu-stub