Teaching Historical Inquiry With Objects: Object-Based Learning in the Classroom

I always knew that artifacts were essential for understanding a period of time, a culture, or an event. The course Teaching Historical Inquiry With Objects helped me understand a bit more about why teachers should use object-based inquiry in the classroom.

First of all, objects naturally pique a person's curiosity. When a person sees an object they aren't familiar with, they naturally begin to ask questions about it.

In addition, objects are not age-specific. Students and adults of any age can analyze an object and learn from it, or make inferences as to its purpose and usefulness. For the most part, the reading level is not important when observing an object. Prior knowledge can help, but it not absolutely necessary.

Objects also give us a window into the lives of ordinary people, just like you and me. Often history is the story of people who have done great or terrible deeds; people who have led, people who have resisted, and people whose legacies have put a stamp on the world, for good or for bad. Other times, history is the story of groups of people and broad generalizations are made. By observing and analyzing ordinary objects, we can learn a lot about the people who used them every day. Even though history focuses on a famous (or infamous) few, the ordinary people are the majority and the ones who have contributed a great deal to the world, keeping society going. The ordinary people have stories that matter, and observing their objects can tell us a great deal about them.

Lastly, the practice of observing ordinary objects can help students hone their skills of thinking critically and carefully when trying to glean information from a source in order to construct meaning from it. This is a valuable skill for historians as well as everyday people, as it is important to think deeply about what you are seeing or reading before taking it at face value. You must deeply observe before you can truly understand something.