Latinx Health and Object-based Learning: Moving Students of Spanish into Museums to Meet the 5Cs

Abstract

My desire to have my students learn more about the cultures where Spanish is spoken, and, in the process, meet the World-Readiness Standards for Language Learning drew me to the two museums on my campus, both of which focus on object-based learning (OBL). Helen Chatterjee et al. (2015) define OBL as “a mode of education which involves the integration of objects into the learning environment. In the museological context, object-based learning describes learners’ active engagement with museum collections within a student-centered framework” (1). Researchers have found that including “at least one objectbased project in a course . . . resulted in measurably stronger student learning outcomes, especially pertaining to understanding and connecting course concepts within and beyond the classroom” (Quave and Meister 2016: 10). Other case studies show that this form of hands-on learning can internationalize the curricula and “benefit an increasingly diverse student audience” because it “presents opportunities to exchange cultural beliefs, values, attitudes, emotional responses and differing ideas or perspectives” (Chatterjee 2015: 11). This cultural exchange is critical for language classes as we aim to use the target language to give students “access to the richness of the cultures of the languages being studied” (The National Standards 2015: 30).