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Exploration: Cabinets of Curiosities—Playing with Artefacts in Professional Teacher Education

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Abstract

This case study describes playful object-oriented pedagogy in professional teacher education. Using a Cabinet of Curiosities theme, the ‘wunderkammer’ or ‘wonder rooms’ of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries inspired a lesson staged as a wonder room to inspire a creative approach to teacher resource development. Trainee teachers playfully explored, handled and ‘tinkered’ with ‘a sense of wonder’ a curated collection of artefacts and curiosities. The wonder room created an exhilaration and intensification of experience stimulating playful thinking, creativity and reflection. Da Vinci’s principle of ‘curiosità’ (Gelb in How to think like Leonardo da Vinci. Delta, New York, 2009) is explored together with the ‘magical condensation’ associated with play (MacLure in International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 19(6): 729–745, 2006: 737).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education and Professional Development, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Sarah Williamson

Authors
  1. Sarah Williamson
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Correspondence to Sarah Williamson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Winchester, Winchester, UK

    Alison James

  2. Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    Chrissi Nerantzi

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Williamson, S. (2019). Exploration: Cabinets of Curiosities—Playing with Artefacts in Professional Teacher Education. In: James, A., Nerantzi, C. (eds) The Power of Play in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95780-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95780-7_10

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-95779-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-95780-7

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