Abstract

This session will be a brief insight into students’ affective response to the tutorial space, as well as broader reflections on the role of sensory experience in learning.

Session and activities

The rationale for considering the tutorial from a sensory perspective was prompted by my lived experience of the tutorial; an elusive sense of shift when I entered the space. It suggested, to me at least, that something notable was happening in the way I received the tutorial bodily. After a student added that visiting the tutorial spaces felt like a visit to the GP surgery, I felt this certainly deserved additional attention. The literature on the sensory aspect of teaching and learning is relatively scarce, yet some have problematised the ontology of space in education; it’s everywhere-and-nowhereness, providing the context for our everyday lives. Yet ‘because most of us typically have few, if any, choices to make (we) often overlook its significance entirely’ (Paul Temple, 2018). If we think back to early years education – particularly Montessori education and its emphasis on sensorial materials, bright and cheerful colour palettes and tactile furnishings – the sensory experience seemed to once be integral to pedagogy. Why was it lost, and what can we gain in bringing it back? This session aims to explore if the sensory atmosphere of the tutorial space affects the way students feel, behave and learn. To inform the critical context, the literature review adopts a novel, multidisciplinary review of the sensory experience of interiors and architecture, environmental psychology, behavioural psychology, and pedagogy. Student voice has been explored through phenomenological interviews with those who have experienced onsite tutorials. Finally, recommendations for improved build, curation and pedagogical approach are offered.