Locating the course in a reflective environment of learning was central for the course. The digital submission assignment was to be developed across the semester, drawing from class discussions and instructor-feedback. Therefore, the course content was developed keeping this crucial reflective element as central to its administration. Attia and Edge (2017) trace the development of ‘becoming a researcher’, in their work on reflection as a research methodology. It is useful to reproduce their idea here to help contextualise our curricular aims and outcomes better:
Embedded in and emerging from their contexts, therefore, reflexive researchers open themselves up as one element of the phenomena that are to be investigated. Moreover, in such investigation, while prescribed and learned methodological procedures may well be useful, a developmental approach to research methodology (and a becoming approach to being a researcher) will be equally open to the possibility of shifting insights, emergent goals, and evolving methods in the pursuit of findings more significant than those that initial research questions might have foreseen. The role of reflexivity … involves raising awareness of its processes with the dual aim first of enriching one’s lived experience, and then articulating this awareness as a contribution to the deepening of understanding of the field. (Attia & Edge, 2017, p. 36)
Thus, reflection seeks to establish an embodied learning experience. Fomichov and Fomichova (2017) elucidate the development of the Student Self-Oriented Learning Model (SSOL-model) to map the benefits of acquired knowledge coupled with life experience as beneficial for self-cognition and self-construction. Drawing on this, we advance the learner-recognition as acutely being informed by spatiality of learning, both real and virtual. Figure 1 is an illustrative representation of this intersectional matrix that generates an embodied learning in real and virtual spaces. Guided by reflection as a research method, the discussion here is oriented along three major levels of reflection: the cognitive-reflection level that delineates and critiques the new knowledge acquired and new skills learnt in the course by the learner. Affective-reflection level draws from student responses that point towards enhanced creative learning, recognition of the embodied learner, and informed decision-making. Process-Reflection level ties both the cognitive and affective reflection ideas drawn from student work to locate the course’s administration within the pedagogic experience for the practitioner working out of specific institutional structures.
Cognitive-reflection and affective-reflection levels
This section examines the different responses given by students that allude to their new learnings and skills (cognitive reflection) and a consciousness of their embodied selves in the process of this experiential learning (affective reflection).
From student work emerged a sense of perceiving the city through an informed lens, aided by the sensorium. Thus, with the course, the attempt was also to move towards an ecology of urban sensorium informed by the presence of the learner in the space and time and record the observations to develop a social-ontological sense of the urban space being investigated. With students at work, it was clear that the affective and kinaesthetic learning played a significant role in their cognitive reflections. Role of affective learning in pedagogy has been increasing, especially with a need to locate advancing cognitive levels through a well-informed affective mode that draws from learners’ interests, emotions, attitudes and motivations. Such pedagogic styles sure do assist students in decision-making, creativity and rational behaviour, thus maximising learning outcomes (Bamidis, 2017).
Students pursued several spaces, and it was fascinating to observe how in many instances, the spaces were visualised entirely differently. In a work mapping Cubbon Park, an important public space in Bangalore’s cultural imaginary, the student notes “Places like Cubbon Park can be used as political platform. For instance, on 13/01/2020, the CAA protests at the park has shown a musical twist. Here a bunch of 30 professional musicians decided to protest … their front in the form of a rap.” (Bhatnagar, 2020). Similarly, another student exploring the city on a bus ride claims: “In the evening, smell perceived is a billion times different … Sweaty armpits, soiled shoes, smoke and pollution … give an idea of how exhausting it is for everyone living in this city.” (Periwal, 2020).
An important implication of the sensorium as pedagogic mode was to enable an embodied learning experience of the self in the built environment. This embodied emplacement of the learner is further facilitated by their attention to sensory perceptions informed by a kinaesthetic and affective learning. In reflecting on these affectations, a criticality was also noticed, especially in students’ recognition of the intersections of class, labour, politics, and gender-related questions. Consider the two following responses from the reflective essays of two learners, presented here in some detail as they appear in their final submission:
Reflection Excerpt 1
During my research on the Cubbon Park, I had conducted an in-detail comparative analysis of the landmark on weekends, when compared to weekdays. I chose this particular location because I believe it can be deemed as the “pride of Bangalore” and I like to call it “The Crown Of The Garden city”. If a tourist asks a Bengalurean about places they should visit during their time in the city, they will definitely have Cubbon Park in the top-five of their list. I was also keen on comparing this location to “itself”, by that I mean on weekends and weekdays. This is because, I observed a wide difference in terms of sensory perceptions when I had visited the landmark on a Tuesday, compared to when I went on a Sunday.
While paying attention to sight I observed that there were a lot more people on weekends compared to weekdays at the various spots within Cubbon Park. I figured that this might be because people are not tied down by the daily routines on weekends, when compared to weekdays. Hence, they come to Cubbon Park to “take a break”.
In terms of smell I observed that on weekdays there was a very distinct smell of nature like the smell of trees, wet mud and flowers. This is probably because on weekdays there are hardly any people, food vendors, dogs etc. However, on weekends I observed that the place was brimming with life. Hence, I could sense a series of mixed smells ranging from the smell of the snacks from the street stalls, dogs prancing around and just a subtle smell of the trees and blossoming flowers.
When it comes to sound I noticed that on weekdays the main sound I could hear was of the birds chirping, wind gushing and the subtle sound from the movement of trees. There was hardly any sound made by people. On weekends however, I could hear a lot of chitter-chatter of people, sound of cars honking, dogs barking, street vendors calling out for customers and of course wonderful music from the performers performing on the “bandstand”.
When it comes to touch, I recall the touch of the grass, barks of the trees and soft fur of the dogs. I also recall the vibrations I felt when from the ground when there were performances on the bandstand on weekends.
When it comes to taste I remember the taste of the yummy street food sold by the street vendors on weekends. However, I observed that there was lesser snacks to taste when I went on weekdays. I figure this is because of the street vendors have noticed that a lot lesser people come to the park on weekdays. Hence, they can get better business elsewhere. During my time there, I couldn’t help but wonder how this “space” could have just been some barren land used to construct skyscrapers. However, due to the beautiful spread of green foliage of trees, flowers and small ponds. The space has become a famous garden that is like the “lungs of Bangalore”. Cubbon Park is indeed a wonderful pace to understand the various dynamics of sensory perceptions. This landmark will not only heighten these perceptions but will also get you in touch with wonders of nature.
Reflection Excerpt 2:
Communication skills played a major role in my assignment. It includes interpersonal interactions, verbal and non-verbal communications and written communication. Being a business student, communication is an essential part of my career and also in my personal life to develop and maintain relationships. I got an opportunity to speak to a lot of people and one of them was the Director of Horticulture in Lalbagh which improved my interpersonal interaction. Speaking to multiple people revealed their interpretations of the place which increased my understanding and opened the doors to things which were unknown to me.
Non-verbal communication in the form of the facial expression of the people who were present in those places had to be observed to understand how their behaviour is affected by the space like in High Court people were often tensed and anxious whereas in Lalbagh people had a relaxed expression. These were the communication skills developed on-field. In off-field work, writing skills were the main form of communication. Analysing and interpreting all the observations, developing connections and giving a structure to the entire assessment was possible only through the writing. This enhanced my vocabulary, sentence formation and in all my writing skills which is very important in the academic world.
Both these excerpts, although only representative, capture the larger affective, kinaesthetic and embodied mode of doing city studies informed as an urban sensorium. Memories invoked by smell, the city’s intersection with social questions of class, as well as these informing the student’s own learning is to be noted here.
Process-reflection level: locating practitioner and institutional critiques, and pedagogical recommendations
In this reflection level, the course instructor reflects through the facilitation of the course on the very practice of the pedagogy. One of the important reflections that emerges from a critical look at the course facilitation is the manner in which increasingly curriculum needs to bridge the gap between theory and praxis. Here were a set of students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds in their first year of instruction. They were not equipped to fully comprehend the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of the ‘social and ontological dimensions of studying the urban’. It was imperative that this gap needed to be bridged. The best way to enable this was to encourage students to be able to establish the links between the theoretical modes of analysing the city, to actually going about doing it.Footnote 4
However, much was also learnt as a way of retrospective reflection for the instructor. An important measure was the nature of the digital work presented by the students. While many students learnt from their own practice of using digital media, the actual use of the digital platforms to host their work itself was not actively considered as a part of the pedagogic practice. This was assumed to be covered through feedback sessions. However, in hindsight, an inclusion of sessions on developing digital tools will make learners far more curious and creative, thus equipping them with another set of skills not envisioned earlier in the course becomes a necessity. This reflection has been further enabled primarily through the current situation of the pandemic, that has urged us practitioners to reconsider our pedagogic modes. Ever since the move to work with technology in higher education has been necessitated with the pandemic, in hindsight, the primary course instructor realised that they could have used several important tools to enable learning, writing, collaborative knowledge development and sharing as active parts of the pedagogy. As an instructor, the primary author failed to equip with the necessary digital tools to be able to render the digital portfolio through modes other than the most popular ones chosen by the students. Students could have been introduced to audio recording apps to help them work with sound bites of the city in a more informed manner. The institutional LMS could have been built into the course in a far stronger way that would have worked well to curate content about the city and generate institutional digital knowledge.
An important challenge faced by the course instructor was the class number. A course that offers exciting opportunities to learn is likely to attract students, but in some cases, students also had to choose the course because of non-availability of other courses. Therefore, their investment in the course was far lesser than those who had chosen the course out of their own volition. This was also reflected in some of their reflective essays.
An area of serious concern is also the possibility of the course being offered by another instructor, due to various administrative reasons, who has little or no experience in carrying this sort of a pedagogy. In such a case, a digital tool-kit to help the instructor work with the course and achieve the outcomes outlined will be far more successful.