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Educational Spaces: room for theatre?
Prologue: A demonstration of a teaching style...
Without further ado, welcome please, the world famous literary critic and expert on Australian modernist poetry:
Dr Harry Reynard
[Applause]
Petit Testament by Ernest Lalor Malley [from the compilation The Darkening Ecliptic (1944)]
In the twenty-fifth year of my ageI find myself to be a dromedaryThat has run short of water betweenOne oasis and the next mirageAnd having despaired of everMaking my obsessions intelligibleI am content at last to beThe sole clerk of my metamorphoses.Begin here:
In the year 1943I resigned to the living all collateral imagesReserving to myself a man’sInalienable right to be sadAt his own funeral.(Here the peacock blinks the eyesof his multipennate tail.)
The Dr. Fox experimenthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwJ54KCvFuM
The original experiment was conducted at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in 1970 2 speakers gave lectures to psychiatrists and psychologists on an irrelevant topic. The topic, “Mathematical Game Theory as Applied to Physician Education”, was chosen to eliminate the factor that the students being lectured may know information about the actual subject.
Students were divided into two separate classrooms; one classroom would be lectured by an actual scientist and the other by an actor who was given the identity:“Dr. Myron L. Fox”, a graduate of Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
When both "Dr. Myron L. Fox" and the scientist both presented their material in an engaging, expressive, and enthusiastic matter, the students rated Dr. Fox just as highly as the genuine professor.
Petit Testament by Ernest Lalor "Ern" Malley
In the twenty-fifth year of my ageI find myself to be a dromedaryThat has run short of water betweenOne oasis and the next mirageAnd having despaired of everMaking my obsessions intelligibleI am content at last to beThe sole clerk of my metamorphoses.Begin here:
In the year 1943I resigned to the living all collateral imagesReserving to myself a man’sInalienable right to be sadAt his own funeral.(Here the peacock blinks the eyesof his multipennate tail.)
Scheherazade - legendary queen and the storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights.Sir Richard Burton's translation
Scheherazade - legendary queen and the storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights.Sir Richard Burton's translation
We are reporting work-in-progress on a joint tutor-student action-research project undertaken in 2015/16 at Sheffield Business School ('SBS'), a Faculty of Sheffield Hallam University.
The study is examining potential approaches to incorporating theatre in HE 'business' teaching.
Volunteers were invited - both staff and students - to form a research group in October 2015.
The resultant mixed-methods study was designed by the group originally 14 students (our 'leading actors') and 4 lecturers (the 'stage-hands').
Additionally, student members provided rich qualitative data as focus group contributors; they co-developed several examples of teaching sessions incorporating their ideas; and gained valuable academic experience by presenting the study at conference.
Some pragmatics: a [short] repertoire of techniques
Our survey says . . .
>70% of respondents can sustain engagement for 2 hours or more
Our survey says . . .
Hypothesis - theatrical devices can enhance all these things
The top 3 ways tutors have enhanced my engagement:1. Made it interesting2. Made me think3. Made it fun
Invitation - please help us share more examples
Theatrical devices - some examples
Characterisation / caricaturee.g. Bennis, leaders and managers
Suspense"A human life is worth about $200,000"
Misdirection"In our next session I will lie to you"
Theatrical devices - some others
Non verbal communicationse.g. emotional labour
Propsmagic tricks, etc . . .
Signposts, motifs and symbolsdirections to something significant
Invitation - please help us share more examples
Theatrical devices- some others
Expositionwhen you bring everyone up to date
Cliffhanger"next time we will discover why businesses
must put a value on a human life"
Invitation - please help us share more examples
Some theoretical underpinning
"Own the space" ....but, who's the performer?
Timpson (2002) teachers are inherently performers and as such, techniques from the stage enhance and expand a teacher's repertoire.
Schwartz (2013) teaching is a lot like acting and consequently teachers need to learn and practise the art of teaching.
As long as education remains "utilitarian" and performance "entertainment," the claim that teaching is performance will evoke nothing beyond the facile acknowledgment that a certain theatricality can help hold the attention of drowsy undergraduates in early morning or late afternoon classes(Pineau 1994)
The recurring tension between scripted teaching and creative teaching is a manifestation of deeper, competing conceptions of teaching: is it a profession, deserving of autonomy and respect like other professions such as law or medicine? (Sawyer 2004)
An individual is considered a professional when granted broad autonomy to creatively solve problems in response to the unique needs of each situation (Schön 1983)
Connectivism:"Information technology enables a new model of collaborative education" (Tapscott & Williams 2010).
"Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today.While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision" (Siemens 2014).
As long as education remains "utilitarian" and performance "entertainment," the claim that teaching is performance will evoke nothing beyond the facile acknowledgment that a certain theatricality can help hold the attention of drowsy undergraduates in early morning or late afternoon classes(Pineau 1994)
The recurring tension between scripted teaching and creative teaching is a manifestation of deeper, competing conceptions of teaching: is it a profession, deserving of autonomy and respect like other professions such as law or medicine? (Sawyer 2004)
An individual is considered a professional when granted broad autonomy to creatively solve problems in response to the unique needs of each situation (Schön 1983)
Connectivism:"Information technology enables a new model of collaborative education" (Tapscott & Williams 2010).
"Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today.While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision" (Siemens 2014).
Passing shots
So why the London bus?
The 'McGuffin'
Definition: = 'nothing'. Hitchcock described the MacGuffin as a plot device, or gimmick, on which to hang the tension in a film, ‘the key element of any suspense story”
The only reason for the McGuffin is to serve as a pivotal reason for the suspense to occur.
Competition time!Your ideas please
Possible future work
Possible future work
2016-171. Extend sample (a) institution-wide & (b) nationally2. Triangulate3. Develop qualitative study component4. Form a "Special Interest Group" across SHU and nationally [we
have contacts already from CABS - the Chartered Association of Business Schools]
5. Present at BESA16 - British Education Studies Association
2017-186. Develop & publish a compendium of resources
Thanks!
From
Adrian, Adrian, Carol, Rob, Tim and the 'SBS Theatre in Learning Research Group'
[email protected] (corresponding co-author)
Bibliography
SAWYER, R. K. (2004). Creative Teaching: Collaborative Discussion as Disciplined Improvisation. Educational Researcher, 33 (2), 12-20. SCHWARTZ (2013) [On-line]. Last accessed 24 August 2015 at http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/07/01/teaching-as-acting-a-performance-profession/ / SCHÖN, D.A., (1983). The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.SIEMENS, George (2014). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. [on-line] http://www.itdl.org/journal/jan_05/article01.htm last accessed 25 April 2016.TAPSCOTT, D. and WILLIAMS, A.D. (2010). MacroWikinomics Rebooting Business and the World. New York, Atlantic Books Ltd. TIMPSON, W. M. and BURGOYNE, S., (2002). Teaching & performing ideas for energizing your classes. Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing.NAFTULIN, D.H., Ware, J.E., Jr., and Donnelly, F.A.., (1973) "The Doctor Fox Lecture: A Paradigm of Educational Seduction", Journal of Medical Education 48 (1973): 630-635; PINEAU, E. L., (1994). Teaching Is Performance: Reconceptualizing a Problematic Metaphor. American Educational Research Journal, 31 (1), 3-25. WILLIAMS R., and WARE J., (1976). "Validity of student ratings of instruction under different incentive conditions: A further study of the Dr. Fox effect", Journal of Educational Psychology 68 (1976): 48–56.
