Mantle of the Expert

Using the practice of Dorothy Heathcote’s ‘Mantle of the Expert’ (having studied the techniques myself with Dorothy Heathcote) students become ‘experts’ in order to explore any of the curriculum topics being studied in their classroom. Starting with a problem or task, teachers and students explore, in role, the knowledge they already have while making new discoveries along the way.

The technique acknowledges the fact that the children normally have no idea what being anything other than a child is like, but it uses what they know rather than what they don’t know to launch them into the unknown; taking on roles that enable them to find out in a more interactive and practical way about what they are currently studying.  The expertise the student takes on gives them a particular way of seeing the world. 

The specific idea aiming to be taught must emerge from the curriculum tasks.  The students must be conscious of what they are learning.  They must become responsible for what they are learning, that is, they must make it happen.  They grow in expertise through a range of conventions that must be used as they must never be put in a situation within the drama where their inexpertness would become immediately apparent.

For instance; a child can play an adult who is concerned about the effect a new supermarket will have on their village if they ‘play to’ something they do know about – having a cold, being cross with a friend or someone in their family, worrying about something, etc.  So they become ‘an adult who isn’t feeling very well’ and use that to ‘get into’ the drama about the supermarket.  Likewise, an expedition to discover undersea treasure needs explorers and divers and marine scientists and map-readers – all these experts are provided by the children (who use class-based resources to further their knowledge) but the way in is by the appropriate adjective placed in front of the expertise – angry, scared, worried, shy, scatty, etc.  A group of archivists and historians examine objects from Ancient Egypt / Rome / Saxon England / WW1 etc trying to make sense of them in order to decide whether to exhibit them or not and what should be written about each to inform the public about what each lets them know about the period.  In groups, children are challenged to work out a bid for a road haulage contract to get goods from Lisbon to London by the most economic means possible – Geography, Maths, English etc.  Writing of all kinds, calculation, estimation, talk systems, reading and perusing, and there could be a historical, scientific, geographical or archaeological bias, as the curriculum demanded.

For further information and to discuss whether a curriculum topic you are undertaking could be taught in this way, please contact Kathy Tappin on 07973 725 006 or e-mail me via the website http://www.storyworkstheatrecompany.com/.  I can supply references if required from Headteachers I have worked with across Cornwall.  Just ask?

A day’s workshop is £175 (CPD for the class teacher without the need to send them away on a course and also pay for supply cover) – or why not consider using me as supply cover (with a difference) and take the class for a whole day of drama (with TA support to get the benefit of the CPD angle).