Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education

1. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

2. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

3. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

4. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

5. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

6. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

7. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

8. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

9. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

10. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

11. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

12. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

13. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education • Australian Curriculum • General Capabilities • History • Theatre-in-education (TIE) • Dear Mrs Edmondson • Research findings • Questions ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

14. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

15. Developing students’ general capabilities in History through theatre-in-education Draft Shape of A.C Endorsed A.C Literacy Literacy Numeracy Numeracy ICT ICT Thinking skills Creative and critical thinking Creativity Self management Teamwork Social competence Personal and social capability Intercultural understanding Intercultural understanding Ethical behaviour Ethical behaviour ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

16. GENERAL CAPABILITIES THINKING SKILLS – Problem solving Making decisions Critical thought Developing an argument Using evidence to support an argument CREATIVITY – Generating a new idea Seeing existing situations new Seeing links SELF – Managing learning MANAGEMENT Reflecting and evaluating own learning Identifying personal characteristics Learning from success and failures ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

17. GENERAL CAPABILITIES TEAMWORK – Work with others Harmony Common purpose Identify strengths of team members INTERCULTURAL – Respect and appreciate culture of own UNDERSTANDING and others Multiculturalism Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Asia-Pacific ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

18. GENERAL CAPABILITIES ETHICAL – Acting morally and ethically BEHAVIOUR Identifying right from wrong Capacity to argue a case for change Desire to work for the common good SOCIAL – Interact effectively with others COMPETENCE Self aware Empathy for others Resolve conflict Participate in communal activities ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

19. Australian Curriculum: History Year 10. The history content at this year level involves two strands: Historical Knowledge and Understanding and Historical Skills. Students investigate wartime experiences through a study of World War II in depth. This includes a study of the causes, events, outcome and broader impact of the conflict as an episode in world history, and the nature of Australia’s involvement. ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

20. AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

21. Theatre-in-Education ... not a performance in schools of a self-contained play, a ‘one-off’ event that is here today and gone tomorrow, but a coordinated and carefully structured pattern of activities, usually devised and researched by the company, around a topic of relevance both to the school curriculum and to the children’s own lives, presented in school by the company and involving the children directly in an experience of the situations and problems that the topic throws up. (Jackson, 1993, p. 4) ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

22. Theatre-in-Education It would be contentious to say that TIE no longer exists, but it is accurate at least in that the term is now used as an umbrella definition for any theatre work that takes place in schools or has the intention of delivering an educational perspective in the broadest context. (Gattenhof, 2005, p. 18) ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

23. Theatre-in-Education TIE began in the UK in the 1960s. TIE in Australia was based on the UK model. Throughout the 1970s states funded their own TIE companies from state-based education budgets. Queensland’s Roadworks was staffed by seconded teachers. By the 1980s TIE companies were eligible for Federal funding through the Australia Council. E.g. Magpie TIE in South Australia. An example of early Australian TIE is David Young’s Eureka that followed the story of a British migrant onto the Victorian gold fields in the 1850s and used total participation and role play. ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

24. Theatre-in-Education A more recent Australian example of TIE’s connectivity with History is deBASE’sThe Clown from Snowy River, a performance piece that includes post-show teacher notes with follow up activities. ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

25. Theatre-in-Education Jackson & Kidd (2008) Performance, Learning and Heritage ...frequently students respond to ‘realness’ and ‘immediacy’ of the performance that was right in front of them in the ‘here and now’ and are touched by the intimacy of the experience... (p. 75) Many respondents felt that what they were finding through performance was another way of understanding things that they already knew. They were gaining another perspective, being able to visualise things more clearly and embracing the physicality of the past and its complexity in new ways... (p. 105) Empathy is a powerful emotion and it can provide insights into and understandings of the lives of other individuals that are hard to achieve through other formal, more cognition-based modes of learning. (p.114) ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

26. Theatre-in-Education The capacity of aesthetic pedagogies to engage learners in the social sciences has been widely reported (Davis and Eggleston, 2010; Jackson and Kidd, 2008; Jackson and Rees-Leahy, 2005; MacDonald, 2007; Tan, 2005; and Taylor, 1998) and TIE’s direct links to the History curriculum were identified by O’Toole (1976) who proposed, ... a TIE programme can be an oasis of delight, and will teach more in an hour than the twenty pages of copied text-book, the traced drawing of a contemporary gun, house, or costume, and the worksheet... (O’Toole, 1976, p. 73) ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

27. Dear Mrs Edmondson PRE-LESSON Introducing topic Introducing people, places and events Introducing ways of working PERFORMANCE Aesthetic engagement POST-LESSON Critical reflection Devising a research strategy Drawing conclusions Interpreting data Clarifying own views ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

28. Dear Mrs Edmondson ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

29. Dear Mrs Edmondson ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

30. Dear Mrs Edmondson ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

31. Dear Mrs Edmondson ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

32. Dear Mrs Edmondson ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

33. Dear Mrs Edmondson ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

34. FINDINGS ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

35. FINDINGS ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

36. FINDINGS ‘To have it right in front of you instead of reading about it there’s more detail’ ‘In a way it felt like you were there cause it was happening right in front of you’ ‘Amazed how real it all felt’ ‘How real it could all feel’ ‘More real kind of’ ‘It feels like you’re actually there’ ‘You’re actually seeing it – like you can actually feel it’ ‘You can hear pretty much more emotion and you can see more emotion’ ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

37. FINDINGS Interviewer: Okay. Do you think there might be um sort of other views about Jack’s death? Would other people see it differently? W: I think – I think so. L: Yeah. Especially if you were like ahhm – like an enemy or something like that um when the war was going on. Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. So what – what might those others views be? W: They could think that it was a good thing that he died. Interviewer: Okay – W: Um - L: But also um cause there’s people like our in our home country that are were against sending troops over and things like that – um and some would probably think that um – oh well that just proves the point and something like that... ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

38. FINDINGS C-1: Um – that it’s really sad cause like some soldiers just came back wasn’t it – they just came back from like another war or something – Interviewer: Okay. C-1: and then Menzies declared that war was starting like again like you could imagine how many people would be hurt and upset about it so, I don’t know I guess if I was in that situation I’d be pretty upset – Interviewer: Mmm – C-1: so cause you don’t know if your little brothers will come back or anything. So, yeah. Interviewer: Yeah. Okay, and who did you imagine you were? C-1: Like you think about like if you are related to a soldier and everything like if you’re a Mum or I guess a sister you wouldn’t want him to go so – ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

39. FINDINGS A veritable cornucopia of signs and the ‘message’ each of them is intended to convey – or conveys unintentionally – is unloaded upon the audience of a dramatic performance. (Esslin, 1987, p. 128) ... characterised by the percipient becoming open to questions regarding humanity which have not previously been consciously considered. When we experience a sense of invigoration (animation) as we connect to an idea at a metaphoric level (connection) we are encouraged to be more alert to new ideas and thoughts (heightened awareness). (Bundy, 2003, p. 180) ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

40. SUMMARY aesthetic pedagogy engaged students in a manner that generated personal connections with their learning and that these empathic, personal connections made the learning more meaningful. For many of the student informants the learning appeared to be deeper than is usually the case. ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013

41. NEW WORK ________________________________________________ ACSA Conference, Darwin, September 2013