Mantle of the expert – learning in role.: A study on the use of drama with young students in schools

• Published in: Netla
• Main Authors: Björnsson, Hákon Sæberg, Ragnarsdóttir, Ása Helga
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands 2020
• Subjects: teaching methods; drama; role-play; Mantle of the Expert; fun; motivation; kennsluaðferðir; leiklist; hlutverkaleikur; sérfræðingskápan; skemmtun; áhugahvöt; Reykjavík
• Online Access: https://ojs.hi.is/netla/article/view/3079; https://doi.org/10.24270/serritnetla.2019.17

This article describes research on the use of the teaching method The Mantle of the Expert within an Icelandic school. The method derives from the field of drama in education wherein students take on a role as experts in a particular subject within a fictional context. In this way, students’ learning takes place through free play which numerous scholars consider to be children’s natural way of development and learning. The methodology of action research was adopted for this study which was carried out in autumn 2016. Participants were three 2nd grade teachers and 41 2nd grade students in a compulsory school in Reykjavík. Data was collected from a research journal, video recordings, and conversations with teachers and interviews with students. The purpose of the study was to examine the use of the Mantle of the Expert and to study its impact on student learning and teacher practice.The students took on roles as spies, experts of deduction, logic and rational thinking. In role, the spies established a special team along with the local police (teachers in role) to catch a criminal by the name of Siggi the Sour (a teacher in role) who tricked them into inadvertently helping him robbing a bank. Catching Siggi required the students to undertake many tasks and assignments, which, unbeknownst to them, integrated their regular schoolwork into the fictional context. All of the assignments and tasks the students solved in role as spies were organized according to a predefined education plan by their classroom teachers since before the research began. For instance, the students were to study mountains according to the education plan so Siggi the Sour fled to the mountains. In order to catch him, the students had to read up on and investigate different types of mountains in order to find out where he could be hiding. After reading, writing and learning about mountains, using mostly conventional learning methods, the students found out that Siggi was hiding on a volcano, as volcanoes were next up on the education plan.The ...