This presentation was for my paper "Transformative learning: revisiting Heathcote and Vygotsky for the digital age" presented at the IDEA Congress in Paris, July 2013.
(Some additional text had been added and video clips removed in this version). As an education academic who spent many years as a drama teacher it has been an interesting journey for me to find those theorists, scholars and master practitioners whose work resonates for me, and who articulated principles and truths that I had also discovered for myself.
For both Heathcote and Vygotsky, learning was a social process that recognized the importance of individual interactions with knowledgeable others and peers. Learning was not conceived of as transmission but a mediated activity involving symbolic and psychological tools. In both cases the way they conceived of childrens’ learning potential was predicated on valuing what they could do and become through interactions with concepts and artefacts from cultures.
In this paper I will identify several themes in work by Vygotsky and Heathcote and explore their relevance to a recent project I have been involved in. The Water Reckoning Project was a process-based drama project enacted across five school sites around the world. It involved the use of digital technologies for capturing and sharing creative work and facilitating networked communicaitons and performative acts. The use of digital technologies increase the repertoire of potential tools available for transformative learning - with the teacher's role still remaining an active one - as the curator and designer of aesthetic encounters.
4. … as the trend began to
favour the Russian
psychologist Lev Vygotski
rather than Piaget, she
also avoided quoting
from him, though
curiously, she had
Vygotski thrust upon her
by left-wing theatre
educationists who saw
Dorothy‟s teaching as
epitomising Marxist
values. And there is a
sense in which they were
right, for they recognised
that among her deepest
passions is the need for
justice in society.
(Bolton, 2003, p. 141)
“It is social politics so
easily introduced via
systems where 'people'
business is central”
(Heathcote 2002, p.8).
HEATHCOTE & VYGOTSKY
5. He was a
teacher, a
theatre lover, a
researcher and
revolutionary
thinker. He
understood the
importance of
play, of human
interactions, of
art and the
imagination, the
importance of
creativity and
aesthetic
education for all
children. He
wrote about
how humans
think, create
and learn in
ways that are
still relevant
today.
LEV
VYGOTSKY
1896-1934
6. Great interest in literature, poetry and
philosophy from an early age
Particular interest in theatre, dazzling
recitations as a child
Dramatic knowledge and criticism wrote
theatre reviews – first major work was an
analysis of „Hamlet‟ –thesis became the
book „Psychology of Art‟
Had a dynamic personal presence &
inspiration speaker (Moll, 1990)
Didn‟t originally train as a psychologist
but had great impact in that field
Extraordinary memory – regarded as a
genius – the Mozart of Psychology
VYGOTSKY
7. DOROTHY
HEATHCOTE
1926-2011
She was an
innovative
teacher whose
groundbreaking
work challenged
notions of
teaching, of
drama and how
to work with
children. She
entered into the
creative space
with those she
worked with and
pioneered
strategies such
as „teacher-in-
role‟ and „mantle
of the expert‟.
8. Voracious reader
Early interest in
literature, history, geography and
theatre
Strong personal presence –
inspirational teacher
Performance experience and
professional acting training
Great memory
Didn‟t train as a teacher but had
greatest impact in education
Intelligent, many regard her as a
genius
HEATHCOTE
9. Learning emerges out of social (external) & internal
interactions
Involves active role of teacher and or knowledgeable
others
Involves co-constructing solutions to problems
Utilises mediating tools and signs
In the arts – these tools can activate the imagination
and crystallise belief
The arts utilise form and structure to express ideas and
emotions
Specific nature of drama for (creative) learning and
working with imagination
The importance of both external human activity and
internal interactions (and reflection) for learning
SIMILAR BELIEFS ABOUT LEARNING
10. There are many aspects that could be compared within their
work
For the purposes of this presentation, the focus will be on a
couple
Zone of proximal development and the role of the teacher
Mediation and the role of tools
The special qualities of (improvised) drama for learning
SOME SIMILAR THOUGHTS ABOUT
LEARNING
11. ZPD
… is the distance between
the actual development
as determined by
independent problem
solving and the level of
potential development as
determined through
problem solving under
adult guidance or in
collaboration with more
capable peers
(Vygotsky,1978, p 86)
Role of teacher and others
An essential feature of
learning is that it creates
the zone of proximal
development, that
is, learning awakens a
variety of internal
developmental
processes, that are able to
operate only when the child
is interacting with people in
his environment and in
cooperation with his peers
(Vygotsky, 1978, p. 89)
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT &
ROLE OF TEACHER/OTHERS
12. Wagner on Heathcote
In drama children live “in
advance of themselves”
as it were: they face
challenge and crisis in
imagination before they
find themselves
overwhelmed by them in
real life. They gain the
feeling of mastery over
events, the sense that
they are equal to life.
(Wagner 1976)
Heathcote
… in the presence of an
empowering adult a child can
reach beyond his own capacity
in carrying out a task.
Teacher-in-role enhances this
particular adult function. The
teacher, through her
role, provides a model of high
expectations for the enterprise
that at first seems out of
reach.. In time he has no
choice but to aim beyond his
normal ability – and to break
the confines of rigidly held
concepts
(Heathcote & Bolton 1995)
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT,
DRAMA & TEACHER IN ROLE
13. Vygotsky
Humans (subjects)
achieve objects and act
upon the world through
external mediation and
interactions with
various tools.
Tools include culturally
learned processes or
conceptual tools, signs
such as language, as
well as physical
tools, artefacts and
technologies
MEDIATION
14. Living at life-rate, with agreement to pretence,
… experiences of life which cause people to
reflect & take note… consequent selectivity and
different permutations of response to be tried
(Heathcote in Johnson & O’Neill p. 69)
The dramatic process is a „tool‟ and also
involves use of specific selected
content/narrative frames, conventions and
processes – these can all be considered as
„tools‟
DRAMA AS AN EDUCATIONAL MEDIUM
15. Vygotsky
Tools, Signs & artefacts
mediate learning &
culture (between mind
and others)
Heathcote
Would often use
concrete tools and
artefacts
(maps, paintings, letter
s, photographs etc)
within a drama – to
„help crystallize belief‟.
(Wagner p. 71)
TOOLS, SIGNS & ARTEFACTS
16. What is form?... The first component would appear to
be the ordering of the miscellaneous and reducing
miscellany to order…the second ingredient would
appear to be a process of simplification.. Selection
and rearrangement of the available materials…
Third, form is „fitness of purpose‟ (Heathcote in
Johnson & O‟Neill p. 76 drawing on Rugg)
“Art experiences insist upon a restructuring of
ordinary perceptions of reality so that we end by
seeing the world instead of numbly recognising
it”. (p. 128)
FORM IS ALSO A TOOL - HEATHCOTE
17. “Art is the social technique of emotion, a tool of society which
brings the most intimate and personal aspects of our being into
the circle of social life” (Vygotsky, 1971, p. 249).
“… drama, which is based on actions, and, furthermore, actions
to be performed by the child himself, is the form of creativity
that most closely, actively, and directly corresponds to actual
experiences … Thus the dramatic form expresses with greatest
clarity the full cycle of imagination…” (Vygotsky, 2004, p 70)
“Drama, more than any other form of creation, is closely and
directly linked to play, which is the root of all creativity in
children. Thus, drama is the most syncretic mode of creation,
that is, it contains elements of the most diverse forms of
creativity.” (Vygotsky,2004, p. 71)
VYGOTSKY ON ROLE OF ART & DRAMA
18. “The staging of drama
provides the pretext and
material for the most diverse
forms of creativity on the part
of the children. The children
themselves
compose, improvise, or
prepare the play, improvise
the roles or sometimes
dramatize some existing piece
of literature”
“That is why plays written by the
children themselves or created
and improvised by them as they
are played are vastly more
compatible with children‟s
understanding” (Vygotsky, 2004,( p. 72)
Being the closest to actual
living, drama more than any
other art has had to create
a special frame. This frame
is called theatre. Theatre is
life depicted in a no-penalty
zone. (Heathcote in Johnson & O‟Neill
p. 130)
VYGOTKSY & HEATHCOTE ON PROCESS
AND IMPROVISED DRAMA
20. One of the early tasks
of the teacher is to
create experiences of
intensity because these
are the one which will
commit the class to
further work as they
give instant success
feedback. (Heathcote in Johnson
& O’Neill, p. 74)
Ideas from Vygotsky
and Heathcote
Active role of „teacher‟
in crafting and
interacting within the
encounter
The selection and
orchestration of the use
of a range of
appropriate „tools‟ –
conceptual, actual, tech
nological, relational
requires mastery and
artistry
TEACHER‟S ROLE - CRAFTING OF THE
AESTHETIC ENCOUNTER
21. +
EXAMPLE
The Water Reckoning –
Rolling Role Project
www.water-reckoning.net
(based on Heathcote’s
Rolling Role concept
# Fictional frame (tool) Discovery of a
lost culture of frozen people
underwater who experienced times of
crisis
# Who were these people and what
happened? (Problem)
# Use of physical
artefacts, images, music, dramatic
form and digital tools
Jason
deCaires
Taylor
imagery
25. The importance of finding
and creating the
aesthetically charged
tools for engagement
The power of using digital
technologies to create
and share creative work
Students (as drama
students) happy to have
teachers play recording
and editing role
Learning and reflection
was often stimulated by
viewing their own edited
work shown back to them
Students were not all that
keen to use the
technologies themselves
in school drama
The importance of
identifying and naming
the use of dramatic form
The active role of
teacher‟s in designing
and shaping the aesthetic
encounters, laying trails,
opening up the spaces for
student creativity BUT
then identifying and
responding to what they
create.
PROJECT OUTCOMES
26. Object
Learning goals
drama & life
concepts, versi
ons of self &
world
Embodied
Experience
Subject Reflective process
Phase I Mediating tools
# Drama learning medium, conventions of artform
# Fictional „what if‟ context and associated „problem‟
# Teacher-in-role - Character, history, relational positioning
# Artefacts and tools – aesthetically charged tools of the
imagination
Potential outcome
Drama and other
learning & identity
formation
Phase II Mediating tools
# Educator out-of-role
# Reflection and debriefing tools - connecting
classroom and „real-world‟ context
# Tools and artefacts to mediate meaning
making
27. Some assume that all students are „digital natives‟ – engage in
technological romanticism -‟ kids can all do it, leave it to them.‟ Side-
step an active teacher role.
Digital tools just add to the tool-kit, alongside the other types of tools
already considered.
Transformative learning involves extending the scope of the tools
available and building on aspects of the role for the teacher as already
identified by leading practitioners and theorists such as Heathcote &
Vygotsky.
Heathcote – teacher as actor, director, playwright and audience
Vygotsky – teacher as more capable peer prompting interaction and
extending learning
NOW
Teacher as curator and designer of aesthetic encounters utilising
aesthetically charged tools as gateways to the imagination and
connected learning.
SHIFTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE
28. Bolton, G. (2003). The Dorothy Heathcote Story: Biography of a Remarkable Drama
Teacher. London: Trentham Books.
Heathcote, D. (2002). Contexts for Active learning - Four models to forge links between
schooling and society. Paper presented at the NATC, Birmingham.
http://www.moeplanning.co.uk/wp -content/uploads/2008/05/dh -contexts-for-active-
learning.pdf
Heathcote, D., & Bolton, G. (1995). Drama for learning: Dorothy Heathcote's mantle of
the expert approach to education . Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Johnson, L., & O'Neill, C. (Eds.). (1984). Dorothy Heathcote: Collected Writings on
Education and Drama. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press .
Vygotsky, L. S. (1930/2004). Imagination and creativity in childhood. Journal of Russian
and East European Psychology, 42(1), 7-97.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1931/1998). Imagination and creativity of the adolescent (Hall, M.
J., Trans.). In Reiber, R. (Ed.), The collected works of LS Vygotsky: Volume 5, child
psychology. New York: Plenum Press. Retrieved from
http://www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/works/1931/adolescent/ch12. htm
Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1971). The psychology of art. Cambridge, MASS: MIT Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological
processes. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press .
Vygotsky, L. S. (1998). The collected works of L.S. Vygotsky - Volume 5 child psychology
(Hall, M. J., Trans.). New York & London: Plenum Press .
Vygotsky, L. S. (2003). Imagination and creativity in childhood. Journal of Russian and
East European Psychology, 42(1), 7-97.
Wagner, B. J. (1976). Dorothy Heathcote: Drama as a learning medium . Washington DC:
National Education Association of the United States.
REFERENCES
Notes de l'éditeur
Both revolutionary – in terms of times they were working in (Vygotsky post revolutionary Russia – remaking society – Heathcote, post war progressive era, reworking social agency and relationships, both viewed learners as active agents and engaged in disrupting normative classroom interactions. Positioning learners as active agents – but teacher is not just facilitator on the side – teacher is an active co-participant in problem solving processes. Arrived at some very similar ideas about working collaboratively and creatively at different revolutionary times. What is the same and different now in another revolutionary era, the digital revolution?
I had initially drawn on the work of both based on concepts they are both best known for – Vygtosky in education and the notion of the zone of proximal development and Heathcote for drama processes and the power of teacher working in role. The more I have read of both though I have found that they are both equally relevant as theorists in terms of education and drama. Vygotsky wrote a lot about the arts, creativity theatre and drama, and Heathcote wrote about teaching and learning processes as well as drama.
(Bolton noted what Dorothy did not read… academic texts appealing to educationalists – so she did not directly draw on Vygotsky’s work, yet there are many ideas to be found in the work of both that are surprisingly similar. Some of her more left leaning students and colleagues encouraged her to read Vygotsky and even gave her texts (Mind in Society) but she did not want to be particularly associated with what she saw as Marxist related theory. However when you read some of the things she said (e.g. on the right) it sounds remarkably like something like Vygtosky or Vygotskian type thinking.
Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who was born in 1896 and died in 1934. His major works contributed to the fields of psychology and education in particular. When he died in 1934 he left a significant body of work that had not been published and much of it was it was suppressed for over thirty years. Consequently the majority of his work did not get translated and published in English until the late 1970s and 1980s and the impact of it since then has been considerable, especially in the field of education. Whilst the concept of the zone of proximal development and his work on play are probably the most widely known Vygotsky was also a lover of theatre and literature and was a theatre critic and teacher of literature early in his career. His initial academic work was concerned with the Psychology of Art (Vygotsky, 1971) and aesthetic (or esthetic) education (Vygotsky, 1926/1992, 2003). This work is less well known but of relevance to any discussion of drama education. He also wrote several papers on creativity, exploring the creative development of children and adolescents (Vygotsky, 1930/2004, 1931/1998). In the work he was involved in just before his death, he had returned to a focus on emotions and the affective domain and appeared to be drawing together some concepts from his early work and that on consciousness and higher mental functions (John-Steiner & Mahn, 2002; Leontiev, 1979/1997). In this later work he reaffirmed the belief that emotional-affective domains were central to children’s engagement in activity and concept formation.
She was born into a Yorkshire mill family of northern England in 1926. She initially believed her mother was widowed though later realized that she was illegitimate. The family was not well off financially, though Bolton reports that they never felt poor and they felt “rich enough for all to go round” (Bolton, 2003, p.11). In terms of personal characteristics, what is clear is that Heathcote was a keen learner, a voracious reader who as a child read a book a day, and was endlessly curious about the world. She had a particular interest in domains such as English, History and Geography and drew on her knowledge of literature and history later on in her drama work.Heathcote’s knowledge of narrative and drama was stimulated through going to the movies as a child, voracious reading and imaginings. She did well at school but missed out on a place at the Grammar School so left school at the age of 14 to work in the mill in 1940. While working at the mill she learnt verses and texts while at the loom, and her performance skills were extended through having elocution classes with local actor and teacher Mollie Sugden. She then joined a concert party, and a performance group, the Bingley players. She began actor training in 1945 at the age of 19 and through this experience she worked with an impressive array of people including Rudolf Laban, Esme Church (who was a London-based actor and director and had been Head of Acting at the Old Vic) and high quality visiting artists. The school also had a focus on practical work and in children’s performance in particular. Her future direction was largely determined when Esme Church offered Dorothy the opportunity to complete the teaching course with her, gaining her Licentiate with L.R.A.M. after which she began teaching and working with others. Bolton speaks of Esme Church planting the seed with her concept of ‘The Drama of the Mind’ whereby children could make up their own plays about things that mattered to them.Heathcote’s approach to improvised, co-constructing drama with participants began when she was doing practice teaching during her course and found herself ‘out of the blue’ asking a group of boys the question “If you were Captain of a ship, what would you look for in the men who were going to sail it?” (Bolton 2003, p. 25). Somehow just ‘knew’ that she needed to work with the whole group.Not long after graduating her course, she was appointed as a lecturer at Durham University (later the University of Newcastle) in 1951, aged 24, even though she had not been formally trained as a teacher. She regularly worked with schools and asked to actively teach classes, with other teachers watching, learning and participating as she worked with different groups of students. So began Heathcote’s innovative practice in the realm of education drama and in particular her approach to taking on roles within dramatic work. The improvised work was created in the moment with children acting as co-constructors of dramatic plays, often with an audience of other practitioners.
She ensured that there was a structure, I mean a theatrical and dramatic experience, but also a personal and emotional one, and that the learning came through the structuring of that emotion and reflection. (John O’Toole 18/12/12, lines 104-111)
The role of the teacher then becomes very important for selecting and crafting the encounters – providing the right kinds of parameters and constraints, selecting and creating tools to enable students to connect to the imaginative ‘what if’ world and engage in collaborative creative endeavours.