Rob Baker

1. Educational
Spaces: room
for theatre?

2. 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]

3. Petit Testament by Ernest Lalor Malley [from the compilation The Darkening
Ecliptic (1944)]
In the twenty-fifth year of my age
I find myself to be a dromedary
That has run short of water between
One oasis and the next mirage
And having despaired of ever
Making my obsessions intelligible
I am content at last to be
The sole clerk of my metamorphoses.
Begin here:
In the year 1943
I resigned to the living all collateral images
Reserving to myself a man’s
Inalienable right to be sad
At his own funeral.
(Here the peacock blinks the eyes
of his multipennate tail.)

4. The Dr. Fox experiment
https://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.

5. Petit Testament by Ernest Lalor "Ern"
Malley
In the twenty-fifth year of my age
I find myself to be a dromedary
That has run short of water between
One oasis and the next mirage
And having despaired of ever
Making my obsessions intelligible
I am content at last to be
The sole clerk of my metamorphoses.
Begin here:
In the year 1943
I resigned to the living all collateral images
Reserving to myself a man’s
Inalienable right to be sad
At his own funeral.
(Here the peacock blinks the eyes
of his multipennate tail.)

7. Scheherazade - legendary queen and the
storyteller of One Thousand and One
Nights.
Sir Richard Burton's translation

8. Scheherazade - legendary queen and the
storyteller of One Thousand and One
Nights.
Sir Richard Burton's translation

10. 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.

11. Some pragmatics:
a [short] repertoire of techniques

12. Our survey says . . .
>70% of respondents can sustain
engagement for 2 hours or more

13. Our survey says . . .
Hypothesis - theatrical devices can enhance all these things
The top 3 ways tutors have
enhanced my engagement:
1. Made it interesting
2. Made me think
3. Made it fun

14. Invitation - please help us share more examples
Theatrical devices
- some examples
Characterisation / caricature
e.g. Bennis, leaders and managers
Suspense
"A human life is worth about $200,000"
Misdirection
"In our next session I will lie to you"

15. Theatrical devices
- some others
Non verbal communications
e.g. emotional labour
Props
magic tricks, etc . . .
Signposts, motifs and symbols
directions to something significant
Invitation - please help us share more examples

16. Theatrical devices
- some others
Exposition
when 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

17. Some theoretical underpinning

18. "Own the space" ....but,
who's the performer?

19. 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.

20. 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)

22. 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)

24. 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).

25. 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)

27. 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)

29. 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).

30. Passing shots

31. So why the London bus?

32. 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.

33. Competition time!
Your ideas please

34. Possible future work

35. Possible future work
2016-17
1. Extend sample (a) institution-wide & (b) nationally
2. Triangulate
3. Develop qualitative study component
4. 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
2017-18
1. Develop & publish a compendium of resources

36. Thanks!
From
Adrian, Adrian, Carol, Rob, Tim
and the 'SBS Theatre in Learning Research
Group'
r.baker@shu.ac.uk (corresponding co-author)

37. 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.