Drama Boreale - Åbo Akademi

ways of teaching still dominate, but they are limbered up by elements from progressive
pedagogy. My own observations from schools in Helgeland, Norway, are in accordance
with these findings. Teaching and learning are marked by mediation ruled by the teacher,
mixed with questions from the teacher to the pupils, and the pupils own work
(individually or in small groups) with different tasks. The classical dramaturgy
dominates, but it is combined – more or less- with dialogue-oriented ways of teaching
and learning.
Experiments with three dramaturgical models in school
The research team produced a set of explorative research questions: What happens if one
experiments with different dramaturgical models? May this create a foundation for
different learning processes? How might dramaturgical models strengthen learning
processes and motivate pupils who get detached from learning processes? How might
dramaturgy help teachers to create and develop learning processes that also motivate and
give challenges for high achieving pupils?
Dramaturgical models – a triangular didactics
Based on the observation that much teaching is traditional and with little variety, the
three dramaturgical models offer a way to create necessary variation. They open for a
triangular didactic where one may combine mediation governed by textbook and teacher,
both involvement and challenge of the experiences and perspectives of the pupils, and
more bodily, sensory and experience based forms of teaching and learning. It combines
the learning of a craft (techne), the creative use of craft, spontaneity and fantasy (poiesis)
with practical wisdom (phronesis) 6 .
Even if traditional teaching may motivate the pupils if it’s performed by enthusiastic
teacher’s who posses great professional skills, for many pupils such learning processes
are restricted. Even pupils get bored of sitting too long at their desks. But in some cases
even traditional ways of teaching might be regarded as regenerating, for pupils who
seldom experience ‘traditional’ teaching.
In one of our experiments the three models were used on the same topic. The topic was
‘the body’, the level was grade 3. Primary school (the pupils aged 9 years). The
experiment was carried out twice, in two different schools (but with pupils at the same
grade). We changed between:
• Classical dramaturgy on the topic ‘the construction of the body / the skeleton’,
• Dialogue-oriented (epic) dramaturgy on the topic ’birth and aging
• Juxtaposing dramaturgy on the topic ‘digestion’.
The pupils did a test before and after the experiment to examine how the different
models worked, and this information was supplied by observations during the
experiment. In one of the classes the pupils were not at all used to the teacher mediating
a subject as a lecture, and the lesson with classical dramaturgy thus seemed to be
renewing and motivating. The teacher expected the opposite effect, because her pupils
were mostly use to dialogue based teaching. In this experiment the dialogue-based
teaching (about birth and aging) was less effective.
Our experiment indicates two possible reasons for this. Firstly, dialogue oriented
dramaturgy easily draws the teacher from her own preparations. The model is heavily
dependent on a highly professional teacher, if the pupils are to have the possibility of
obtaining new knowledge, i.e. to know something more than they already know. This is
6 The concepts in brackets refer to Aristotle’s use of the concepts.
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