Policy Paper - Drama Improves Lisbon Key Competences in Education

R e s u l t s
for the quality of learning and sense of efficacy. The
educator’s role in this approach is well explained by
the theory of Lev Vygotsky’s zone of proximal
development as: “problem solving under
adult guidance or in collaboration with more
capable peers”. 58 By focusing on what
students already know and what kind of
strategies they use to solve any problem,
the “mantle of the expert” approach
makes the educator responsible for the
development of cognitive tools rather
than the transfer of ready knowledge. The
use of dramatic roles is important in making
the learning of the tools experiential and nonthreatening,
as in Heathcote’s concept drama is a “no
penalty zone”. 59
Within the project, “Teenage Struggle for Entrepreneurship”, the
educators received very rudimentary training in “the mantle of the expert” approach, but
the problems themselves encouraged the young students to go beyond their present
state of knowledge and experience. The leaders were instructed not to provide readymade
answers. The problems were unsolvable even for most experienced educators
anyway, because of the vastness of the challenges they presented to a team. No one
individual could possibly do all the required work within the limited time framework.
The youngsters had to take on the perspective of business entrepreneurs as more
capable adults, and in order to do this they had to find models or credible sources of
information about successful business leaders. If they failed to present solutions applying
informed economic strategies, because their leader did not find the right way to facilitate
the process, the teenagers received constructive feedback from the judges of the
programme. In at least one of the problems most of the participants came close to “the
mantle of the expert” approach, as will be presented below in the research analysis.
The educators, or more precisely the coaches, of “Teenage Struggle for
Entrepreneurship” were focused on teaching objectives defined by the detailed
descriptions of the knowledge, skills and attitudes corresponding to the domain of the key
competence of entrepreneurship. The problems offered to their teams also related to the
following framework:
FRAMEWORK FOR KEY COMPETENCES IN A KNOWLEDGE-BASED SOCIETY 60
Definition of the competence Knowledge Skills Attitudes
Entrepreneurship has
an active and a passive
component: the propensity to
bring about innovation oneself,
but also the ability to welcome
and support innovation brought
about by external factors.
Entrepreneurship includes
welcoming change, taking
responsibility for one’s actions
(positive or negative), setting
objectives and meeting them
and having the motivation to
succeed
Knowledge
of available
opportunities
in order to
identify those
suited to one’s
own personal,
professional and/or
business activities
Table 18. The description of the competence “Entrepreneurship”
The competence consists of the following elements of knowledge,
skills and attitudes as appropriate to the context:
Skills for planning, organising,
analysing, communicating,
doing, de-briefing, evaluating
and recording. Skills for
project development and
implementation. Ability to
work co-operatively and
flexibly as part of a team.
Being able to identify one’s
personal strengths and
weaknesses.
• Ability to act proactively
and respond positively to
changes.
• Ability to assess and take
risks as and when warranted
Disposition to show
initiative.
Positive attitude
to change and
innovation.
Willingness to identify
areas where one can
demonstrate the full
range of enterprise
skills — for example
at home, at work and
in the community
The educators and the students were asked to fill in questionnaires with open-ended
questions:
1. How did you understand the mission of this programme?
2. What kind of previous knowledge among the students turned out to be useful in
solving the problems?
3. What kind of knowledge did you see being developed in the process of solving the
tournament problems?
4. What did the students do to solve the problems?
Which skills were most difficult to learn?
5. What kind of motivation did the students have to work on the problems?
6. How would you describe the change that the tournament brought to the students’
entrepreneurial competence?
7. What was the possible source of satisfaction for the teenagers?
8. What kind of advice would you give to the participants of the next edition of the
tournament?
R e s u l t s
58 Vygotsky, L. S. (1978) Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological processes, Cambridge MA:
Harvard University Press.
59 Heathcote, D. (1984) in Johnson, L. & O’Neil, C. Collected writings on education and drama, London: Hutchinson
p. 130.
60 Source: EU Comission implementation of "Education and Training 2010" work programme, working Group B "Key
competences" for lifelong learning, a European reference framework November 2004.
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