Mantle of the expert

The mantle of the expert is a student-centered dramatic-inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning invented and developed by Professor Dorothy Heathcote at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1980s.^[1]

This approach inverts the typical teacher-to-student model of teaching by allowing the students to dictate their learning and educational process through creative drama. The students, rather than the teacher, are the main communicators in this process.^[2]

Mantle of the expert re-frames the teacher and student in fictional roles in which the students are “endowed” as experts in a specific field. Students are more than passive receivers of knowledge, rather they are the ones constructing it.^[3] With this approach, what happens within the process of the drama is what the lesson is, though it fosters critical thinking skills of students about facts. The collective is more important than the individual in this approach.^[4] Mantle of the expert is also referred to as “in-depth” drama, as students and teachers are “living” the experience of being in role. Mantle of the expert has very strong elements of naturalism, as well as Brechtian theatre.^[5]

Theory

Mantle of the expert has roots in sociology and anthropology.^[6] Mantle of the expert allows students to access power within the classroom and their learning, as the teacher becomes an “enabler” rather than a “transmitter”. Students, however, have to work for this power by finding resources within themselves.^[7] Heathcote suggests that utilizing mantle of the expert changes the way in which students engages in their education because the information is being communicated in a different fashion. Because the child is involved in the process of the drama, the learning will be internalized and more meaningful.^[8]

References

External links

• Mantle of the Expert.com
• Fraser, D., Aitken, V., & Whyte, B. (2013). Connecting Curriculum, Linking Learning. Wellington: NZCER Press.