CLASSROOM RESEARCH: KEY FINDINGS

A theatre-based approach: How teachers saw the key benefits manifest in their classrooms

With very few exceptions, the students enjoyed working on Shakespeare using theatre-based approaches.

Many teachers were surprised and delighted at how using theatre-based approaches helped the students to develop empathy for the characters in the plays and by extension for other people experiencing similar situations in the past and today. The phrase 'putting yourself in someone else's shoes' was often used.

The teachers were similarly pleased to find the theatre-based approaches increased levels of cooperation amongst their students as they developed empathy for one another as well as the characters.

Because students enjoyed the work, behaviour improved and their motivation to 'play by the rules' was greater. They could see the value of the rules and subtly (and not so subtly) exerted pressure on each other to work well.

The teachers found that few students can appreciate the power of Shakespeare's language just through reading it but that all students benefit from an active, collaborative learning experience, which brings the language to life. Theatre based approaches were found to accommodate different learning styles and different abilities, giving confidence to the less able, whilst challenging the more able.

Students' confidence increased as they became more comfortable and motivated to offer ideas, verbally and written. Many students who normally struggled found that they were good at this type of learning; they understood what was being asked of them and they enjoyed the tasks they were set.

Students' textual knowledge increased as they worked with the language, exploring its meaning. This also helped their understanding and ability to remember actions and words from the plays. Variations on students saying, "I could remember it and understand it better because I did it" were very common.

Students' self-esteem increased because, whether we like Shakespeare or not, the cultural value and perceived level of difficulty we place on his works means that owning a bit of Shakespeare for yourself makes you feel good about yourself.

Many teachers were pleasantly surprised at the ideas and insights raised by normally disaffected students. Many students were pleasantly surprised at finding they could enjoy, understand and achieve at Shakespeare after all.

In many cases, students' attainment levels rose with their teacher feeling confident that the increase in attainment was a direct result of the practical work.

Using theatre based approaches to Shakespeare very often led to improvements in standards of writing in the following ways:

• Motivation to write followed an experiential approach -  for example being Juliet and hearing all the horrible things your father says to you gave students an insight into Juliet's state of mind that they wanted to explain
• The experiential approach gave students a sensory experience which improved their vocabulary for description
• Close exploration of edited text gave students a deeper appreciation of why Shakespeare used the words and rhythms he did

Teachers' enjoyment and confidence in teaching Shakespeare increased hugely. In a follow-up questionnaire given to teachers on the course, 100% agreed they had become better and more creative teachers, and 83% felt the course had increased their confidence as a classroom teacher.

Both teachers and students were proud of what they achieved.

Teachers' key concerns about theatre based approaches to teaching Shakespeare

Teachers reported a generally perceived need to 'play safe' when teaching Shakespeare to classes preparing for examinations in order to ensure good grades. 'Playing safe' here means transmitting knowledge rather than exploring meaning: teacher led, desk-bound annotation rather than teacher facilitated, up on your feet experimentation.

There appear to be two main reasons for this perceived need to 'play safe':

Lack of appropriate training 

• English/Primary teachers are often not trained in drama methods and are therefore unfamiliar with ways into exploring Shakespeare as a performance text.
• English/Primary teachers sometimes do not have a secure subject knowledge of Shakespeare and feel less traditional approaches to teaching Shakespeare may raise more challenges to their own role as 'expert.'

Current systems of assessment 

• Not only students, but also their school and their teacher are judged by examination results. Teachers generally feel unable to take risks in preparing students for examinations.
• Standard preparation for the Year 9 SATs Shakespeare paper is teacher led annotation of the two set scenes, coupled with writing practice essays. Most teachers feel constrained to follow this formula with little time for other approaches.
• All our Secondary teachers and a great many of their colleagues felt the necessity of preparing students to gain good grades in the SATs examinations limited their ability to deliver interesting and engaging lessons.
• More often than not, students emerge from their experience of studying Shakespeare for SATs feeling that Shakespeare is 'boring.'

Other key concerns

Fear of losing classroom control
This soon faded as teachers found that the more they used theatre-based approaches the less behaviour problems they experienced. Sometimes perseverance was needed as students adjusted to the new ways of working but issues connected to personal space, shyness and attention-seeking quickly faded as students were motivated to want to work together. Many teachers reported lasting improvements in behaviour as a result of the collaborative learning approaches.

Fear of looking silly
This also faded as a concern as the teachers relaxed and enjoyed sharing learning with their students. All teachers reported improved relationships with their classes as students of all abilities responded in kind to the trust and respect that the active approaches required of everyone in the group, teacher and students alike.

Constraints of curriculum time and physical space
All teachers felt that the time spent on theatre-based approaches was very well used and were determined to continue using the approaches, however they did feel pressured by a very full, prescribed curriculum. Finding the physical space to teach using active approaches was an issue felt more keenly in some schools and classrooms than others. There is no easy answer to this as schools vary so much in the facilities they have and the pressures on those facilities. However, our teachers did feel increasingly confident in the value of active approaches to 'find a way' - whether that meant moving furniture in their classrooms, working in corridors or grabbing the drama studio/hall whenever they could.

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