Sharla Arnold Ed Psych

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Ok, Social Cognitivism is defined as learning that occurs through observing and imitating someone else's behavior.  Yeah......you just defined acting.  Isn't that what acting is in the most basic form, a meaningful imitation of life?  Social cognitivism is a learning theory, meaning that the point of the theory is to be able to understand how people learn and therefore use the theory to teach.  But I think it's interesting that acting's main goal is to imitate life in a meaningful way.  The one thing that every acting method have in common is described in this learning model, to observe those around you and imitate other's behavior.  Mind blown. So, how does this translate to a middle school theatre class?  Observation is the first step in the research Albert Bandura did on this theory.  In the class I was observing, and in every theatre situation ever, the end result of theatre involves people observing.  So in a theatre class, formative p...

Is it just me, or does every learning theory fit into theatre in some way?  Well, all of the good ones anyway.  This seems to be true for Modern Constructivism as well.  It is a big beautiful burrito of all of the intrinsically motivated, identity development centered, learning theories out there.    There is one case where this is usually done in theatre unintentionally!  When a person is in a play for the first time they have to understand stage directions.  Stage directions refers to the areas of the stage that an actor is directed to be or move to during a scene.  In the Secondary Theatre class for 7-8 graders I have been observing the teacher asked the class if they had ever been taught stage direction.  The majority of the class said no.  She then asked if the class understood the terms of stage directed such as "up center", most said yes.  The reason for this is that frequently a new actor will be told where to go on the st...

Lesson Reflection Stage Combat Secondary Theatre Grades 7-8 I feel my lesson was 100% on target for helping my students meet the objective of demonstrating safe stage combat.  Although direct instruction can be a less effective way to teach, in this lesson it was necessary to insure the safety of the students while we practiced the fight moves.   Growth mindset is so important in theatre because so many students come into class with a fixed mindset! They already have ideas of how well they believe they can sing or dance or act. Additionally, assessments tend to be public, so when a student doesn't master a skill the class can see it. For this reason I believe it is my job as a theatre teacher to teach growth mindset regularly and help students apply it to every aspect of their lives. In my lesson on stage combat the growth mindset was reinforced by warmly encouraging all students to participate and giving positive feedback when a strike went particularly well. Also, ...

In the Level 2 middle school theatre class I have been observing I see a lot of Piaget 's and Vygotsky 's theories at play.  Cognitively speaking, Piaget' s Concrete and Formal operational stages are most prevalent at this age.  In theatre I see students using inductive and deductive reasoning as they try to make choices about how a character would act.  I see them really start to use hypothetical reasoning as they make sense of the deeper meaning of the plays they are studying.  I also see Vygotsky represented as students work to cooperate and collaborate on scene work.  They rely heavily on the teacher as the More Knowledgeable Other to answer questions and get feedback.  They are also becoming more aware of their own understanding of the Zone of Proximal Development , meaning they know how far to push themselves when creating scenes together.  Both theories agree that this class needs a chance to try new tasks, develop their own opinions abou...

I decided what I want to be when I grow up at age 40.  I have always loved theatre and even got my degree in it but after that I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with that degree.  I found myself in love and starting a family and that degree in theatre faded into the background.  Fast forward 15 years and three kids later and suddenly I see the impact theatre classes can have on kids transitioning from Erikson's Industry stage into Identity.  This really became clear to me when my own son, diagnosed with ADHD and high functioning Autism, found joy and self esteem as he started his theatre classes in 6th grade.  I was shocked at the positive impact this class had on him.  Now he is in 8th grade and I am able to observe his class and it is clear how much these students benefit from this type of class as they struggle to move from childhood Industry stage into puberty and adolescent Identity stage. My son's theatre class is a Level 2 intermediate theatre clas...

The theatre world loves a bit of drama....ok, quite a bit of drama.  We like things to be interesting, emotional, and relevant.  The bigger the interest, the more emotional and the more relevant, the better.  So, the debate between Piaget's and Vygotsky's theory of development really peaked my interest.  There are parts of Piaget that I relate to and make sense to me, particularly his theories on how we classify the information we receive into schemas by assimilation or accommodation.  I also love the idea of introducing new material by relating it to an existing schema, that makes perfect sense.  The problem with Piaget is that Vygotsky said some stuff, and it's super good!  Vygotsky really makes sense in how theatre is performed and taught, so Vygotsky gets my vote and here is why... The three main components of Vygotsky's theory are that a student needs 1) a More Knowledgeable Other (someone who knows more than you that will guide you), 2) a Zone ...