Dorothy heathcote process drama

Dorothy heathcote teacher in role
Dorothy heathcote quotes
Dorothy Heathcote MBE was a British drama teacher and academic who used the method of "teacher in role" as an approach to teaching across the curriculum in schools and later in other settings.

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Dorothy Heathcote MBE (29 August 1926 – 8 October 2011) was a drama teacher and academic who invented mantle of the expert and many other revolutionary dramatic-inquiry approaches to teaching and learning.

She was born in Steeton, West Yorkshire in 1926. After failing her 11+ she studied at the local elementary school, leaving in July 1940, a month before her 14th birthday, to work alongside her mother as a weaver in Sam Clough’s woollen mill.

Dorothy worked there for five years and expected to stay there for the rest of her working life, but at the behest of her fellow workers, the mill boss, Charlie Fletcher, sponsored her to go and study drama at the Northern Theatre School in Bradford under the guidance of Esme Church. Famously Charlie told her, as she left, that if it didn’t work out there would always be three looms waiting for her at his mill.

At theatre school, Dorothy set her heart on becoming an actress. But at the end of her second year Esme Church told her she had no future on the stage, “My dear, you’re very talented – quite fearfully so at times, but you are

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Dorothy Heathcote

British drama teacher and academic

Dorothy HeathcoteMBE (29 August 1926 – 8 October 2011) was a British dramateacher and academic who used the method of "teacher in role" as an approach to teaching across the curriculum in schools and later in other settings. She was a highly accomplished teacher of theatre and drama for learning and amongst her many achievements she defined and developed "mantle of the expert" as an approach to teaching. The book she wrote with Gavin Bolton, that explains her Mantle of the expert approach to education, is Drama for Learning (1994). The most significant previous book that explains her approach was written by Betty Jane Wagner and was entitled Dorothy Heathcote: Drama as a Learning Medium.

Early life

She was born in Steeton, West Yorkshire in 1926. After failing her eleven-plus exam she studied at the local elementary school, leaving in July 1940, a month before her 14th birthday, to work alongside her mother as a weaver in a woollen mill.

Heathcote worked there for five years and expected to stay ther

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Mantle of the expert

Mantle of the Expert is an education approach that uses imaginary contexts to generate purposeful^[1] and engaging^[2] activities for learning. Within this fictional framework, students are cast as a team of experts working for a client on a commission. The commission is designed by the teacher to generate tasks and activities that meet the client's requirements and provide opportunities for students to explore various curriculum areas. For instance, a class might be cast as archaeologistsexcavating an Egyptian tomb for the Cairo Museum. To complete the commission, they would research ancient Egyptian history, covering topics such as tombs, artifacts, and rituals. This approach enables the study of history, geography, art, design, and other subjects, while also developing skills in reading, writing, problem-solving, and inquiry. Mantle of the Expert is intended to be used selectively alongside other teaching methods.

Development

Dorothy Heathcote developed Mantle of the Expert at Newcastle University during the 1970s and 198