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| Example of Scientific Inquiry |
The Leonardo Effect
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| Example of Inquiry in Art |
The Leonardo Effect aims at
demonstrating how art and science can be integrated in order to help children
build upon their knowledge and skills. It aims to help practising teachers
bring creativity into their teaching so to teach in more creative and enjoyable
way that inspires students, develop their curiosity, raise the attainment,
and also to capture their imagination to encourage them to build a passion for
self- motivated learning (Fulton, 2012). This method of teaching is another
successful one according to Loudon, Head Teacher (2012, in Fulton, 2012 p. 2)
as she claims that by the use of The Leonardo Effect, ‘children have learned
more in a week than they normally would in a term’. Different Head Teacher on
the other hand claims that children were much more excited which had a positive
effect on their self-motivation and on the literacy levels (Vance 2012, in Fulton,
2012 p.2.). The Leonardo Effect plays a significant role in current education,
various of reports with teacher’s opinions outline that this method is very
empowering and allows Inquiry Learning as it provides hands-on experience for
children to investigate, develop their creative abilities and improve their
thinking skills. Not only that, this
approach enhances learning and follows the National Curriculum as it covers
literacy and numeracy in ways that higher powers want to (Fulton, 2012). Leonardo
himself as scientist believed that knowledge of this subject needs to proven
from experiments rather than facts, this is applied to education today. Both Art
and Science are subjects that link to enquiry as they require students to
experiment and build on natural curiosity. Science requires learners to explore, fair
test, investigate and so on. (Watson, et al., 1998, cited in Hutchings, 2016) whereas
Art also requires students to investigate, think creatively, construct,
experiment but in different ways.
The Leonardo Effect pedagogy can be, and is
used in primary and post-primary level in various ways depending on the age of
children. There are four steps of The Leonardo Effect which are used by current
schools aim at challenging learners to participate and develop their own
learning. Stage one involves research/ observation which aims at looking at students interests in depth, it is associated with models of inquiry
for both art and science. Second stage is the experimentation stage where
learners are able to experiment, visualise and imagine using different learning
styles. Third stage involves students applying previous knowledge and skills to
the new task allowing them to express their self in different way and the last
stage involves critical evaluation of how well they performed and
identification of new skills leaned (Fulton, 2012, p.52-54.). Throughout my partial
experience this method has been used in everyday basis in e.g. scientific
experiments. Teachers use this method as a way of motivating pupils through interdisciplinary
learning suggesting why this method of teaching is very successful for both
teachers and learners (See Article).
The Leonardo Effect in Ynystawe Primary School Swansea.
Newspaper Article on the Effectiveness of Leonardo Effect in Swansea School.
Mantle of the Expert
Mantle of the
Expert in an approach that has been developed by Dorothy Heathcote in January 1995
and is frequently used in current Education to help children engage in the
curriculum subjects more. Heathcote was interested how the involvement of drama
can be used in order to develop, deepen and improve education not only for
ordinary children but also for children with additional needs (Edmiston, no
date).
Mantle of the
Expert approach encourages children/students to use imaginary contexts to
engage various of activities for learning. Curriculum in twenty-first century includes
drama which mainly is the ability to play imaginary roles, also with the involvement of their teachers. Farmer (2012) argues that through using different
imaginative possibilities and drama it aims to show how adults can work
with learners with different abilities in order to develop richer quality of
lessons. Below is a video of mantle of the expert approach used in primary
school. It shows how teacher interacts with the class and how children’s engagement
has a positive effect on them, especially those who struggle in literacy and numeracy
and those with additional needs.
Mantle
of the Expert is inquiry based approach to teaching and learning for various of
reasons. As seen in the video, children with different abilities can engage,
experiment, question, and also enjoy themselves during these lessons where
their views and opinions are listened to. Like the name suggests, this approach
corresponds to the needs of the child and it surrounds the learner, placing
them at the canter and growing their learning. However, it is important to
outline that this approach is not lead by the child and the role of the teacher
in this case is vital in order for it to be successful. Teachers must provide
the essential conditions where the child can ‘grow’, build on their knowledge
and improve their understanding of the subject (Aitken, 2013).
This
‘drama’ approach provides real-world situations in both primary (role play) and
secondary school lessons (drama). Children in primary schools can take part
through role play where they can exchange their morals, values and interests.
As the video showed, when are struggling they are purposely not helped as
teachers argue that it gives children the ability to problem solve and build
upon their self-esteem.
My
experience showed that this approach is frequently used in both primary and
secondary education by the involvement of The Mantle of the Expert approach in
curriculum children and young people not only get different perspectives of
real-world situations but also are provided with the ability to widen their
thinking and see that not everything is black and white but rather is more
complex and abstract and enjoyable.
Resources
Aitken,
V. (2013) Dorothy Heathcote’s mantle of the expert approach to teaching
and learning: A brief introduction. Available at: http://www.mantleoftheexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/MOTE-Chapter-3_Aitken_Pages-from-Connecting-Curriculum-Fraser-v3-220213.pdf
David Farmer (2013) Mantle of the expert key stage
1. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGvOuEan6g
Edmiston, B. (no date) The Mantle of the Expert
Approach to Education. Available at: http://www.mantleoftheexpert.com/studying/articles/BE%20-%20The%20MoE%20Approach%20to%20Education.pd
Fulton, D. (2012) The Leonardo effect: Motivating
children to achieve through Interdisciplinary learning. Edited by Ivor / Hickey
and Deirdre Robson. London: Taylor & Francis.
Hutchings, L. (2016) Enquiring Minds: Creative Approaches.
South Wales Evening Post (2015) Estyn praise for
Swansea schools with the ‘Leonardo effect’. Available at: http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/estyn-praise-swansea-schools-leonardo-effect/story-26518725-detail/story.html
Ynystawe
Primary School (2013) The Leonardo effect - Ynystawe primary school -
Swansea Edunet. Available at: https://swansea-edunet.gov.uk/en/schools/ynystawe/Pages/The_Leonardo_Effect.aspx
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