Theater as a Learning Medium: The Case of Darwin’s Journey

• In Event: Multimodal Arts Education: Virtuality, Fiction, Drama, and Utopia in Educational Research

Abstract

Theatre is often used as a learning environment in museums. Previous studies on museum theatre focused on viewers. This study employs a broader perspective and also investigates the goals of the creators and the arising script, based on Hall's model of encoding/decoding. Creators' main aims were identified based on an interview. Evidence for these was sought for in a content analysis of the script and in audience questionnaires and interviews. There was clear evidence that specific learning objectives were decoded as intended: viewers knew about Darwin, adaptation of animals to the environment and that animals evolve over time. There was less clear-cut evidence for the decoding of more general aims: stimulating wonderment towards nature, and talking about the scientific method.

Authors

• Ran Peleg, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

• Ayelet Baram-Tsabari, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology