KA2 – Cooperation for Innovation and Exchange of Good Practices

KA201 - Strategic Partnership for school education

Project title: Theatre in Mathematics

Project Acronym: TIM
Project Number: 2018-1-IT02-KA201-048139

TIM – Theatre in Mathematics

Methodology Manual
TIM Methodology Manual 2018-1-IT02-KA201-048139

TIM – Theatre in Mathematics Methodology Manual

Index of contents

1. Introduction 5
1. The TIM Project: a new methodology for Math teaching 6
2. A new approach to mathematics 7
3. Life skills and scholastic well-being 10
5. The Social and Community Theatre methodology 12
5.1. The origins of Social and Community Theatre (SCT) 12
5.2. The SCT workshop 14
6. Introduction to Mathemart 17
6.1. A Mathemart set of lessons with a class 18
6.2. A Mathemart workshop 19
6.2.1. PHASES OF THE MATHEMART (SCT) WORKSHOP 20
6.2.2. POINTS OF ATTENTION 21

7. Introduction to process drama 22

7.2. Structuring process drama in the TIM methodology 24
7.2.3. ROLE CATEGORIES 24

8. Combining Mathemart and Process Drama to a new methodology 29

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Disclaimer
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the
Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of
the information contained therein.

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1. INTRODUCTION

The main objective of the TIM Methodology Manual is to explain where the
TIM Methodology originates and which is the approach of the authors. In
the first chapters it gives an overview about the international trends in math
education and why the TIM approach is aligned to these trends and the
motivations that moved the authors to the TIM approach are described.
The Chapter “Life skills and scholastic well-being” explains how drama and
dramatisation can improve student’s life skills that are strictly
interconnected with the students’ wellbeing and their learning.
The TIM methodology originates from the assessment and combination of
two complementary approaches: “Mathemart – Playing with
mathematics in the theatre workshop” and “Process Drama – change
of roles, perspectives, and role aspects in teaching mathematics”.
The TIM Methodology draws on the Social and Community Theatre
Methodology. So, Chapters 5, 6 and 7 are dedicated to these funding
elements of TIM – Theatre in Mathematics methodology: the Social and
Community Theatre, Mathemart and Process Drama are described in their
characteristics, as well as how they have been used in teaching
mathematics by the partners of the TIM Project.
The last Chapter describes how Mathemart and Process Drama have been
combined in the TIM methodology in order to create a flexible methodology
to support math teaching in the classroom.

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1. THE TIM PROJECT: A NEW METHODOLOGY FOR MATH TEACHING

The TIM Methodology originates from a three years-long collaboration of an
international team of drama, math teaching, education and wellbeing
professionals from Italy, Norway, Portugal and Greece. During the TIM –
Theatre in Mathematics Project, the team worked together to reflect,
exchange good practices and create a new methodology to teach
mathematics using drama in the classroom, that has then been tested and
implemented in schools in the four partners’ countries, with the support of
teacher and educators.
The TIM – Theatre in Mathematics Methodology originates from the
assessment and combination of two complementary methodologies:
“Mathemart – Playing with mathematics in the theatre workshop” and
“Process Drama – change of roles, perspectives, and role aspects in
teaching mathematics”. Mathemart is an innovative pedagogical approach
that consists in teaching mathematics through the Social and Community
Theatre (SCT) methodology of the University of Turin. Mathemart uses SCT
to get students involved in the game of mathematics by means of theatrical
games and activities: an overall approach that includes mind and body,
inborn creativity and engagement. This theatrical setting conveys a
creative, playful and trusting atmosphere, enabling students to freely
explore without judging what they are doing, learning from mistakes in a
sequence of trial and error. Process Drama, developed by the HVL University
of Bergen, aims at changing the teacher dominated pattern of
communication by introducing and exploring roles and role aspects (the
sceptic, the curious, the authority, the mediator) to create more student
active learning processes, emphasizing the ability to change roles and
perspectives in a learning process with arguments more than just answers.
The TIM Methodology is built taking into account the 4 partner countries
education systems’ in order to have a flexible and adaptable tool to each
national and regional context.
The TIM – Theatre in Mathematics Project gave birth to three
methodological tools that provide trainers and teachers studying or using
the TIM methodology (or who received the TIM training) with a series of
guidelines necessary to implement the TIM Methodology in the classroom:

· The TIM Methodology Manual

· The TIM Toolkit: activities and exercises
· The Assessment and Evaluation Toolkit for teachers

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2. A NEW APPROACH TO MATHEMATICS

Learning mathematics in school has traditionally been a manner of
relentless rote rehearsal, drills, and memorization (Skemp 1976). This is
about to change. Twenty-first century mathematics educators approach
math with utterly different methods. New trends in the education system
show a shift where not only “outcomes” are valued but also “process”.
Instead of “getting” mathematical content knowledge from teachers,
students are prepared to be intellectually curious to establish their own
understanding. It is important for teachers to elicit students to ask
questions and encourage them to figure out the answers, rather than giving
them instructions. An important part of this is the students thinking behind
their participation, and how this relates to classroom culture. The dual
process theory explains how thought arises in two different ways, often
called system 1 and system 2. Kahneman (2003) relates system 1 to
intuition and system 2 to reasoning.
Within system 1, choices relate to what is easily available and often come
fluently without deeper thought. Within system 2, choices are based on
deliberate reasoning and thinking through alternatives and consequences.
But system 2 rests on deep thought, and it is typical for humans to try to
avoid such demanding processes and, instead, use intuition. But arguably,
mathematical insight might be developed within system 2. Consequently,
activating students’ system 2 during teaching seems to be crucial. It is
about empowering students to take a more active role in their own learning
process. In this way education systems around the world have been moving
from defining mathematics as sets of facts, in the direction of emphasizing
developing skills that go across multiple subjects.
This way of teaching is designed for helping students master content, think
critically, work collaboratively, communicate effectively, learn how to learn,
and develop academic mindsets. This kind of deeper learning indicates
students are developing and using their mathematical knowledge and skills
in a way that prepares them for real life.
Competencies needed in society have evolved, requiring skills that will
remain pertinent in a rapid changing world. To be successful in 21st-century
profession, personal and civic life, students need skills such as: analytical
reasoning, complex problem solving and teamwork. This is in line with WHO
Life skills (UNICEF 2012) that includes psycho-social competencies and
interpersonal skills that help people make informed decisions, solve
problems, think critically and creatively, communicate effectively, build

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healthy relationships, empathize with others, and cope with managing their
lives in a healthy and productive manner. Learning mathematics through
drama-themed activities is one approach to let students meet mathematics
in different ways and to help students better understand mathematics
concepts and reduce mathematics anxiety.
Our approach is to use ideas and tools from drama, such as roles and role
categories, to develop a way to help teachers change their teaching towards
the new trends. By using roles, and particularly role categories, the teacher
can construct a dialogue in the classroom where the students are given
tasks or guidelines on how to participate. To create a discussion, to get
deeper into ideas and concepts and reasons, one needs people that ask
questions, that challenges, and at some point, weigh the different
arguments to decide what is best or correct. For example, a teacher might
ask a student to talk about an answer he or she found. Then the teacher
can call on the students that are given the task (or role category) to be
curious, to ask questions until they understand the thinking or reasoning
behind the answer. Then the teacher can ask another student that had
another result to talk about it, and then again call upon the curious to ask
until they understand. Then the teacher can ask those given the role
category of being democratic leaders to decide what is correct and not, or
easiest to understand. In addition, one could use sceptics to challenge some
of the suggestions during the discussion. In this way, the teacher constructs
a dialogue where the students ask questions, explains, and decides what is
correct and not, based on arguments.
Such dialogues are in line with the newest trends of actively participating
students, activating system 2 and through this building a deeper and
relational understanding of mathematics. Also, using such constructed
discussions for a while will probably lead to the students’ taking roles by
themselves. But to make such constructed dialogues work, both teachers
and students need to learn how to play roles and to change perspective.
This is where process drama comes into play.
Another part of our approach is the use of games and theatrical activities
that are metaphors of a mathematical concept. This process can also
activate system 2. If during a theatrical game some mathematics is required
and the answer is not immediate it obliges the students to think about it
and find its own strategy to find a solution. This obligation is well accepted
by the students because finding a solution enables them to be part of the
game. So, this process is fostered by the pleasure of playing (instead of

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sitting at the desk) and makes the students active participants in the lesson
and more active for their own learning.

The same dynamic takes place when theatrical activities that are a
metaphor or a representation of a mathematical concept are proposed. In
this case the students are invited to understand the metaphor or the
representation used and the rules that regulate it in order to be part of the
activity. Again an active participation due to a strong motivation occurs and
it leads to a deeper understanding of the concepts used.

Furthermore, both kinds of activities engage the students in groups (either

class or subgroups) and this again requires the students to share, mediate,
explore new concepts and solutions collectively and it requires the use of
the system 2.

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3. LIFE SKILLS AND SCHOLASTIC WELL-BEING

Following recognition of educational life skills programs, the World Health
Organization (WHO, 1993a) identified psychosocial skills as factors central
to the promotion of health and well-being of children and adolescents. Three
categories of psychosocial skills are distinguished: emotive, cognitive, and
relational. The term life skills refers to the skills that enable an individual to
meet the needs and changes of daily life (WHO, 1993a). There is a growing
body of theory and research behind the rationale for describing the benefits
of skills-based health education. Through decades of research and
experience, the behavioral sciences, pedagogy, and child development have
amassed knowledge about the processes of growth, knowledge, learning,
and the means to acquire skills, attitudes, and behaviors in children and
adolescents. Prominent in this field is Albert Bandura’s theory of social
learning or social cognitive learning (1977).
The decision to prioritize the promotion of life skills at school derives from
the awareness that these competences will become part of a shared
repertory of the psychosocial skills children and young people will need to
confront the difficulties that will come with the changes and expectations
awaiting them (Bombi, Baumgartner, 2002). It has been shown that life
skills training within the school curriculum has a positive influence on the
development of all levels of communicative skills (with peers, teachers,
parents). The development of life skills improves psychological well-being
and enhances self-esteem. Finally, as demonstrated in other studies, life
skills training reduces aggression and depression and increases self
confidence and sense of responsibility (Nabors et al., 2000). Within its social
cognitive paradigm, Bandura’s constructivist learning theory provides the
framework for programs in skills-based health education (WHO, 2003)
through interactive and participatory approaches to teaching and learning.
Among the personal factors that enable individuals to determine events and
express their own potential, a “sense of self-efficacy” is the strongest and
most pervasive in many life situations (Bandura, 1997).
The teacher is the principal agent in classroom learning, a mediator of
knowledge and teaching experience, as well as a facilitator of emotional
aspects that can facilitate or inhibit students’ learning processes
(Feuerstein, 2005; Ravizza, 2008). Given the emotional variables in
learning, a range of evidence indicates that the emotional sensitivity the
teacher demonstrates toward a student’s learning difficulties is one of the
major variables that predicts the onset of anxiety in students (Niss et al.,

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2011; Pantziara et al., 2011). Studies have shown that a teacher’s

theoretical and practical knowledge, and so the use of certain techniques
for teaching math (e.g., problem solving, individualized support, error
correction at the end of the lesson, etc.) can increase positive feelings in
class (Caviola et al., 2017). An outstanding teacher is one who develops the
ability to motivate critical thinking in others (colleagues, students, etc.) in
order to take on individual changes and complex challenges, marshal the
resources of students and the school community to create contexts of
creative and innovative learning (Fullan, 2002; Inchley, Guggleberger &
Young, 2012; Griebler, Rojatz & Simovska, 2012; Saraanen, 2012).
The application of the TIM methodology allows the teacher to monitor the
development of life skills in their own class together with other factors such
as:
- the self-efficacy perceived by the teacher about his mathematics
teaching strategies;
- pupils’ feelings toward their teacher and their classmates;
- pupils’ beliefs toward their mathematics self-efficacy.
In the toolkit, the teacher will be able to find a glossary of useful terms and
various evaluation tools suggested by the pedagogical and psychological
literature. Consultation with an evaluation expert is desirable if the school
wishes to adopt them in full.

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5. THE SOCIAL AND COMMUNITY THEATRE METHODOLOGY

5.1. THE ORIGINS OF SOCIAL AND COMMUNITY THEATRE (SCT)

Social Theatre is a theatrical approach that starts in Italy, drawing from the
experiences of social animation, theatre animation and dramatherapy in the
second half of the ‘900. The first experiences of Social Theatre, in fact, aim
at using drama to support the empowerment and promote the wellbeing of
individuals belonging to disadvantaged or vulnerable groups 1.
Progressively, in recent times, Social Theatre interventions started to
become increasingly more focused on the educational impact of capacity
building based on theatre approaches and on “promotion and development
of communities, as a way of supporting processes of individual and
collective empowerment and as forms of expressive and communicative
research sparking from the identities of groups”2.

The general theory of social Theatre was developed in the studies conducted
in the 1980s at the Catholic University of Milan, with a focus on drama
workshops with groups and performative and festive dramaturgy. These
studies of Milan analysed the theatrical process – from training to
performance – and its pedagogical and social interaction potential.
Researches also focused on the transformational power of the ritualistic and
symbolic dimension of theatre, and on the personal and relational resources
that can result from its socioaffective dynamics.
Starting from these studies, in the early 2000s, the Social Community
Theatre Centre of the University of Turin further explored these concepts
and experiences, creating the methodology of Social Community Theatre,
focusing on the communitarian dimension and expanding the intention of
social theatre to include the local community in the work with groups 3.

1
Rossi Ghiglione, "La formazione in teatro sociale e di comunità all'università di Torino: un progetto
culturale regionale" in «Comunicazioni sociali», 2011, n. 2, 229-240 © 2011 Vita e Pensiero /
Pubblicazioni dell’Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
2
Rossi Ghiglione, Pagliarino, Fare teatro sociale. Esercizi e progetti, ed.
Dino Audino, 2011, p.11. Translated from Italian by the author of the present contribution. “promozione
e lo sviluppo di comunità come sostegno a processi di empowerment individuali e collettivi e come
forme di ricerca espressiva e comunicativa a partire dalle identità dei gruppi.”
3
Rossi Ghiglione,Fabris , Pagliarino, Caravan Next. A Social Community Theatre Project.
Methodology, Evaluation and Analysis, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2019. Open Access
http://ojs.francoangeli.it/_omp/index.php/oa/catalog/book/394, p. 37.

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Social Community Theatre methodology uses performing arts and

performative languages (singing, playing, music, dance, words, etc.) and
processes or events (workshops, celebrations, ecc.) in order to create
cultural activities where individuals can express themselves artistically; to
work on the development of interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships;
to promote the wellbeing of participants. Social and community Theatre
allows participants to share moments where symbolic representations of
themselves or the world are created in order to produce a transformation
of reality and of themselves.
The approach of Social Community Theatre draws from the following
principles:

Body: self-awareness and wellbeing

In theatre, just like in other performing arts, the human being has a central
role.
Starting from the 60s, theatre research focused on the training the theatre
professional would undergo in order to prepare for the artistic performance.
Social Community Theatre workshops implement these techniques
especially in the initial work with the group. These activities stimulate self-
perception and body awareness, foster creativity, promote presence, allow
one to modify one’s personal habits and promote the communicative and
expressive potential of the body.
Social Community Theatre uses the ability these activities have to promote
the participants wellbeing. Training self-awareness and body expressivity
allows us to effectively use energies, build a positive self-image, foster the
ability to build relationships and promote emotional and relational
wellbeing. A stronger self-awareness means a more solid emotional literacy
and therefore the promotion of empathy, which is the foundation of social
skills.

The “chorus”: diversity and trust

The collective nature of theatre determines its ability to allow and promote
the inclusion of different points of view. In Social and Community Theatre
the natural ability of theatre to create a “chorus”, is used to build bridges
between cultural, social and personal differences and therefore represents
the possibility to work for an inclusive community.
The trust that is built within a theatre group allows for free expression and
acceptance of differences. In fact, creating a safe space is the first concern
for a Social Community Theatre facilitator. In such an environment,

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participants become aware of bearing both rights and responsibilities, and

can therefore grow both from a social and personal point of view.

Play and rituals

Play is a central element in theatre: it has rules and specific times and
spaces, and it is pleasant and free from judgment. In the theatre workshop,
participants play to have fun and, at the same time, they are aware that
throughout play we learn. Playful activities are a place of cognitive and
moral development that allow participants to train for the challenges of real
life: we discover new alternatives, dive into new experiences without fear,
forget the psychological pressure of performing efficiently and unchain our
creativity.

Roles and Stories

Many theatre activities consist of “as if” games where participants play with
different identities or roleplaying. Taking on a different role allows
participants to explore other experiences and perspectives. In Social
Theatre these activities are used to foster the ability to imagine new
possibilities in real life and to accept and understand the other and their
point of views. At the same time, these roles taken up by participants often
interact in story telling activities that allow participants to enact a new
reality or a current one, either building a new common vision or further
understanding a certain reality, strengthening the identity of the
participants and their relationship.

5.2. THE SCT WORKSHOP

In Social and Community Theatre, experiential theatre workshops are the
tool that better fits for the purpose of enabling participants to develop skills
and competencies throughout the educational potential of theatre.

The theatre workshop follows a precise structure where time, interactions

among participants (including facilitators) and occurring actions are defined
and need to be carefully planned and reflected by the person conducting
the workshop, who will need full awareness of these principles in order to
take them into account both before and during the workshop sessions 4.

4
Rossi Ghiglione, Pagliarino, Fare teatro sociale. Esercizi e progetti, ed. Dino Audino, 2011, p.49.

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A SCT workshop has a precise structure that characterizes both the phases
of the whole workshop and the different moments in the individual
workshop session. The group works in a dedicated place, usually empty or
as “neutral” as possible, so to be easily distinguished from the daily context
of participants. The group (a maximum of 30 participants), is engaged for
a variable amount of time (from 1,30 hours to one full day) in a sequence
of activities and games both individually and in group, involving the
physical, cognitive and emotional sphere5.

The structure of a SCT workshop

A SCT workshop normally includes from 10 to 20 sessions.

The first sessions will be mainly dedicated to group building, the exploration
of relationships among participants, working on creating an atmosphere of
trust throughout playful games. In the following sessions a wider space can
be dedicated to exploring the expressive potential of the body (both for
individuals and the group), as well as activities that promote creative
listening skills in the group, which requires a higher level of trust that should
be developed in the first part of the workshop. The final sessions are
characterised by activities allowing exploration of themes and new artistic
languages. This phase usually works toward the creation of a final artistic
product.

The structure of a SCT workshop session

During the first part of the workshop, the group enters the space and time
of the working session, throughout a series of activities such as a first
moment of informal welcome, a formal contact with a beginning ritual, the
creation of a “contract” with the group (contents and times of the session
might be shared and negotiated with participants, the facilitator
communicates working times and allow participants to share specific needs)

5
Rossi Ghiglione, Arte, benessere e cura. La potenza del teatro in “Lo scandalo del corpo. Studi di un
altro teatro per Claudio Bernardi” a cura di C.Bino, G. Innocenti Malini, L. Peja, 251-262 in © 2019 Vita
e Pensiero / Pubblicazioni dell’Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore p.255.

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The second part is dedicated to exploration, throughout different activities

that might include different artistic languages, techniques, etc. For
example:

● individual training activities where participants, conducted by the

facilitator, explore and become aware of their voices and bodies as a
tool for expression and interaction with others.
● group training, where the whole group is involved in a collective
exploration to understand how group harmony and reciprocal
understanding can increase the expressive potential of both group
and individuals
● dramaturgical exploration and scenic creation, with activities (that
can include improvisation, creative use of spaces and objects,
storytelling, etc.) allow the group to represent and bring to life their
visions and ideas on specific themes.

In the third part of the session, the facilitator leads activities in order to
collect feedback from participants and elements on how the group
experienced the workshop session (i.e. wellbeing, perception of new
insights, reflection on what was experienced).

The session then ends with a closing ritual that, just like the beginning one,
allows the group to cross the threshold between the extra-ordinary and the
ordinary world, thus defining the experience of the session.

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6. INTRODUCTION TO MATHEMART
Mathemart is an innovative pedagogical approach to mathematics created
by Maurizio Bertolini in 2011. As teachers were looking for new
methodologies of teaching mathematics, Mathemart was conceived as a
new way of approaching mathematics trying to bypass the fear of this
subject.
Difficulty in learning and the fear of mathematics can have different causes
and origins. Mathemart's approach is based on the fact that difficulty in
learning math can derive from difficulty in understanding the content and
from emotional difficulties (Haciomeroglu, 2019). Math anxiety is a negative
emotional reaction to mathematics that can interfere with a person’s ability
to tackle math problems. It manifests through feelings of apprehension,
tension, and distress when confronted with manipulation of numbers and
solving mathematical problems in life situations. Recent studies have shown
negative correlations between anxiety and math performance (Devine et
al., 2012; Carey et al., 2019; Hill et al., 2016). If a student is scared of
mathematics, he cannot allow himself to make mistakes. His fear freezes
his brain and logic skills, and he cannot think straight.
Mathemart consists of teaching mathematics through the Social Community
Theatre (SCT) workshop.
The SCT methodology and its setting, the theatre workshop, is used to get
immersed in the game of mathematics by means of an overall approach
involving mind and body, inborn creativity and involvement. The theatrical
setting conveys a creative, playful and trusting atmosphere enabling
students to freely explore without judging what they are doing. It
encourages learning from mistakes in a sequence of trial and error.
A good theatrical setting can help students to forget that fear and to enjoy
the possibility of learning by playing. In fact, in the Mathemart training,
participants do not talk about mathematics, but experience the subject by
playing with mathematical relations and rules. Only after experiencing a
concept, they formalize it.
Mathemart has undergone testing in primary and secondary schools in Italy
since 2011. In particular it has been tested in 7 classes of secondary school,
featuring about 150 students from 11 to 14 years old. Each class took part
in 10 – 15 meetings (1 hour each). The most important results
acknowledged by teachers are:

· Mathemart has been useful to explain topics that students couldn’t

understand during a standard lesson;

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· New curricular topics explained first through Mathemart method and,

subsequently, in a standard lesson have been understood much more
easily than usual;
· Students who feared mathematics would feel comfortable during
Mathemart workshops and were active and absorbed;
· All students showed a high degree of involvement and enjoyment;
· Teachers involved were motivated to continue the Mathemart
experimentation

Mathemart - Teachers training

In 2014, the teacher’s training started in the North of Italy. The training is
structured in 2 levels: The first level introduces the methodology giving
some theatrical skills in order to have teachers ready to understand and
play with SCT language and tools. At the same time teachers are provided
with Mathemart games and exercises. By the end of the training, teachers
are able to lead Mathemart classes with their students.
The second level features a deeper work in order to understand the
principles on which Mathemart is based. The goal is to give teachers a
deeper knowledge of the methodology in order to be able to invent their
own Mathemart lessons according to the needs of their students.
The main work areas of the training are arithmetic, algebra, geometry and
creativity/problem solving.
The main results the teachers declared to have achieved are:
- new tools for personal awareness: body awareness, stress management
and class management
- stress decrease during the training
- new tools for leading lessons
- new tools for leading the class
- new format and languages to deal with mathematics in a non-frontal
lesson
- new tools for inventing new lessons of “mathematics and theatre” in order
to expand the set of activities learned during the training

6.1. A MATHEMART SET OF LESSONS WITH A CLASS

A set of Mathemart lessons usually lasts from 10 to 20 workshops of 1-2
hours each.
At the beginning of the process, during the first 3-4 meetings, more space
and attention is given to making the group familiar with the games and the

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theatre activities and to developing a common theatre language. In these

workshops the mathematical part is less important: we are preparing the
ground to later put the mathematical seeds. The main goal of this phase is
to make the group comfortable with the theatre languages we want to use,
before using that language to play with mathematics. Furthermore, in this
phase we start the process of group-building and creation of trust between
the facilitator and the group. So, in this phase are proposed theatrical
activities that will be later used to play with mathematical concepts.
After this first phase, mathematics can get more and more space and the
workshop is more focused on activities that imply the use of mathematics.
The games and activities first used to get the group familiar with the theatre
workshop, now are transformed to include mathematics concepts.
Nevertheless, every time we want to use a new theatrical language or a
new game, the theatre part needs to be trained before introducing
mathematics. The objective of Mathemart is to help students to overcome
the fear of mathematics but the facilitator needs to pay attention to not
foster the fear of theatre in the participants.
This way, once the students play with mathematics, they can focus only on
the math part: this makes the task easier for them and ensures pleasure in
carrying on the activity.
While planning a Mathemart workshop and a sequence of workshops, it is
important to keep in mind that both Theatre and Mathematics build
competencies on other competencies. For example:
 For mathematics, I need to teach math operations before I can teach
expressions.
 For theatre, exploring the expressive possibilities of the body comes
before exploring the expressive possibilities of the gesture; and it is
important to explore the sound before exploring the use of words. So
we need to proceed gradually.

6.2. A MATHEMART WORKSHOP

The Mathemart lesson is developed according to the specific structure of a
Social and Community Theatre workshop.
Since it is built on a specific methodology (SCT Methodology, see Chapter
5) it has a well-defined structure that can support teachers to plan the
activities and to invent new activities within a clear framework.
Furthermore, a repeated structure helps students to understand what they
are doing, they gain confidence in the setting and in the flow of the

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workshop and feel more comfortable during the whole process. This
facilitates the learning process.

6.2.1. PHASES OF THE MATHEMART (SCT) WORKSHOP

A single workshop has a clear structure where each phase has a specific
goal. This structure helps the facilitator to build a coherent experience
where the participants are accompanied step by step. It is an extra-ordinary
practice, where the ordinary life is left outside, that gives the participants
the possibility to experience a new way of learning involving body, emotions
and the cognitive level.

Contact and contract - first phase: the facilitator meets the group and
shares with them the structure and goals of the activity. It is a way to
engage them and make them active learners, responsible for their learning
process, since the beginning. It also communicates a sense of care for their
needs and it creates a trust relationship between learners and teachers.

Warm up – developing a common theatre language. Before approaching a

math topic the trainer must be sure that participants are comfortable with
the theatre techniques, activities or artistic languages he/she wants to use.
If they are comfortable with the theatrical language, they can have fun and
enjoy the activity and approach to mathematics in an environment that is
perceived as positive.

Main activity (main topic) - here the math topic is addressed and explored.
There are mainly three kind of main activities:
- Mathematical Games, that are games that come from theatre training
activities. These games are transformed so that the participants need
to use some math to play.
- Drama or performative activities where the participants experiment a
mathematical topic - the participants play a role or perform a scene
creating a metaphor or a representation of a mathematical concept
- third - activities that make the participants reflect on the mathematics
as a language where each word has a very well defined meaning

Cool down - in this phase the facilitator helps students to go from action
to reflection explaining, expanding or formalizing the mathematical
concepts addressed during the main activity

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Feedback - In this phase the facilitator establishes an environment of

reciprocal attention and listens to the students needs and feelings. In this
phase the group elaborates the experience done from the emotional and
cognitive point of view, becoming aware.

6.2.2. POINTS OF ATTENTION

Tailoring your lesson: in order to ensure a pleasant experience for my

group, I need to strongly take into account its characteristics and build my
lesson on these characteristics. Furthermore, it is important to always
remember that in a Mathemart lesson there are always at least two levels
of learning: mathematics and theatre and the group should always be
comfortable with both.

Observe and adjust: Each workshop and each sequence of workshops is

different. This is due to the fact that each group has different
characteristics. It is important for the facilitator to be able to change plans
based on the characteristics of the group and the individuals and any factor
that might come out during the workshops.
There are many aspects that can influence a workshop: the space, the
internal dynamics of the group, the characteristics of certain individuals,
the energy of the group on the specific day or time period, etc.

Break down the activity: Before proposing an activity, it is important to

make sure the group has the competencies to do it without moving too far
from the comfort zone. Otherwise, the activity can be tiring, stressing or
even frustrating. If a certain activity, to be completed, requires many
competencies, I can train them separately first, and then propose the full
activity. To make sure to understand the difficulty level of an activity, I can
break it down into the competencies it requires. For example, if I want the
group to work in subgroups to create scenes that they will perform in front
of the other group members, I will ask myself the following questions: are
they able to work in subgroups? To negotiate? To co-create? Have they
experienced performing in front of an audience? Are they able to act like an
audience and still be engaged in the activity? Are they able to stay focused
during a less dynamic activity? etc. Based on the answers to these
questions, I can plan many different preparatory activities to make the
group ready for the subgroups/performance activity.

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7. INTRODUCTION TO PROCESS DRAMA

Process drama is a structured, improvised acting form where teachers and
students agree to examine a fictional world together: ‘It is structured so
that participants take on multiple roles, not just one character throughout
the drama experience. It is framed this way to allow participants to consider
multiple perspectives’ (Landy and Montgomery 2012: 19). In this way,
process drama differs from other kinds of drama, such as basic role-plays
and dramatization.
Process drama is a genre of educational drama which focuses on
collaborative investigation and problem-solving in an imaginary world.
Process dramas use ‘pre-texts’ (photographs, newspaper articles, music,
artefacts, etc. …) to frame the investigation and raise questions for the
students (DICE Consortium 2010).
The concept ‘process drama’ was introduced by Brad Haseman (1991: 19),
defining it as ”the distinctive form of improvisation which has emerged from
schools”, one of the characteristics being that the improvised drama was
structured to arouse an artistic response from the participants. According
to O’Neill process drama proceeds without a script, its outcome is
unpredictable, it lacks a separate audience, and the experience is
impossible to replicate exactly (O’Neill 1995: xiii). In the 1990’s the concept
“process drama” was referred to and used by Cecily O’Neill og Gavin Bolton
about what in Scandinavia was used to be called “drama pedagogy”.
Dramatic action is always a physical and concrete expression of a role. By
playing a role, the acting participant transform thoughts and feelings into
form, which make the action significant and symbolic (Schonman 2000). A
process drama thus allows for the experience of being in someone else’s
shoes. According to Viv Aitken (2013: 50) role-taking implies more than
just being someone else for a while. The exploratory and immersive
character of such learning processes include expressing one’s own
thoughts, formulating in writing, asking your own questions and answering
questions from others, and participating in a dialogue with other
participants.
Shifra Schonman adds that being in role also requires the avoidance of
stereotypes and learning to interpret the fiction of drama in imaginative
ways. “When students act in drama, they are typically involved in learning
new ways of thinking and doing things. The activity of moving in and out of
the ‘as if’ role helps students gain an understanding of different levels of
meaning in dramatic actions (Schonman 2000: 951). The learning potential

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of drama is thus the interplay between the actual and the fictitious world,
and the reflection about how the two worlds are related, sometimes mixed,
and sometimes the differences blurred.
One important characteristics of process drama is the break with the
distinction in classical theatre between actors and audience, which also is
found in late-modern performance theatre. Participating in role-plays and
process drama can exercise the ability to set one’s own egocentric attitudes
aside, and for a while identify with another role and its attitudes. To play a
role also implies a change of perspective: ‘Transformation of the persona
gives us a new perspective on an event: We learn more about it and this
changes our knowledge about it’ (Courtney 1991: 14). According to Dorothy
Heathcote (1985: 61), this requires ‘suspension of disbelief’.
The International EU-supported project DICE (DICE Consortium 2014)
concluded that students who regularly participate in drama and theatre
activities develop more empathy and are better capable of changing their
perspective. They are better at both solving problems and dealing with
stress. They are more likely to be key persons in the class. They show
significantly more tolerance towards both minorities and foreigners, and
they are more active as citizens, demonstrating more interest in elections
and participating in public issues (DICE Consortium 2014). These are
important findings that nevertheless do not exclude the possibility of
opposite tendencies. Participating in art-based processes gives no immunity
against developing destructive thoughts (Allern 1999: 197–202).
Gavin Bolton (2007: 53) shows that cultural and ethnic differences may
create conflicts in drama, and that ideological and political interests of
teachers and governments may influence drama work. He refers to Grady
(2000), who warns against assuming that drama can do nothing but good,
and he adheres to our warning that drama may be a part of destructive
movements. Theatre can also be used as a tool for suppression – such as
in British colonialism (Kerr 1995), theatre in Nazi Germany (London 2000)
and the Nazis staging children’s opera, cabaret and plays in Theresienstadt
among other things (Landy & Montgomery 2012: xxv).
However, because the fiction points to a meaning beyond what is
immediately explicit, drama and theatre provide openings for moral
experiences, and may thus reveal our daily coldness and indifference
towards others. Therefore, emotions play a more significant role in aesthetic
experiences than in real life (Løgstrup 1995: 49). Several of the students
in the process drama Out of Syria (Allern & Drageset 2017: 117) seem to
have had such strong, emotionally engaging experiences, such as a boy

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who stated, ‘It has made me share more with others because I want to give
them the same joy that I receive.’

7.2. STRUCTURING PROCESS DRAMA IN THE TIM METHODOLOGY

The idea of using drama to change the fear of mathematics and traditional
teaching in mathematics is both related to exploring mathematics through
drama and the need to change traditional teaching in math with teacher
asking questions, students answering and teacher evaluating (Allern &
Drageset 2017).
In the process drama The Stone soup, referred to below, we apply a
dialogical, epic dramaturgy using the convention Teacher-in-role (TIR):
arranging the incidents in episodes, switching between acting and
reflections on the acting, and with elements from classical and contrasting
dramaturgies. There is often, however, a classical tendency in the
dramaturgy, with its the linearity of the progress of actions, but also a
contrasting dramaturgy in creating change of perspectives and applying
parallel actions.

7.2.3. ROLE CATEGORIES

Our adaption of process drama applied to mathematics is characterized by
the use and emphasis on role categories, in order to change the traditional
learning situation and promote more student active methods in
mathematics. We have adapted the idea of role categories primarily for the
participants and their collective role, and role aspects as building blocks for
creating roles (O’Toole & Haseman 1989/2017).
In TIM we have used the idea of role categories to explore if the experience
of role categories, such as the sceptic, curious, authority and the mediator
can contribute to a more engaging student involvement in mathematics. In
this learning process, we also refer to WHO’s life skills, and therefor also
explore if and how the role categories can work to improve life skills, and
the challenges in trying to do so. Thus, role categories and role aspects are
basic for how we structure process drama. We add that although we think
the approach with role categories can be fruitful for other approaches to
drama as well, it is not a necessary or mandatory criterion for process
drama. We add it to process drama because of the intention of the project;
to overcome the fear of mathematics and change communication patterns
in the teaching of mathematics.
The Australian drama practitioners and theorists, John O’Toole and Brad
Haseman (1989/2017: 3), argue that you do not need to be a skilled actor
playing a role. We do all play roles in our social lives, in the sociological

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sense of the word role, referring to the specialized capacity or function we

have in our social lives (Goffman 1986; 129) as fathers, mothers, teachers,
artist, astronauts, trainers, drivers, etc. But this is not enough to describe
the meaning of a role in drama. The roles in a play are a part of a relation.
Acting the role means to represent a viewpoint, and to represent viewpoint
you do not costumes or props or change your voice or create funny ways of
walking. To pretend to be a role is to identify with the values and attitudes
defined to the role, and they might very well be quite different from your
own values and attitudes. What you do when you play a role is to take on
and experience a situation in another’s shoe.
According to Viv Aitken (2013: 50) role-taking implies more than just being
someone else for a while. The exploratory and immersive character of such
learning processes include expressing one’s own thoughts, formulating in
writing, asking your own questions and answering questions from others,
and participating in a dialogue with other participants.
We change roles as we interact with different people in different situations
that can include activities in the imagined worlds of theatre, play, and
drama. More significant than whether or not we are in role is whether or
not participants assume that activities are happening solely in the everyday
world. We may take on an imagined role, but we actually don’t need fictional
roles to create drama; what we must imagine is that we are elsewhere, in
an imagined world. [i]
In line with UNICEF, we are referring to a life-skills based education, which
“makes it clear that a life skills approach will be used to teach the subject
matter, meaning that participatory teaching/learning methods will be used
to help learners develop not only knowledge, but also the psycho-social life
skills they may need to use knowledge to inform and carry out
behaviour”.[ii] In its program on Mental Health, WHO argues that “life skills
are innumerable, and the nature and definition of life skills are likely to
differ across cultures and settings”. It is stated, however, that “analysis of
the life skills field suggests that there is a core set of skills that are at the
heart of skills-based initiatives for the promotion of the health and well-
being of children and adolescents”. WHO’s list of life skills is:
Decision making • Problem solving • Creative thinking • Critical thinking •
Effective communication • Interpersonal relationship skills • Self-awareness
• Empathy • Coping with emotions • Coping with stress. [iii]
In our understanding of life skills, there is a connection to the role categories
we promote in drama and apply in the teaching of mathematics.

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Role category Life skill

The democratic leader/ Decision making – problem solving – effective

positive authority communication - interpersonal relationship
(DLA) skills – coping with emotions – coping with
stress – self-awareness.

The sceptic – the Critical thinking – effective communication –

opponent self-awareness

The curious Creative thinking – empathy – coping with

stress – interpersonal relationship skills

The mediator Problem solving – empathy – interpersonal

relationship skills – coping with emotions.

References
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Allern, T.-H. (1999), ‘Drama and aesthetic knowing in (late) modernity’, in
C. Miller and J. Saxton (eds), Drama and Theatre in Education:
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203.
Allern, T.H. and Drageset, O. G. (2017). ‘Out of Syria: A process drama in
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Bolton, G. (2007), ‘A history of drama education: A search for substance’,
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DICE Consortium (2014), The DICE has been cast A DICE resource
research findings and recommendations on educational theatre and

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drama, Budapest: DICE Consortium, http://www.dramanetwork.eu.

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Drageset, O.G., and Allern, T.H.: Curious classrooms Changing classroom
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Løgstrup, K.E. (1995): Kunst og erkendelse. Kunstfilosofiske

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[i] Brian Edminstone: What’s My Position? Role, Frame, and Positioning
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8. COMBINING MATHEMART AND PROCESS DRAMA TO A NEW

METHODOLOGY

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