The Mantle of the Expert

The mantle of the Expert is an inquiry based approach to teaching and learning developed by Professor Dorothy Heathcote in the 1980s. Children conduct their curriculum work as though they are a group of experts in the subject field.

Our task required our group to imagine ourselves as experts in the construction industry. We asked to set up a company who design and build bridges and pitch a design to a member of the local council. We then had to construct a bridge (on a small scale) that fitted the clients needs.

To complete the task we had to research multiple aspects of bridge construction and the structure of a construction company.

 

 

Involving students in a practical process that incorporates different aspects of the curriculum makes learning a much easier. Our group had no idea about building bridges but this task gave us the opportunity to research the different aspects of bridge construction. the students can apply their research to their scenario and make it their own. Instead of a teacher standing at the front of the class talking about the cost of building a bridge or the types of bridges that can be built the students are creating a real life scenario, they can research what they think is appropriate for the topic. As the student has to interpret the topic for themselves they find ways of understanding the topic and can then apply this understanding to their research which will help to embed what they have learned.

Mantle of the Expert actively engages children in the learning experience. Teachers can incorporate different aspects of the curriculum into one task. For example, in our task, not only did we learn about the construction industry, we had the opportunity to develop pre-existing skills such as communication skills, team work, research techniques, organisation skills etc. not only will children learn about a specific subject, they will develop transferable skills at the same time.

The system permits the normal school context of class responsibility to change. Instead of the children relying on the teacher’s energy to drive the work and evaluate achievement, teacher and class share the responsibility for the quality of work (MantleoftheExpert.com, 2008).  

People learn from and with other people both in person and from what others have

recorded in materials, books, on the internet etc. that forms the knowledge base for

particular communities of expertise and in doing so they identify with those communities (Edmiston, 2001).

As Wenger stated , ‘ learning transforms who we are and what we can do … it is not just

an accumulation of skills and information, but a process of becoming a certain person’ collaborative learning develops a sense of what Wenger described as a ‘community of leaners’. (Wenger, 1998)

Reference list

Edmiston, B., 2001. The Mantle of the Expert apporach to education. Ohio: Ohio State University .

MantleoftheExpert.com, 2008. how does moe work?. [Online]
Available at: http://www.mantleoftheexpert.com/copyright-notes/
[Accessed 16 March 2014].

Wenger, E., 1998. Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.