Objects have the capacity ‘to facilitate deep learning;’ they can be surprising, intriguing and absorbing, and through stimulating learners’ sense of wonder they can provoke a ‘rich, important and fun’ educational experience (Hardie, 2015. p.4). My experience of the Object Based Learning (OBL) microteach on the PG Cert in February 2025 at LCC, both as teacher and as learner, was a joyful one.
For my own microteach I decided to draw on my experience of learning through practice at drama school in the late 1990s. In the theatre of Shakespeare, in its original productions, printing multiple versions of play texts for actors was not an option, plus the limited time for rehearsal necessitated that actors would be presented with only their lines and their cues, sometimes meeting their fellow actors on stage for the first time in performance (Tucker, 2001).
Therefore, a key objective was for participants to learn something of the history of the Elizabethan theatre, or at least a theory of it, through practice. I had chosen a short part of Macbeth which provides opportunity to demonstrate some of the features of this style of theatre work through the replica artefact. Shakespeare’s plays can be seen in the replica theatre of Shakespeare’s Globe (see fig. 1 below).
Fig.1. Aerial view of Shakespeare’s Globe performing arts venue on the bank of the River Thames, London, England (Britannica, 2025)
It was the linguistic angle that first drew my attention to the idea of using these objects – with the mind to have learners discover the etymology of the homophone ‘roll’ and ‘role’ through speculating the identity and function of the object.
I decided to tie them up with a ribbon, however, the effect was that the objects appeared to be the scrolls you might receive at graduation – or as one participant commented a ‘Christmas present for a dog,’ as you can/might see from the image (see fig.2 below),
Fig 2. Cue scripts/The roles tied with red ribbon.
This provided a useful reflection for me about my lessons in general: what effects do the design choices have on the perceptions of the learners? Despite this, once the function of the object was revealed through opening the ribbon the roles (see example fig 1, and others in appendix 1) were allocated as the rolls were unrolled; I was able to elicit from the group this homophonic etymology, which was a key learning aim of the lesson.
Fig. 3 – Banquo cue script.
The plan worked effectively, if not quite to timing, and we managed to achieve the physicalizing of play: the performance of the scene. I wanted to allow participants the time they needed to speculate what the object could be at the beginning without (too much) interference from me as teacher/ facilitator. I also wanted them to have the curiosity to open the object and discover its function (see lesson plan in Appendix 2).
I feel that participants were able to find some joy in this opportunity to perform and play (albeit a small part of) Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Appendix One – Cue scripts:
Appendix 2 – Lesson Plan
Appendix 3 – Long form version of this blog post:
Reflections on Microteach- OBL – ‘roles’ and ‘roles’.pdf
References
Brittanica (2025) Globe Theatre, Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Globe-Theatre (Accessed on 14.03.25)
Hardie, K., (2015) ‘Innovative pedagogies series: Wow: The power of objects in object-based learning and teaching,’ Higher Education Academy. York: HEA
Tucker, P. (2001) Secrets of Acting Shakespeare: The Original Approach. London: Routledge