Immersive learning has its roots in immersive theatre which invites the audience to move through a theatrical world as active participants. In stepping through a door to another world, the audience can feel anything from awe to excitement.
Since 2008, Punchdrunk Enrichment has been using immersive theatre techniques in educational settings. This approach aims to give real purpose to learning, developing positivity and engagement while harnessing children’s imaginations and opening up a world of possibility.
Punchdrunk Enrichment is really excited to present A Small Tale: A Teacher-led Adventure in partnership with Nonsuch Studios, Nottingham's Independent fringe theatre, creative venue and arts charity. Through relationships with partners such as Nonsuch Studios, Punchdrunk Enrichment bring their creative approach into primary schools, boosting the skills of children and developing the horizons of teachers in the process.
What is Immersive Learning?
Immersive learning is an approach to education that involves placing learners within a fictional or fictionalised real world, casting them as characters in a story, with their actions and work integral to the progression of the narrative.
They may need to write stories to help characters return to a book, learn about their local history to return a mysterious creature to a travelling museum or find out about local geography to save a fictional island, but in all cases their work is essential to the resolution of an identified problem.
Learning is enhanced when it is embedded within a narrative, and immersive pedagogy transforms the learning environment in a way that reinforces the reality of the fictional world and the learners’ place within it.
What is a Teacher-led Adventure?
A teacher-led project celebrates the role of the teacher in the classroom: giving the tools and training to transform their school into a place of wonder.
Led by the teacher in a classroom, A Small Tale, The Vanishing Land, A Curious Quest and The Wishing Cupboard offer intensely absorbing and immersive narratives which support the delivery of curriculum objectives. The projects aim to inspire and develop imaginative teaching practices for literacy by placing the teacher at the centre of the creativity.
The Pedagogical Power of Immersive Learning
Dr Angela Colvert, Deputy Director for Innovation at University of Sheffield and research fellow at the University of Roehampton, has been researching Punchdrunk Enrichment’s immersive learning practice in schools since 2015.
Her research shows that the pedagogical power of immersive learning lies in the way that the affective aspects (a sense of purpose, urgency, community and place as possibility) inform the pedagogical effects experienced by teachers, children and artists (such as shaping stories together and tackling challenges).
“Immersive learning brings together cognitive, emotional, and physical ways of knowing, feeling and being. It is playful, exploratory, and shaped by the needs and interests of those who take part in the experience. Those who participate in Punchdrunk Enrichment projects often describe a sense of intensity and excitement that drives their engagement and commitment to the learning experience. It is this sense of adventure and agency, as well as the sense of magic, that makes immersive learning so affective – and effective.”
The Impact on Learners
Punchdrunk Enrichment works with teachers to understand and share their immersive learning practice in schools.
Immersive learning involves children in critical tasks that need to be completed successfully, which enhances their self-perception and appreciation of their own expertise. Children are enthusiastic about these tasks and often want to do more than they are assigned.
Immersive learning also breaks down social barriers among children in a class, as they interact and collaborate with each other. Teachers tell us that children are more engaged and willing to participate, particularly among reluctant learners. Parents and caregivers have reported that children are motivated to read and write more at home.
“I feel full of stories – I think I can be a storymaker, I think I can make up poems.” - Year 4 student onUnder the Eiderdown, Kingsmead Primary School, 2013.
