VIEWS & OPINION
Immersive learning: igniting children’s and teachers’ imaginations
Comment by PETER HIGGIN, Artistic Director and co-founder of charity Punchdrunk Enrichment
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. This is mirrored in immersive learning but the fact this is about learning rather than entertainment makes the experience more purposeful for the individual. Let me share an example of what immersive learning can involve.
Our project The Lost Lending Library begins with a week-long school visit from Petra, a freelance librarian. There is a hint of mystery when she draws a book from her bag that won’t open. When the children arrive at school the following Monday morning, they are astonished to find a door to a classroom has been replaced by an old bookshelf. The headteacher calls an emergency assembly and expresses disbelief at what has happened. They hold up the locked book which has been left on their desk. As the children return to their classrooms, they know there’s a link between the freelance librarian and the mysterious appearance of the bookshelf. Petra takes them to the bookshelf where they discover that the locked book is a key which the children use to open the ‘door’.
The children creep through a dimly lit, chaotically organised library which smells of old leather, candle wax and wood polish. Books of all sizes and colours are crammed together on the shelves, their stories bursting out of them. At the end of a short walk, they meet a guardian of The Lost Lending Library called Peabody who sits in the corner of another room stuffed with yet more books. Peabody tells the children about the library and reads them a story that literally comes to life around them.
The stunned children leave clasping library cards. The experience compels them to talk, draw and write with purpose about the library. In the days that follow they write many new stories for the library before it mysteriously disappears - although it makes every child a lifelong member.
The experience ignites children’s imaginations and encourages them to look at their school environment in a new light. Immersive learning is felt, as much as understood, and is a powerful way to engage and excite children about learning.
Characteristics of immersive learning
Using immersive theatre as a tool to educate, explain and enlighten is an emerging discipline. Through our work we have identified a number of common elements experienced by learners: • The story happens to the learner – they are protagonists, their feelings are as much part of the story as the characters they encounter. • Learners have a specific expert role – pupils are cast as the experts who are uniquely placed to help. • The work done by learners helps propel forward the narrative - learning is positioned as a chapter in an unfolding story. • A small part of a much bigger world – pupils experience a tiny part of the imaginative world.
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• Impact beyond the experience – learners are encouraged to take their new role, for example as expert writers of adventure stories, back to their normal lives. • A means to return – there is always the possibility for pupils to return to the world they visited.
Understanding immersive learning in primary schools For the past two years we have been working with eight schools in Greenwich. Supported by the borough’s School Improvement Service we have worked in close partnership targeting school specific challenges and particular groups of pupils
An important element has been enabling teachers to lead immersive learning themselves. For example, A Small Tale starts with a teacher reading a book about two tiny people, Abe and Alba. The teacher leaves the book open overnight, and when the pupils return the next morning, they discover that Abe and Alba have disappeared. Inky footprints across the blank pages suggest they have escaped and are at large in the school.
During the rest of the week the teacher leads pupils through an immersive learning experience. They track down clues through the school which give them glimpses of the pair’s increasingly perilous escapades. To get Abe and Alba back into the book, the children realise they need to write adventure stories to tempt them to return to safety. The leave a trail of stories through the school overnight. The next day the book is magically restored to its original state. The educational mission in A Small Tale is to get KS1 children to write stories which can be challenging. Research shows that children’s enjoyment of writing is at its lowest level since 2010. However, Abe and Alba give the children a compelling reason to write – they want to help the book’s characters return to the security of its covers.
Understanding the impact of immersive learning More than 10 years’ work with schools and children shows us that immersive learning impacts children’s learning and wider development including: • Valuing their own expertise – immersive learning calls on children to help with a critical task which they need to do for there to be a successful outcome. Teachers tell us that this changes how they see themselves. • Enthusiasm for learning – children nearly always want to do much more of the task than they have been set. • Breaking down social barriers – teachers observe that children who never normally interact in a class will corroborate each other’s stories to a teacher and talk about their experiences. • Greater participation - immersive learning encourages more children to participate especially among reluctant learners • Learning at home – parents and carers report children are more enthusiastic to read books and write stories.
We are keen to share what we are learning so that immersive learning becomes something many schools can use. As part of this, we are working on two longitudinal research projects, Immersive Learning Journeys and Immersive Learning Collective, with 16 schools across these two programmes. Findings will be published in the next academic year. Immersive learning is still relatively new in the primary classroom, but the results we have seen in Greenwich schools suggests it warrants further attention.
January 2023
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