The Third Performance in Education: Research & Practice Conference

Hey PIE scholars, check it out! These outstanding researchers will be digging deeper into theory and how performance activities lead to successful learning this coming Saturday, September 18th, at the Performance in Education: Research and Practice ONLINE Conference.

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Scene 1: 11:35-12:00pm
Linking Japan to the World Through the Performing Arts? Progress Report and Impact Assessment During a Pandemic
with Kim Rockell

“Delays and significant adjustments to research styles and ways of working for teachers and academics have become increasingly common during the recent global pandemic. How can one still move ahead with big projects, especially ones grounded in face-to-face human interaction live performance practice, and onsite field work with multiple participants? This paper takes the form of a general progress report and initial impact assessment of the 3-year project ‘Linking Japan to the world though the Performing Arts: Collaborative ethnography and intercultural exchange’ supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [JP20K01193] that, like NASA’s space shuttle STS-51-F in 1985, appeared to be aborted as initially planned just at the moment of lift off.”

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Scene 1: 1:00-1:25pm
Qualitative Research Frameworks for Performance in Education
with Don Hinkelman

“Inquiry into performance in education requires qualitative research approaches from an ecological perspective. Teachers are like ‘bricoleurs’ or do-it-yourselfers in the center of configuring various methods, materials and technologies into a learning ecology. Scientific, positivist approaches which rely on statistical analysis of isolated variables as a distant, non-biased researcher are not capable of examining these complexities in education and performance within a learning community. This presentation summarizes research frameworks that any teacher-researcher or action research team can use to pose and reflect on questions of performance. Relying on multiple metaphors of learning (instruction, acquisition, participation), I advocate three methodologies–ethnography, grounded theory and action research. As a case study of classroom EFL performances in oral communication classes, I worked with a teaching team of three who built online modules for recording presentations and designing a practical textbook for teaching non-verbal and verbal communication.”

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Act II: 3:10-4:00pm
Understanding Learning in PIE with Flow
with Dawn Kobayashi

“In this talk, I look at how student engagement and learning in PIE-based lessons can be understood through Flow, a psychological concept named by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow is a state of mind where people lose self-consciousness, experience intense focus, and are aware of successful task completion. In this state, language input is clearly remembered and learning outcomes are enhanced. I will combine insights from Flow theory and PIE research to illustrate how Flow could function as one of the forces that drive language learning in PIE lessons. Finally, together we will consider future research directions into the theoretical framework of PIE.”

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Additional presentations, workshops, and the student film festival will be running all day from 9:00-18:00, so check out the program and stop by!