Mantle of the Expert

The mantel of the expert is ‘A system for learning through the active imagination and inquiry methodology’. Heathcote.D (2004). This topic is mainly to do with problem solving. Teachers will put pupils in groups and trust they will work towards the problems that they need solving. The pupils will get power over their own learning and this could help in them wanting to further themselves and their knowledge. The teacher will be in a certain role to guide the pupils learning in the correct direction that they need to be going in. This way of teaching focuses on imagination in the form of role play.

An advantage of the mantle of the expert is that it will help aid the speaking and listening skills of the child due to the children taking part in role play. This means that the pupils will have to interact with other pupils and also will have to listen to all the different opinions of the group which will help them to be more social as well and could lead to making new friends. This type of learning will also give some of the children chances to be leaders in some situations and as long as there is a good teacher at the helm of this type of learning that can only be a positive. A good imagination will help the child when it comes to the work place and can only broaden their minds.

A disadvantage would be that the quiet and shy pupils might not get the full extent of the learning style due to them being more withdrawn than the children that would want to be the leaders of the group and it could lead to them not wanting to put their ideas forward. This is a problem that could be resolved by good teaching which would include getting everyone involved.

I believe that this technique should play a part in schools as children having a greater imagination can only be a good thing. Our class in university tested this technique in class to see if it would be a good idea. We were put into a group of four and we had to make a company for ourselves and we were told we would have to build a bridge across a certain type of water. It was more than just this, we had to research different types of bridges and find out how they worked before we started. We also had to think of the background to our company to make it more realistic and seem more like real life. The results that we found were that we all had different ideas and we put all of our ideas together to make the best bridge we could with what we had. We were all involved in the planning of the bridge and the making of the bridge so we all felt included. Judging by these results I think it would be a good thing to have mantle of the expert in schools. The only problem I had with this technique is that when I was in school I was the quiet and shy child and I think I would have been withdrawn and it might not have been as great a help to me.  

This is the bridge we made in our group (Jools and sons)