ABSTRACT
This chapter takes the form of a play, with dramaturgical notes, to explore the impact of affect on learning in Higher Education classrooms. Drawing on journals, reflections and performances of over 600 students in a Diploma of Education Studies, and on their own reflective notes, the authors analyse the ways in which the affect of space, of emotion, and of physical movement, shape and shift student thinking about themselves and their capacity to learn. Drawing on a range of performance theories, the authors invite their students to devise an ethnographic performance that tells the story of their class. This is then ‘shown’ to the other classes, and becomes the nexus from which students develop their reflective practice around teaching and learning. The power of affect, as a corporeal and emotional sensory experience, to shift the ways in which students view themselves, others and the world, is observed and experienced by students and teachers. For many students, this is the first time they have been offered an emotional or sensory engagement with learning. Consequently, their understanding of knowledge, intelligence, and self are often deeply influenced. In the course of devising and rehearsing the play, a conceptual movement from self-focus to group-focus is identified as crucial to students’ capacity to develop both confidence and agency.
