Firstly- MoE is a conceptualised learning approach based in AT1 Speaking and Listening & Drama for Learning which focuses on curriculum domain/s the teacher wishes the class to learn.
The main shift is that the context invented creates A REASON for doing the learning in the minds of learners-rather than as a DIRECTIVE decided by the teacher. This means learning can be co-constructed with classes and seems to affect the BUY IN by classes. In turn this gives learners MORE RESPONSIBILITY for their learning as they take up the tasks in the work.
Secondly-the teacher invents an imagined RESPONSIBLE TEAM-OR ENTERPRISE OR COMPANY OR AGENCY that mirrors the curriculum demands needed for investigation. (There are numerous and perhaps exhaustive examples elsewhere on our website)
Thirdly the teacher creates an IMAGINED CLIENT who makes demands on the Responsible Team (et alia) and creates the conditions for curriculum outcomes to be completed as necessary.

A recent example (January 2010):
Elements:
1. FICTIONAL ENTERPRISE DEMANDING AN IMAGINED RESPONSIBLE TEAM
2. CLIENT INVENTED & CHOSEN TO PROVOKE PLANNED CURRICULUM OUTCOMES
3. TASKS ESTABLISHED TO MAKE TASKS AUTHENTIC
4. EXPLORING VALUES OF PEOPLE AND COMPLEX HUMAN ISSUES

1. In a fictional context ( a year 1 class in Redbridge is beginning to take responsibility for an imagined enterprise as a RECYCLING TEAM).
2. An imagined client makes demands IN A DRAMATIC FICTION (our RECYCLING TEAM have 'met' the client who has a rubbish dump in need of sorting out as bags of rubbish have just been left unsorted! The class will therefore have a number of problems to solve for their 'client'-suggestions on how to sort the rubbish-sorting each bag-creating bins for different materials-deciding what is plastic and what is glass and how we can tell-writing & spelling the signs needed-inventing drawing and describing resources needed for the job in hand-finding ways to politely ask people who have bags to dump to come back later until the site is ready-keeping a record of progress so that the client can understand what is happening.
3. Curriculum outcomes needing to be completed can be taken up by the class as needed. In our RECYCLING team the class began their work for the client by specifying what the client would need BEFORE the BIG SORT of bags took place. This was achieved by large drawings labelled and shared-providing an intense language demand for children from a range of ethnic back grounds. Adults supported the learning at point of need-modelling spelling strategies on demand-and extending individual learners interests. For example-a student from Turkey (boy) became obsessed with a head lamp torch attached to a helmet, whilst another student helped the teacher create a chart of resources needing to be available in standard written English, which needed every member of the team to check and tick equipment needed. The demand on reading complex words meant initial guestimations could be made by working on what is already 'known' (initial letter of object for example) then deducing the whole word/s.)
4. VALUES of the team BECOME more and more necessary as the demands become higher and higher. For example-in the RECYCLING example-the class needed to decide how to speak to people who had become used to dumping their rubbish on the site and asking them to desist for a while. Adults representing the people in the fiction had to delicately use their 'drama language' to keep the language demands pitched so that the class could be challenged to resolve the situation with respect to all concerned. Luke