How can moe be used?
Dr Heathcote describes the Mantle of the Expert system as “an approach to the whole curriculum.” The idea is to create an imagined context, for the development of skills, and the acquisition of knowledge.
Through the Mantle of the Expert, children can encounter many aspects of the school curriculum.
For example:
A class of children studying the Tudor period are “framed” as experts in charge of running a Tudor mansion. They prepare exhibits etc. so that school visitors can learn about life in Tudor times.
A group of children are behaving and using signs to create people running a hotel. They have to consider the needs of international visitors. This leads into a number of different areas such as: languages; food; finance; advertising, etc. As their talk develops as though they are the people running the hotel-their language and knowledge need increases.
An older group of students in KS3 are imagining they are responsible French Resistance workers. They are working with the English and Humanities departments as well as the citizenship coordinator in the school. The class are driven to their work as they are to help a group of displaced Jewish refugess across Europe to ‘safety’. The English curriculum as well as the History Geography and Citizenship ones are harnessed by the context. Letters, secret files, reports of exploits from the point of view of the German command, researches into the Simon Wisenthal Trust and so on are thus made possible.