David Allen's book is intelligent and insightful as well as useful in practice. A wonderful read. -- Anne Bogart, artistic director, SITI Company, New York City
Into an era obsessed with describing and prescribing learning and teaching - often in the most desiccated ways - comes a refreshing book, the product of boundary-crossing research. The explanations of the functions of 'Exquisite Pressure and Cumulative Progression' are alone worth the price. -- Joseph P. McDonald, Professor of Teaching and Learning, New York University
This book makes clear the connection that has existed all along between creating theatre and recreating schools as places for learning. For schools and teachers, it will encourage collaboration that is more than merely working together, but is instead constructing meaning together. -- Teri Schrader, Head of Upper School, The Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn, New York
Through his well-researched, wise book, David Allen opens our eyes to the many ways in which the cores of teaching and rehearsing are the same: groups of people in a room, solving problems, building something together. -- Marcus Geduld, Artistic Director, Folding Chair Classical Theatre Company, New York
Allen uses a cross-domain methodology and extends it from teachers' preservice experiences to practicing teachers as they work together in teacher learning groups (TLG) in K-12 schools. The opening chapters apply the theoretical foundation of such educators as John Dewey, who maintained that the qualities of 'esthetic experiences' allow perceptions of the nature of any experience to become clearer and more intense. Powerful Teacher Learning focuses on the specific practices of theater artists. Allen investigates the methods of theater artists and their contemporary theater companies, such as the methods of Anne Bogart and her collaborator Tina Landau, and the work of the Ghost Road Company and the RSVP Cycles developed by Lawrence and Anna Halprin. The concluding chapters shift back to TLG, but the thinking and practices of the TLG with the theater arts contribute to the framework for the collective creation. The lessons learned from the theater companies offer inquiry groups and critical-friends groups in schools specific tools for meaningful professional learning and instruction improvement. This book is highly recommended for practicing teachers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, graduate students, and professionals. * CHOICE *
