The Problem: Expecting Performance Without Practice
In both education and professional settings, learners are typically expected to perform complex skills with little structured opportunity to practice them. Students are often instructed to “work effectively in groups.” Employees are typically expected to “communicate professionally.” But in most cases, our instructional models (unit & lesson designs and instructional methodology) do not support these important learning outcomes, let alone the skill-sets required for group interaction and communication. Indeed, not every employee or student is adept at communication. We want them to be but the hard truth is that most people are simply not good at it. But in our fast paced educational or corporate settings, learners are often given information, instructed to report back to a small or large group of people, and then evaluated, the results of which are more often than not unsatisfactory. The target is missed, time is wasted and learning fails.
Theatre and Rehearsal
The very process of theatre, from page to stage, affords participants to learn by doing. Now, where do theatre participants do their ‘doings’? Rehearsal. On Stage. Together. Over and over. The final product, then, is a polished production that leaves an audience satisfied, and a cast, crew and production team smarter, more skilled and thankful for the opportunity to grow, mature and simply ‘be better’ at what they do for having done it.
How does a cast and a production team accomplish an effective outcome? Many items are at play from beginning to end, not the least of which is a strong script (content), knowledgeable and committed participants (director & actors/teachers & students) and a clearly articulated outcome, three key components that lead to tight, clean and incredibly efficient rehearsals. Tightly woven within that fabric is learning. Learning in theatre is both expected and desired. Participants read and interpret, but then get on their feet and do what they came to understand at the table. The script, the director’s expectations, the actor’s proficiency, and a stage-manager’s organization and leadership, when combined, create a learning environment, (a structure of exploration) that is then leveraged from concept to action. The table-work is academic (but necessary!) yet, actors learn by doing. In fact, acting at its core, is doing. As an example, students who read Shakespeare in the classroom have less of an understanding of the work than students who step on stage and perform Shakespeare’s work in rehearsal and later for an audience. The evidence is irrefutable for this. Students who perform Shakespeare inherently have a more detailed understanding of the content than those who read it without performing. Rehearsal by doing is where understanding occurs. Rehearsal blends interpretation, action and motive into repeatable, action-able doings. What do performers understand? The director’s concept or matrix, the designer’s intentions, the stage manager’s process, and the audience’s expectations. The playwright’s message! The rehearsal process allows for all involved to learn, understand and implement what was practiced over and over again resulting in a final, polished product where the message is clearly demonstrated and understood by all involved.
Rehearsal or structured practice, is understanding.
What Theatre Gets Right
In theatre, no one walks on stage and performs without preparation. Actors rehearse. They work through language, tone, timing, and interaction. They try things, adjust, and try again. Mistakes are part of the process and not something to be avoided. A performance then, is not the first step. It’s the result of rehearsal.
This same structure has clear implications for instructional design.
Research in drama-based pedagogy supports this idea. Reader’s Theatre is a style of performance in which actors present dramatic readings without costumes, props, scenery, or special lighting. Actors use only scripts and vocal expression to help an audience understand the story. Reader’s Theatre demonstrates how repeated, structured practice improves fluency, confidence, and clarity. More broadly, drama-based learning emphasizes that understanding develops through doing.
The Rehearsal Model
The Rehearsal Model of Learning follows this progression…
- Exposure – Introduce key ideas
- Modeling – Show ineffective and effective examples
- Rehearsal – Provide guided, low-stakes practice
- Performance – Apply the skill in a realistic scenario
- Reflection – Evaluate and refine
The key shift in instructional design is this: performance is not the starting point but instead the outcome.
Designing for Rehearsal
The following is a learning design module focused on communication in group collaboration. Rather than presenting communication as theory, this module moves learners through a structured process:
- Clear, focused concept introduction
- Side-by-side examples of ineffective and effective communication
- A guided script to model tone and clarity
- Opportunities to adapt and rehearse the message
- A realistic performance scenario
- Reflection to reinforce learning
My approach treats communication as a skill that can be practiced leading to understanding. Structured rehearsal allows for learners to try, fail, keep, discard, re-assemble as a means of creating, developing and polishing a particular skill-set. ‘Communication’, then, is not something learners are expected to figure out. It is a learned process and like any skill, communications skills get better over time via practice. And yes, that old saying, practice makes perfect, is the bottom line.
To see this approach in action, view the full module here:
Why This Matters for Instructional Design
This approach highlights a broader shift in how learning can be designed:
- We move beyond content delivery toward skill development
- We build in opportunities for iteration before evaluation
- We develop and utilize realistic scenarios to support transfer
- We treat reflection as part of the learning process, not an add-on
Learners benefit from structured opportunities to practice before they are asked to perform and that clearly translates in both higher education and professional training.
Final Thoughts
In theatre, performance is never the beginning. It is the result of rehearsal. Instructional design can benefit from the same outcomes and efficiencies and our faculty/trainers along with our students/learners will quickly benefit from both the process and the results.
