Seton Hall Arts and Rehabilitation Collaboration Program

Justin Del Valle, Christina DeLucca, Professor Peter Reader, Margaret Fisher, Jasmine Gomez, and Allen Thevarajah.

This past spring term, the Theatre program in the College of Human Development, Culture, and Media participated in designing and delivering a pilot experiential learning opportunity in collaboration with the Department of Speech-Language Pathology in the School of Health and Medical Sciences. The program, entitled "Puppetry and Language Development," was sponsored as a strategic funding initiative by the Office of the Provost to develop interdisciplinary collaboration through experiential learning at Seton Hall. The program aimed specifically to promote innovation among students and faculty in the arts and professional rehabilitation programs within the University. Proposed by Pete Reader, Professor of Theatre, the program was designed to introduce students to the medium of puppetry in performance while also fostering foundational knowledge in early childhood development, specifically the acquisition of language. With more and more media content being developed for early communicators on streaming services and various online platforms, the nexus of performing arts and child development was identified as a meaningful opportunity for students to gain knowledge and skills to apply in future professional practice.

Five students were selected to participate in this program, including Margaret Fisher, Justin Del Valle, Jasmine Gomez, Christina DeLucca, and Allen Thevarajah. Professor Megan Baumley, MS, CCC-SLP, Director of Clinical Education in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology, trained the students on effectively teaching and eliciting language targets when working with young children. Students then applied this information to develop scripts for production that included key concepts from their lessons on language acquisition and core vocabulary in early childhood language. Professor Reader then supported the students in the creation, execution, and shooting of the video series.

The program entitled "Puppetry and Language Development."

By the nature of experiential education, the Theatre students worked on integrating Professor Bauman's language goals into a series of story vignettes. The students drew inspiration from classic children's literature to generate their scripts. Their collaboration consisted of weekly meetings among all stakeholders on the project to offer feedback, troubleshooting, collaboration, and idea development. The students worked together to write their scripts, communicate with the faculty facilitators on the project, and implement feedback received to optimize the impact and reach of this project. Professor Reader, who holds expertise in puppetry as a form of performance art, supported the students as they decided on which puppet characters they would animate. As a group, they decided on farm animal puppets in a farm setting. They felt that the farm animals gave them an interesting mixture of animals that would be engaging to the 0-3 age population. They discussed the personalities of each animal and how they would relate to each other. They wrote character descriptions for each. The Rooster was bold and loud, the Lamb was shy, the Pig loved food, the Mole was focused on digging, and the Kitten was playful.

The students thoughtfully planned the topics for each story, the characters they would include, and the theme for the series. They came up with the idea of a day in the life of these animals. The first video begins in the morning with the rooster leading them in a morning song to start the day. Theatre students incorporated the knowledge learned in their coursework through this experiential learning opportunity. Each video in the series featured various farm animals teaching lessons relevant to social development in early childhood, such as saying please and thank you, embracing unique differences, and saying "hello" and "goodbye." The messaging was selected based on topics the students felt passionate about, and they added personal touches to each video such as lullabies their parents used to sing to them and handcrafted outfits for the puppets.

Professor Reader also advised students on other critical details of the production, including the setting and lighting that would be applied in each scene. Professor Reader designed and painted a farm backdrop for the puppets to set the scene. A Theatre scenery piece was repurposed to become a puppet stage to hide the student volunteers during the performance. When the team was finally ready to film, Michelena Hodgens, a Broadcast student was enlisted to shoot the videos. Justin Del Valle headed up the direction of the videos and Allen Thevarajah was responsible for the detailed editing of the video series. The program culminated in a private screening, where members, the Deans and other members from both academic units joined the Director of Experiential Learning. The outputs sparked excitement for what may come next of this program among all who attended.

This interdisciplinary experiential learning program allowed the students to express through their performance the results of research, artistic exploration, cognitive strategy, critical thinking, and group collaboration. In addition to the theoretical knowledge and technical skills gained from this program, transferrable skills, valuable for any future academic and professional pursuits, were also strengthened. Justin Del Valle reflected, "the group learned time management skills, teamwork, respect for others' opinions, and pulling together to complete the project." The outcomes of this project will be used across the departments involved in this experience as well as those outside of it for educational instruction across disciplines. Vikram Dayalu, Interim Dean of the School of Health and Medical Sciences shared "This program is an example of cutting-edge interdisciplinary undergraduate experience that is experiential in nature and one that removes learning from a 'siloed' fashion. Gone are the days when one's degree will dictate the student's career or their future job. There is a need for programming such as this, which allows students to critically think on a problem and arrive at a solution fed by multiple perspectives- the new common currency in most workplaces." The schools and programs plan to expand this work in the coming academic year, with the possibility of a new course for students interested in developing knowledge and professional skills in the areas of performing arts and child development.

For more information or resources on innovation in curriculum with experiential learning, contact Caryn Grabowski, Director of Experiential Learning.

Categories: Arts and Culture, Education, Health and Medicine