Twenty-First International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

Traditional lecture-based teaching often reinforces passive learning, where students receive information rather than engage with it. This presentation demonstrates how performance-based and project-centered learning transforms classroom environments by shifting students from observers to active participants. Assignments such as re-creating a hoplite phalanx, staging a living newspaper on current social issues, or activating public spaces through site-specific lessons invite students to inhabit complex systems through collaborative decision-making, embodiment, and creative interpretation. These activities function not as add-ons, but as core learning tools that enable students to internalize concepts through doing rather than merely hearing. Performance-based pedagogy encourages problem-solving, improvisation, and ownership over knowledge, turning theoretical content into lived experience. While such approaches present challenges, such as navigating logistics, student hesitation, or unexpected variables, they also foster adaptability and deeper engagement. This session will offer practical models for integrating active, performative, and project-driven learning into a range of disciplines. By flipping the script from “show and tell” to “learn and do,” we demonstrate how arts-based teaching methods can ignite curiosity, improve retention, and empower students to become co-creators in their own educational journey.