Part 3 Can Performative Skills Be Developed?

If performative skills matter, the next question is obvious: how can they be developed?

This is particularly important because discussions of presence, charisma, rapport or creativity can easily become unhelpful. They can make good teaching sound like a personality trait. Some teachers “have it”; others do not.

I do not believe this is true.

Of course, teachers bring different temperaments, histories and dispositions into the classroom. Some are naturally more outgoing; others are quieter. Some enjoy playful improvisation; others prefer careful structure. But performative pedagogy is not about making all teachers behave in the same way. It is about helping teachers become more aware of how they use themselves in the classroom.

The teacher’s self is part of the teaching situation: voice, body, attention, emotion, imagination, presence, choices, habits and responses. These can be explored and developed.

One way to do this is through carefully sequenced drama-informed activities.

For example, a simple counting game can reveal a great deal. Two people count “1, 2, 3” repeatedly, taking turns. Then one number is replaced by an action. Then another is replaced by a sound. The task is simple, playful and often funny. But beneath the game, important human skills are being practised: concentration, timing, eye contact, shared rhythm, repair, laughter, risk and responsiveness.

This kind of activity helps us see the difference between completing a sequence and learning with another person. An AI bot may be able to follow a pattern, but it does not experience hesitation, embarrassment, trust, playfulness or shared attention in the same way. Human learning happens in the relationship.

Other activities develop different dimensions of performative skill.

Passing the breath or passing a clap around a circle can develop concentration, focus and group rhythm. These activities require participants to attend closely to others, to anticipate, to receive and to pass on energy. They are deceptively simple, but they make visible the quality of attention in a group.

A group walk can develop ensemble awareness. Participants move through the space together, changing direction, speed or level without verbal instruction. The task requires peripheral vision, sensitivity, leadership, following and collective adjustment. It helps teachers experience what it means to be part of a learning group rather than standing outside it.

Blind magnets, or similar trust-based activities, can develop body awareness, responsibility and relational sensitivity. One participant leads another non-verbally or with limited visual information. The activity foregrounds trust, care, clarity, consent and responsiveness. These are not abstract values; they become embodied experiences.

Still image work can help teachers explore meaning, identity and emotional resonance. Participants create frozen images with their bodies to represent ideas, classroom moments, tensions or memories. This can lead into personal disclosure, reflection and discussion. It allows complex experiences to be seen before they are explained.

These activities are not only useful for language learners. They are powerful tools for teacher education.

They allow teachers and trainees to experience the human skills of teaching from the inside. They create a shared vocabulary for reflection. They make visible what is often hidden. They also provide a practical alternative to feedback that remains too general.

Instead of saying, “You need to be more confident,” a trainer might ask:

Where was your attention during that stage?
What did your body communicate?
How did you use the space?
What happened to the group energy?
When did you notice learners becoming more or less engaged?
How did you respond to hesitation?
What choices did you make with your voice?
Where could you have paused?
How did you build trust before asking learners to take a risk?

These questions are more useful because they turn presence into practice.

Performative skills can also be developed through micro-teaching and rehearsal. Teachers can rehearse instructions, transitions, storytelling, boardwork, gesture, silence, grouping, feedback and classroom movement. This does not make teaching artificial. On the contrary, rehearsal can free teachers to be more responsive because they are less trapped by anxiety or procedural uncertainty.

Observation can also be reframed. Instead of observing only task design, interaction patterns or error correction, we can observe performative dimensions of the lesson: rhythm, pace, spatial relationships, emotional climate, teacher positioning, use of voice, learner attention, group cohesion and moments of shared engagement.

Reflection then becomes richer. Teachers begin to ask not only “Did the activity work?” but “What kind of human event did we create?”

This matters deeply in the age of AI.

If teacher education focuses only on planning, content, explanation and feedback, AI will increasingly appear to compete with teachers. But if we attend to presence, relationship, embodiment, creativity and responsiveness, AI can help us see more clearly what teachers uniquely bring.

The future of teacher education should not be a retreat into nostalgia or a rejection of technology. It should be a renewed commitment to the human craft of teaching.

Performative skills give us one way to name that craft.

They remind us that teachers do not simply deliver lessons.

They create encounters.

They hold spaces.

They invite risk.

They animate learning.

And these are skills worth developing.