VOLUME 20
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ISSUE 5
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APRIL 2022
THE TOOLBOX A Teaching and Learning Resource for Instructors
BREAKING THROUGH THE “FOURTH WALL”: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING T
here is a rich history of thought and research Brad Garner around how faculty can and should engage Innovation & Partnerships Indiana Wesleyan University with their students in higher education (Chickering and Gamson, 1987; Guzzardo et al., 2020; Kuh, 2008; Trolian, Archibald & Jach, 2020). There should be no doubt that this element of the college experience can dramatically impact student learning and their probabilities of success. In this issue of The Toolbox, we will examine the “Fourth Wall” as a metaphor for how faculty can envision approaches to interacting and engaging with students.
The Fourth Wall is a conceptual model with its roots in staged performance arts. The idea is that there is an imaginary transparent wall between the actors and their audience. Through this veil, the audience sees the action of the play or film. This concept was initially proposed by the French philosopher and art critic Denis Diderot (1758). He suggested that actors behave as if the curtain had never risen, completely ignoring and never interacting with the audience. This approach has long been a standard practice across staged performance venues. Interestingly, several television shows have intentionally broken the Fourth Wall to engage the audience, including Saved by the Bell, Fresh Prince of Belair, Malcolm in the Middle, and House of Cards. Films employing this strategy include Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Wayne’s World, Fight Club, and Deadpool. In these examples, cast members turn away from their fellow castmates and simulate a conversation with the audience. There are several parallels between the presence of a Fourth Wall and teaching in higher education. First, behind the Fourth Wall, faculty can choose to be the center of attention, treating students as passive audience members, whether in a classroom or an online course. In this scenario, instructors center their efforts on the delivery of content. They might observe how students respond (e.g., attentive, distracted, sleeping), but the main thing is to work their way through a deck of PowerPoint slides in the time allotted for class.
National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition, University of South Carolina
Nothing kills creativity faster than a wall.
—Eric Weiner, from The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World’s Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley
www.sc.edu/fye/toolbox
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