Brecht's use of magistral and Socratic dialogue as a model for progressive education

Elizabeth Russo here explores the analogies between Brecht's spectator-centred approach to theatre and a student-centred approach to education, comparing the symbiosis achieved in his work between the 'Magistral' approach common to top-down education and the open-ended 'Socratic dialogue. She suggests that even the lehrstucke, often assumed to be his most dogmatic pieces, in fact offer choices and question the spectator's intellect, and compares Brecht's techniques with the concept of the 'zone of proximal development' in educational theory--the gap distance between a child's actual and potential level of development, and between his/her individual skills and functioning within a social group.