Critical Thinking and Drama Education

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One of the arguments which is sometimes made about the educational value of drama is that drama involves critical thinking and that critical thinking can be promoted by work in drama. If this is the case, it is an important claim, since the ability to think critically is crucial in our complex and problematic world. But in order to support this claim, the concept of critical thinking needs to be examined fully and the connection between critical thinking and drama needs to be elaborated in detail. The argument that drama can foster critical thinking needs to rest on a clear, coherent and defensible conception of critical thinking and needs to be elaborated in terms of a detailed consideration of how, exactly, critical thinking can be part of work in drama. The author's research has focused both on the nature and justification of drama education and on critical thinking, and in this article she brings these areas together by detailing how critical thinking might be understood in the context of drama and drama education. In order to do this, she first examines the way critical thinking has tended to be conceptualised in education in general and in drama education in particular, at least in North America. She then outlines a conception of critical thinking which she has been developing together with colleagues in Vancouver, shows how it is different from conceptions prominent in educational theory and practice, and explains why they believe it is a defensible conception. Finally, she applies this conception to the area of drama and develops several examples to show what it would mean for drama and drama education.