Teachers’ Perceptions on Drama’s Role in Enhancing Young Learners’ Developmental Domains

Sahar Yacoub Abu-Helu

doi:10.5539/mas.v13n1p162

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate teachers&rsquo; perceptions on drama&rsquo;s role in enhancing young learners&rsquo; developmental domains. The sample consisted of (133) cooperative- teachers chosen upon availability from the collaborating schools with the Classroom Teacher and the Early Childhood Education Practicum Courses in the University of Jordan. The cooperative-teachers&rsquo; perceptions data were collected through a questionnaire designed by the researcher based on the literature review related to drama as a teaching tool. The instrument included three main domains; the social-emotional, linguistic-communicative and cognitive domain. The findings revealed that drama highly enhanced young learners&rsquo; developmental domains, in which the social-emotional domain came as the highest score according to the teachers&rsquo; perceptions. The results also revealed that both the specialization and experience variables proved not to cause any statistical significant differences on the cooperative- teachers&rsquo; perceptions about the role of drama in teaching young learners. Further studies were recommended on investigating teachers&rsquo; actual practices in applying drama in their teaching actions.

Highlights

It is in the early stages of life that the effect of a learning process, will last and continue throughout the following years
Table (2) shows that teachers' perceptions of the roles of drama in children's education were generally high with an average of (4.09) and a standard deviation of (0.26)
The participants' perceptions of the role of drama in children's education were high. Many researchers such as (O’Neill, 1995; Bolton, 1998; Wagner, 1998; Neelands, 2007), discussed the impact of participating in drama activities. They agreed that drama allows the students to gain social skills, generate and use spoken and written skills, and acquire critical thinking skills

Summary

Introduction

It is in the early stages of life that the effect of a learning process, will last and continue throughout the following years. Rababah(2012),mentions that young learners’ educators are becoming increasingly more aware of the importance of promoting the physical, social, cognitive, emotional, and moral aspects of the development and the learning of a child. Many institutions and organizations have invested a great deal in developing this area. Anghelescu and her colleagues (2010), explain that in 2002, UNICEF started a global project for the early learning and development standards (ELDS). The content of (ELDS) highlights the fact that early learning and development includes multidimensional and interrelated domains. These multi- dimensional domains include: physical, social-emotional, linguistic-communicative, and cognitive developmental domains; all of which highly contribute to the child’s learning and growing process

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Conclusion