Drama Education Research Articles

The use of drama in A Level chemistry: a study into the effects of simulation-role-play on the quality of learning of organic reaction mechanisms

ABSTRACT Background Much of the research into the use of drama in science education has been qualitative, with its primary focus being on its affective value amongst students aged 6–14 years, with a smaller fraction on effectiveness in terms of academic achievement and understanding of chemistry amongst older school students (16–18 years). Purpose This article reports on a study that compared the effectiveness of drama, as a pedagogy, with a didactic practice-examinations-questions-based approach on students’ understanding of chemistry organic reaction mechanisms as measured by examination question scores. Sample Data were collected in seven 11–18 schools and a Further Education (FE) college in England, with a total of 236 students, aged 16–18 years, studying Advanced (A) Level chemistry. Each institution had two different classes studying chemistry concurrently. Design and methods The research was a quasi-experimental intervention with one class of A Level chemistry students in each institution being taught an aspect of organic reaction mechanisms using drama and the second, non-drama, class being taught the same material using practice examination questions. Post-intervention, all students completed previously unseen A Level examination questions and, in one phase of the study, a diagnostic question designed to probe deeper understanding. The responses were subject to statistical analysis. Results In all cases there were no statistically significant differences between the test scores of the two groups for the answers to the examination questions. However, answers to a diagnostic question, probing deep level understanding, showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups in favour of the drama group. Conclusions Whilst drama is at least as effective as the use of practice examination questions in the teaching and learning of organic reaction mechanisms it was statistically significantly more effective in terms of the development of deeper level conceptual understanding.

The Influence of K.S.Stanislavsky's Teaching on the Development of Chinese Theatre

At the beginning of the last century, the world's performance system was gradually formed and developed. The Stanislavsky performance system was established on the basis of absorbing the essence of various world plays: a combination of performance, directing, drama teaching and methods. The Stanislavsky system is a precious treasure of the world. It is of great significance to the theory and practice of Chinese watchmaking art. In China, "From the 1930s to the end of the 1970s, in the performing arts, it can be said that Stanislavsky was a god-like being. While accepting him, the Chinese theater scene in the 20th century also had experience in learning and researching the system. a complex process that reacts to the evaluation shows a trend of ups and downs. However, to this day, although Stanislavsky is long gone, his system remains focused on the relevance of concrete learning research.

Serving Society: "Drama +" as an Innovative Path for Drama Education in University

With the Ministry of Education's emphasis on aesthetic education and the increasing prominence of theatre as a discipline, it is increasingly important for colleges and universities to explore and practice theatre aesthetic education. Based on the model of "Drama+", this thesis explores the innovative path of multidisciplinary integration teaching mode of theatre as the core for theatre aesthetic education in colleges and universities. Through an in-depth study of the construction and practice path of "Drama+" group in Changchun College of Humanities in Jilin Province, this theists aims to provide feasible theoretical guidance and practical reference for theatre aesthetic education in colleges and universities.

Research on the application value of Multimedia-Based virtual reality technology in drama education activities

The research and moral use of academic technology focuses on developing, implementing, and overseeing the use of suitable technical resources and procedures to enhance learning and achievement. Multimedia has found its position in some form as an educational technology platform in the contemporary environment of academic universities. The use of virtual reality software as an intellectual tool and learning provider allows students to perform cognitive rehabilitation of preexisting information frameworks. People are paying more and more attention to how preschoolers' holistic skills develop as education reform progresses. Drama education is incorporated into the school curriculum to enhance young children's artistic, intellectual, and linguistic skills. Therefore, this study aims to examine the potential of multimedia-based virtual reality technology (MVRT) in drama education. The participants in this study were students from different universities in China. Students were exposed to multimedia-based virtual reality technology, and its efficacy was assessed using a statistical analytic approach called Analysis of variance (ANOVA). Drama understanding rate, educational improvement ratio, teaching quality rate, student achievement ratio, computation time, and parental support rate are among the performance metrics used to assess performance. Multimedia-based virtual reality technology (MVRT) for drama education showed outstanding success, with a 98% improvement ratio in educational outcomes and higher teaching quality. Students exhibited improved performance, supported by solid parental approval, demonstrating the effectiveness of MVRT in enhancing educational experiences.

Confronting the messy complexities of the climate crisis through drama education and applied theatre

ABSTRACT This editorial addresses the integration of drama education and applied theatre in confronting the climate crisis, highlighting the complex interplay of responsibility, agency, and action in schools and community-based settings. With a focus on Climate Change Education (CCE), we argue for pedagogical, methodological, and creative frameworks that help us embrace the inherent messiness and complexities of intersecting crises. We introduce an evolving ‘site-responsive pedagogy’ that considers the interconnectedness of local and global scales: one that responds and adapts to the specific ecological and cultural contexts of diverse global communities.

Kenyan Rock Art: protecting the past, facilitating the future through immersive technologies, archaeology, and drama education

ABSTRACT This article responds to Olof Franck’s vision of a less didactic and more creative approach to Education for Sustainable Development. We consider how a multidisciplinary applied theatre project, bringing together Earth Sciences, Ancient Rock Art, storytelling, digital technology, and drama education knowledges and techniques can foster a more creative approach. The article is rooted in our analysis of the African Rock Art: protecting the past, facilitating the future project. We reflect on the challenges and possibilities of engaging with issues of climate crisis, responsibility, agency, and action in the Korogocho informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya.

Playing within the trouble: using drama to cultivate tentacular thinking and response-ability in schools in times of crisis

ABSTRACT This article considers how new materialist, Indigenous and posthuman feminist theories might be applied to drama pedagogy and research to empower young people to play within the trouble of colonial legacies and heightened climate crises. It references an Australian school project that used Heathcote's Rolling Role system of teaching (1993) as an imaginative and transdisciplinary climate activist pedagogy, framing young people inside the entangled ‘trouble’ of our times, so they can ‘make oddkin’ with critters needing care, protection, and sanctuary. Using a critical autoethnographic approach, this article considers how drama can work on/within the ethical imagination in tentacular ways.

Utilizing process drama in education: a study of pedagogical perceptions

Language pedagogy currently remains an evolving field for teachers, scholars, and researchers as the world is advancing towards AI and other technologies, but accordingly it still poses difficulties and problems of authenticity and suitability. A number of strategies and methodologies have been used by different educational psychologists and applied linguists, but pedagogues still face problems with classroom pedagogy. The strategies and methodologies that have evolved in English pedagogy aim to develop procedures and concepts for designing materials which can be utilized in classrooms. The purpose of developing theories for the classroom is to develop the communicative competence of students, which is unfortunately not currently achieved due to the heterogeneous nature of classrooms. Process drama, unlike other instructional methods, attempts to amalgamate various language skills in pedagogy. It is devoted to targeting productive and receptive language skills. The research aims to elicit responses from teachers regarding the use of PD in the language classroom. The participants (46) were chosen randomly for this study, and a mixed method was employed by the researchers, using a questionnaire consisting of closed and open-ended questions. The findings of the study revealed that PD is an engaging, interactive and communicative pedagogical strategy that brings the desired learning results.

Validation of clinical simulation scenarios for the teaching of soft skills in child-centered care

Consultations with children and their families are complex and require soft skills. However, there is a gap in the medical curriculum concerning these skills, especially as encounter training is often adult-centered. We developed, validated, and applied simulation scenarios that prioritize active participation of children to train soft skills in child-centered care for undergraduate medical students. This is a methodological study to develop three scenarios and a checklist of what is expected. The content was validated by 18 experts. A pre-test was carried out for adjustments. Then, the simulations were applied and evaluated by 18 medical undergraduate students. They included the participation of 6 pediatric simulated patients aged 9–12 years trained by a drama teacher. According to the results, the scenarios and checklist proved to be valid instruments in content terms (ICV-I > 0.8). The scripts were followed by the simulated pediatric patients, but they had difficulty mimicking a hypoactive state. Some were anxious, but everyone enjoyed participating in the feedback. The simulated parents had difficulty participating and giving space to the child's speech. Participants assessed that the simulations performed as they were proposed and, after experimenting them, felt more prepared. The simulations provided an opportunity for students to practice soft skills by interacting with children in a safe environment. Using children as simulated patients is feasible but presents some challenges. Our study has expanded the ways in which children's health content can be taught. We are investigating whether this training leads to better patient outcomes in real clinical settings.

Playful (music) teaching and learning in Irish primary school classrooms

ABSTRACT The value and importance of play for children’s well-being, learning and development is evidenced by its inclusion within the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and its increased policy and research presence on a national and international stage. However, with a need for educators and pupils to navigate a range of implicit tensions in understandings of play and formal learning, enactment of playful pedagogy in primary schools is not without its challenges. This article situates playful teaching and learning in the primary education sphere, drawing from the broader policy and research context, and findings from empirical case study research conducted with Irish primary school teachers (n = 6) exploring playful music pedagogy over a 6-week period in their classrooms in 2019. Results indicated teacher perceptions of a capacity for playful music pedagogy to facilitate deep, holistic learning in tandem with enhanced engagement and motivation for children. Also of note is a blurring of boundaries between play and work with implicit shifts to classroom culture, ownership, and associated movement outside comfort zones for teachers and pupils alike. Recommendations are made pertaining to cultural and policy shifts, and sustained support for educators in navigating tensions, paradoxes and challenges associated with implementing playful pedagogy in the Irish primary education context.

THE ROLE OF DRAMATIC PADAGOGY IN DEVELOPING TRANSVERSAL COMPETENCE ON STUDENTS

The old didactic theatre must be replaced by, let us say, pedagogical.” (Augusto Boal). Lifelong learning education can be ensured also with the dramatic pedagogy learning curricula due to the specific of student’s competences that can be improved and valued in formal and nonformal learning on promoting skills, attitudes a key-competences, social and positive values. The key-competences frame has a transversality characteristic but the most important is to identify the life key-competences you need to ensure, along with the selected methods used to achieve them. In this study we propose dramatic pedagogy methods to develop the acquisition of knowledges and skills of students and also to highlight their benefits thru drama teaching. The impact dramatization curricula in formal learning context encourages all students to participate to activities using their creativity or to express their personalities in solving problems, to express their imagination and most off all to be authentic. All teachers can use on their learning context planning such as dramatization, as a significant element of their teaching according with the used drama methods. Dramatization as an art form involves cohesion and mutual cooperation between students and teachers. It encourages students to think positively about themselves, to learn and believe in their own growing abilities. Dramatization as an educational method, through integrated approaches of learning contributes permanently to adapt and to design curriculum for students need of learning and to increases the perspective of expansion knowledges outside the curriculum, to free movement and to research on the worldwide science.

Free play and pedagogical play: a multiple-case study of teachers’ views of play in Chinese early learning centers

ObjectiveGrounded in theories of globalization, this qualitative case study aimed to explore the understanding of play among Chinese teachers in private, for-profit Western style early learning centers.MethodsThe study encompassed 16 Chinese teachers working in four Western-style early learning centers. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews. Following separate thematic analyses of each case, a cross-case analysis was conducted to compare and contrast the emerging themes, elucidating both commonalities and distinctions across the four cases.ResultsThe findings from all four cases revealed a categorization of play into two main types: “play in class’” and “play out of class.” “Play out of class” was characterized as unstructured, enjoyable, and creative, emphasizing child autonomy and spontaneous learning. In contrast, “play in class” pertained to play-based curricula that were thoughtfully designed to align with specific teaching goals and learning objectives. It was seen as a structured method for fostering learning, highlighting the developmental appropriateness of such approaches.Conclusion:These findings underscore the educators’ recognition of the significance of play; however, it also illustrates that their perceptions have been shaped by the prevailing emphasis on children’s achievements in Chinese society.

The effectiveness of Grade 3 teachers’ implementation of poetry through play pedagogies

Background: Poetry predates all other genres of literature, and it has been argued that the relationship between poetry and language is inextricable. The ability of African people to articulate their own stories was largely silenced by colonialism. Poems and lyrics have been known to create a bridge between individuals in meaningful words and songs.Aim: This article explores Grade 3 teachers’ experiences of teaching poetry and their utilisation of play pedagogies to enhance learning and make it pleasurable.Setting: Three schools in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, were purposively selected because of their rural location. The sample comprised six Grade 3 teachers who worked in these three rural primary schools. The learners in the study were using isiZulu as a language of learning and teaching.Methods: Semi-structured interviews, document analysis and non-participant observations were employed to generate the data.Results: Regardless, Grade 1 teachers know their knowledge of the value of play pedagogies in the development of young children.Conclusion: Researchers suggest that Grade 3 teachers need to align their practice and lesson plans with Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) proposals and guidelines. Moreover, play pedagogies need to be implemented and these need to be realistically aligned with allocated time frames and available resources to mitigate the severe restraints that impede effective poetry teaching as a tool for facilitating learning.Contribution: To ensure the success of all Grade 3 learners in the realm of poetry understanding and writing, it is imperative that Foundation Phase (FP) teachers align their teaching to the CAPS pedagogies to expose learners to various forms of poetry.

Light and Delight: Playful Learning as an Ideology and Methodology in Adult Education

This article, a conceptual and theoretical piece, opens a window on “playful learning” as a philosophy of education and a suite of diverse pedagogical approaches, methods, and techniques. The paper criticizes the serious ambience of adult education with its high levels of instrumentalism and performativity. It argues for playful learning as an ideology and methodology to realize the light (i.e., the true essence) and the delight (i.e., the pleasure) of learning. To this aim, the paper initially provides a feature-based, pedagogical perspective of “play.” Afterward, it defines and defends playful learning, highlighting a wide spectrum of possibilities and affordances within the pedagogy of play. In particular, (digital) game-based learning, gamification, and quest-based learning are touched upon. Additionally, connections are briefly made between playful learning and several teaching paradigms and philosophies in adult education such as student-centered learning, project-based learning, creative pedagogy, positive education, and critical pedagogy. Furthermore, the article puts forth “signature pedagogy” as a theoretical framework to safeguard the implementation of playful learning in adult education. Similarly, the notion of “iplay” (or intelligent play) is introduced to underscore the technological and evolving dimensions of play and playful learning. The paper, finally addresses several areas of concern within “playful adult education.” It touches upon creating a “playful mindset” and “play culture” among educational stakeholders especially teachers and students. Likewise, developing appropriate adult learning “playware” (i.e., playful instructional content) and “playful assessment” are addressed.

Implementing play pedagogies within rural early childhood development centres: Practitioners’ views

Implementing play pedagogies within rural early childhood development centres: Practitioners’ views

Analysis of pre-service teachers' flow experience in educational drama practices and the effect of practices on attitudes toward creative drama courses

Aim: The analysis of the flow experience of pre-service teachers in educational drama practices and the effect of the practices on the attitude towards creative drama lessons reveal the purpose of the study. It is of great importance for physical education teachers to use creative drama practices as an effective teaching method in physical education and sports lessons, both in terms of their personal development and professional development. Method: The study was designed with a pre-test-post-test control group experimental design, one of the true experimental designs, and one of the quantitative research methods. In addition to the demographic information form, the "Flow Experience Scale" and "Attitude Scale towards Creative Drama Lessons" were applied to the participants as measurement tools. The distribution of the participant's demographic information was analyzed by frequency analysis. T-test independent groups analyzed the participants' pre-test and post-test scale scores, and the change in the pre-test and post-test scores of the scales according to demographic information was analyzed by t-test in independent groups and one-way analysis of variance. A regression model was tested to determine the effect of reason on anxiety. Analyses were performed with SPSS 20.0 software at a 95% confidence level. Findings and Conclusions: As a result, there was no significant difference between the attitude scale scores towards flow experience and creative drama course of the students participating in the research according to their age, gender, income level, place of residence, and activity type, and between the pre-tests and post-tests of the scales. However, a significant difference was detected between the pre-test and post-test scores of the flow experience scale anxiety sub-dimension and the flow sub-dimension of the academic achievement variable. In addition, although there was no significant difference in terms of the variables mentioned, it was noted that the flow experience flow and anxiety subscale scores were low. In contrast, the attitude scores towards the creative drama course were high.

More Than Fluency: Artificial Stuttering as a Therapy in Drama Education in Palestine

This article explores the use of artificial stuttering as a powerful practice and therapy in higher education in Palestine where the need for applied drama is increasing. It specifically focuses on the artistic and/or performative re-employment of Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby to enhance the academic achievement and social development of dysfluent students throughout and beyond their university education. By using extra-curricular, art-mediated training and in-class performance of chosen passages from Dickens’s narrative, students not only improve their linguistic and intellectual competencies but also develop dynamic confidence to articulate themselves in daily social contexts during self-presentation. This academic practice, which is part of a one-term educational disability programme, focuses on training a selected number of undergraduate students with a severe or mild stutter by relying on the technique of artificial impersonation of the stuttering of Smike, who is one of the most common Victorian dysfluent characters, in different melodramatic acts. In this experience, students show linguistic growth and social command of communication, and thus chart a new subjective identity.

An Investigation of the Relationship between Democratic Attitudes and Communication Skills of Drama Educators

Creative drama encompasses two primary learning objectives: the internalization of democratic values and the cultivation of advanced communication skills. To foster these attributes in individuals through creative drama education, it is imperative that the educators themselves possess these skills. This research pursues a dual objective: firstly, it delves into the communication skills and democratic attitudes of creative drama educators, considering various influencing factors. Subsequently, it explores the correlation between communication skills and democratic attitudes. The study included 143 creative drama educators from 18 cities in Turkey. Various statistical analyses, including independent samples t-tests, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis, were employed. The findings reveal that the gender and years of experience of drama educators are not significantly linked to their democratic attitudes or communication skills. However, the faculty that they are graduated from significantly impacts both their communication skills and democratic attitudes. Finally, the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis demonstrates a significant and positive relationship between the communication skills and democratic attitudes of creative drama educators.

Teachers’ Perspectives on the Development of 21st Century Skills in Early Childhood Development

The study focusses on teachers` perspectives on the development of 21st century skills in Early Childhood Development (ECD). The study was motivated by mixed reactions by various teachers on the competency-based curriculum. A qualitative approach was adopted in order to get in- depth information from the teachers in their natural setting. A case study design was adopted drawing on five schools which were purposively sampled to obtain rich data. Semi- structured interviews were used to generate data. The study comprised ten Early Childhood Development teachers and five school heads who were purposively sampled. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis. The findings reveal that teachers have a good understanding of the 21st century skills. A few teachers, however, conflated the 21st century skills with learning areas. Findings further reveal challenges such as misconceptions on play pedagogies and lack of resources. The study recommends, strategies such as engaging in income generating ECD projects will capacitate schools to buy teaching and learning materials for teachers necessary in developing the 21st century skills. Another recommendation is the implementation of staff development for teachers and administrators on ECD curriculum.

FORMAT LAYANAN DALAM BIMBINGAN KELOMPOK

The group guidance service format is a framework or structure used by counselors or mentors to provide guidance to a group of individuals in one session or meeting. Group counseling services aim to assist group members in understanding and overcoming the various problems or challenges they face, as well as promoting personal growth and positive development. The service formats in group guidance are (1) classical format, (2) group format, (3) field format, (4) individual format, (5) collaborative format, and (6) distance format. As for the types of methods in the service Group guidance includes: home room programs, study trips, discussion groups, group activities, student unions, sociodrama, psychodrama, and drama teaching.