Dramatics has been a part and parcel of schools for long time but in the last few years it has for several reasons taken a backseat. The potential of including performing arts is immense. A lot of young learners in this generation do not realize that study and learning can be fun! How about drama in the classroom How about drama in the classroom How about drama in the classroom
There are many ways to make learning fun. It is a long-held belief that art promotes and enriches academic and social development of young minds. Professional knowledge shared among educators in creative fields like dramatics/drama-in-education and child development tells us that interpersonal, verbal and reading comprehension skills can be taught or at least enhanced, through art, experiences and training. Often, supporting voices claim that students exposed to art learning, develop critical and creative thinking skills, digital literacy and problem-solving strategies that are transferable to other academic domains. Theatre has been an influential factor in many people’s lives. Creativity can flourish, academics can improve, values can be instilled, and empathy and means of self-expression can be developed.
Using theatre as an educational device can help students in more ways than one write a script for role play making math fun and enjoyable. Students/learners can write a script ‘A Market Place’ to show profit and loss and percentage increase or decrease. Once the script is finalised, they can stage it with a lot of confidence creating a supportive and respectful atmosphere for one another in all learning and working environments. Through this play, they will go on a shopping tour in different shopping mall stores, where they practice additions, subtraction, multiplication, division and percentage discounts to find the cost of items purchased, calculate per-item prices, determine savings and figure change. Real-life word problems will add relevance and interest to the learning experience and help students become confident. While making props for the play they will have a better understanding of length and breadth.
Learning through theatre brings the excitement of live theatre to the core curriculum, providing teachers and students the opportunity to explore acting as a way to deepen and enrich the learning process. This paves the inner thoughts and feelings of school students as they navigate their way through the trials and tribulations.
- Performing arts helps in interpersonal, verbal and reading comprehension skills
- Students exposed to art learning, develop critical and creative thinking skills, digital literacy and problem-solving strategies
- Drama helps build camaraderie, beats routine and brings out the best among introverts
- Empathy and means of self-expression can be developed
- Studies prove that students who were aloof, opened up after taking part in drama
- Scripts if chosen carefully would help students gain a foundation in Math and Science too
- Helps students to read and write scripts. It leads students to the world of literature
Students exposed to art learning, develop critical and creative thinking skills, digital literacy and problem-solving strategies that are transferable to other academic domains
During drama performance, students use theatre conventions, such as still and moving images and simple improvised dialogue, to perform simple scenes for their classmates and others. Personal Learning takes place where they take part as a character in improvised role-play and “living-through” drama scenes, led by the Teacher-in-role and in small groups. Students also use simple props and sounds, in a short performance, to create a mood and atmosphere thus enhancing their social learning.
This methodology aims to explain the enhancement of students’ understanding about learning academic and non-academic subjects through role-play approach and also to find out the students’ response to the implementation of role-playing. This is a flexible teaching approach because it requires no special tools or environment. However, technology can provide significant advantages, and even new possibilities, for using the approach as a learning activity.
