"At its best, drama can make breaks with the
dominant expectations of school and society, and become...a movement
toward a consciousness of what might be. In so doing, drama
can aid in bringing about needed social changes that...could result
in a freer human development."
- David Booth
Please read this first: These research pages
represent work that was done in 2002 as a defense of theater in an educational
environment. The research became the original primary draw for this website.
All of the pages are presented in their original form, and are best read
in order starting with this page.
Why drama indeed! There are two primary questions
we need to be concerned with. Click on either question to begin the discussion.
- Why drama? Why pump effort and money into a subject
that is traditionally viewed as entertainment, when academic areas
like science or English need the money as well? Why give up precious
classroom time to a process that sometimes takes longer than traditional
- What can drama offer to a student that no other discipline
can? Why replace what has worked throughout educational history
with a 'fluff' subject?
"Education is not a commodity.
Education is a social relationship." - Margolis
Let us begin with the first question. Theatre artists
have long dealt with asking themselves what the value is in defending
and keeping theatre programs alive in the face of rising costs - and
in many cases a seeming loss of interest from the general public. Don't
believe me? Which would you rather do tonight, go see that new action
movie, or go out to a play? Most people have no problem dropping $10
in cash on an evening movie, but mention $5 theatre tickets and they're
immediately turned off. But live theatre in any sense of the word costs
money, and play productions are expensive. Most community theatre survives
on private donations and money from establishments like the National
Endowment for the Arts. Ticket sales do virtually nothing to cover the
expense of a production.
So why drama in the classroom? Mention theatre,
music, or dance to a school official and likely the first thought across
their mind is somehow related to budget cuts. Drama is, bottom line,
seen as a fluff subject by many people. What on earth could students
possibly learn from drama that is more beneficial than traditional mainstream
The use of theatre in the classroom both to teach
subjects and to develop personal skills in students is well documented,
but seldom observed. The broad term 'drama' covers a wide area of techniques
incorporating physical movement, vocal action, and mental concentration
which traditional classrooms have lacked in quantity and combination
in the past. Many teachers are already familiar with the uses of skits
- basically improvisations by students - to teach and reinforce material.
Many teachers also find that students have a high interest in performing
those skits in the classroom. While students will often show interest
in these types of activities, teachers without a background in drama
will often have a difficult time knowing how to approach the idea of
teaching them more in the classroom. In the same manner, a student who
needs extra help or a new angle at learning a subject is often self-motivated
to find a way to learn the material; however teachers lack the resources
to offer the student.
In the book Drama
of Color Saldaña discusses a study done by researchers Gourgey,
Bosseau, and Delgado (1985) with lower socioeconomic Black and Hispanic
students in elementary school. After a six month improvisational drama
project, gains were observed in vocabulary and reading comprehension.
Survey results also suggested that students also showed improvement
in attitude areas including trust, self-accpetance, acceptance of others,
and empowerment Another project discussed in Saldaña's book
was conducted by researchers Shacker, Juliebo, and Parker (1993) in
which third graders were immersed in a French language acquisition
program with social studies through drama. The use of memorized playscripts
assisted with recall of French language months later.
Interestingly, many of the theories presented by
child researchers have supported child development through drama without
ascribing that specific title to it. For example, at the most basic level
interventionists and counselors have used role-playing and role-reversal
for years as a means of mediation for children trying to understand aspects
of a conflict, yet this has never been applied on a larger scale in the
mainstream classroom. This simple solution is left as a last resort because
teachers are unaware of its value in solving educational problems.
This website is more than a resource for teachers
looking for methods of including drama in their classroom. It is an attempt
to bridge the gap between traditional teaching and a sincere need within
the classroom for students to be able to develop and learn to their greatest
potential, with respect to theories and examples set forth by experts
in child development.
For more information, jump
ahead to Development
the dramatic roles and worlds that are available vicariously in theatre
and directly in process drama, we can learn both who we are and what
we may be. It is this that makes the essential nature of both theatre
and process drama profoundly educational" - Cecily O'Neill
What does it offer?
What can drama offer to a student that no other
discipline can? That's not an easy question to address. The larger educational
community is only now beginning to come to understand what arts teachers
have been claiming for some time, and that is that art education is of
an immeasurable value to students. Unfortunately the burden of proof
still lies on the art community.
Beyond the curriculum of your classroom, teachers
should make a careful examination of the growth and development of their
students. Gavin Bolton points out that at the base of drama education
is an extension of what we term 'play' (Brown
and Pleydell, 1999). Ever notice the enjoyment a child gets from
playing with a parent or friend? Bolton writes that these periods of
heightened excitement provide the perfect opportunity for the astute
parent to drop in extra information. Formalized classroom drama - that
is to say drama which focuses on a specific objective - is directed by
the teacher in role. This adopted roll within the fiction of the
drama allows the teacher to ask questions, shape the lesson, and check
and model student understanding. This adds an extra dimension to the
teaching - not an alternative dimension. Classroom drama strives
to build upon teaching methodologies that already exist, weaving them
together in new ways that inspire and hold the interest of students at
any grade level. And all while keeping the focus on the curriculum.
Among childhood educators there is a growing consensus
that young children learn best through two experiences: dramatic play
and interaction with their environment (Brown and Pleydell, 1999). As
educator Johnny Saldaña put it the educational community is acting
like they have invented sliced bread, while the arts community has been
trying to convince them of these facts for some time now. Brown and Pleydell
go on to write that children's imaginations are unlimited - engaging
this imagination allows the educator to turn the entire classroom into
another place and time. Observe any group of children playing in a day
care center. To those children, they really are doctors, or firemen,
or train engineers, or cowboys and Indians.
So what, you ask, is the application
of what we just covered? The astute teacher who wishes to educate, for
example, an elementary class on parts of the body walks into class one
day dressed as a nurse and informs their students that they must quickly
come into the operating room to save the life of the patient. The class,
already experienced in drama from previous lessons, is quick to play
along. The entire environment changes, and at once with their toys they
are medical professionals performing life - saving surgery. And while
they perform their 'play' routines that they know so well, the teacher
- still in role - drops in information. She names the bones in the body,
describes what a muscle is and how they should operate. Now instead of
a lecture or handout, the students have actually seen the parts of the
body and learned their uses.
Click here to
see how drama fits in with child development theories.