“Education, which is the process of helping people to find essential meanings in life, involves both teaching and learning.” (Üstündağ, 2015) It is pertinent that education promotes not retention of information but utilization in real life. The child must be able to see vitality of what they are taught and incorporate it. This being coupled with the importance of creativity in interpretation resulted in the inculcation of drama within the classroom. Drama in education is the use of drama techniques to support learning in the classroom. Drama in education was at first called creative dramatics and the founder of the field was Winifred Ward. The term is also sometimes used interchangeably with development drama, educational drama, informal drama,
This intuition is fostered and encouraged through drama as students are expected to think critically about their task. constructivist learning . . . is authentic and understanding-based . . .” which translates to the realness and useful of what is construct due heavily to the fact that it is constructed based on what the child understands from what is happening within the class. This intuitive understanding is developed through a constant interpretation of abstract and concrete. The more the student has to decipher or interchange both the more their intuitive understanding develops. As it concerns abstract concepts it easier to gather understanding by relating what is taught to a dramatized world therefore making the abstract concrete and easier to understand. Piaget (1977) “. . . we may find that for the student to use themselves as the ‘character’ in a book, they are likely to develop a greater intuitive understanding of that character.” He went further to say that “. . . representing ideas in symbolic form, makes them more concrete, enabling one to eventually make clearer sense of them.” Since drama, especially improv supports the use of imagination the student’s critical thinking skills will develop. Under cognitive constructivism the student’s constant exposure to drama will make way for critical thinking which will translate into intuitive understanding. This intuitive skill does not look at
“Cognitive constructivism is based on the idea that students learn by building on previous knowledge and are active in creating new understanding” (Ragnarsdóttir & Þorkelsdóttir, 2012, p: 5). This purport the notion that the students learn by building on their schema. By being able to add to their prior knowledge they are constructing new meaning from what they are taught. If they are unable to build on their schema then there is no learning taking place. This sees the students as active participants of the teaching-learning experience. Ragnarsdóttir & Þorkelsdóttir (2012) stated that “It is necessary to take in account a student’s previous knowledge because new knowledge is adopted and interpreted according to previous knowledge.” as such drama plays a vital role in the learning experience of students. Due to the fact that drama brings to the classroom real-life situations that students will have to give the appropriate response based on the assigned role. Consequently they will have to take from their prior knowledge of what a particular role entail and response accordingly. “Students use their experience to gain knowledge and build up additional experience while problem‐solving”. Drama triggers the schema of the students whether used as introductory material, lesson development or evaluation activity. Students will have to use their prior knowledge to interpret or complete
” Drama for Students. Ed. Anne Marie Hacht. Vol. 21.
―Fences.‖ Drama for Students. Ed. David M. Galens. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 1998. 180-197. Gale
Galens, David, and Lynn M. Spampinato, eds. Drama for Students. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Print.
Teaching theories are as much part of the classroom as the student and the teacher. The effect individual theories have on an environment depends how they are incorporated within the classroom in addition to the influence they have had on the curriculum construction. This essay will briefly look at how motivation theory, cognitive and social cognitive theory along with constructivism have impacted on education and the classroom.
A. Behaviorism, constructivism and cognitivism are relatively common theories used in the classroom as ways to approach student learning. Behaviorism focuses on observable behavior, such as students answering questions correctly, or being able to follow directions to complete a task as instructed. Characteristics of a classroom that uses behaviorism might be memorization of facts, writing vocabulary words, or a token reward system to inspire the desired behavior and decrease undesired behaviors. Constructivism, as indicated by the root word “construct,” focuses on the construction of new ideas, or expanding on what is already known. Students in a classroom using constructivism as a means for learning might seem more actively engaged in the learning process; they often learn something new through applying what they already know about the content area, and exploring new matter to further their understanding. This type of classroom often uses hands on manipulatives to allow students to actually build, create, or experiment with what they are learning. A cognitivism approach to learning might be explained by the minds capacity to process information – such as how a learner might remember something, retrieve information, or store new concepts. Learning through this method often depends on how the student processes what the teacher is presenting. Classrooms using this approach might incorporate learning strategies that help students categorize and sequence information to assist with processing. Like constructivism, it can be an active style of learning.
I believe that teaching and learning is both a science and an art, which requires the implementation of already determined rules. I see learning as the result of internal forces within the person student. I know that children differ in the way they learn and grow but I also know that all children can learn. Students’ increased understanding of their own experience is a legitimate form of knowledge. I will present my students with opportunities to develop the ability to meet personal knowledge.
Drama- Students will make their quest from paper or media format to real-life. This can be done with friends in the classroom. All of the important factors should be included.
...ements demonstrate that the truth of drama lies in the fact that every playwright creates his play in a subconsciously self-reflexive manner while he is one of us as human beings. Thus drama is, in a wider sense, a true reflection of man. A play, the write adds, is multidimensional and many of its events occur simultaneously exactly like life itself. Drama is like life also because the onus is on the audience to find the meaning while in other genres the writer might interfere, technically or otherwise, to impose his point of view.
Constructivism theorists believe that learning is an ongoing collective application of knowledge where past knowledge and hands on experience meet. This theory also believes that students are naturally curious. If students are naturally curious, their curio...
In a social constructivist view on learning the brain is a complex, flexible, ever changing organism that reshapes itself in response to challenge (Abbott & Ryan, 2001). Constructivism view is that knowledge is obtained and understood through a student’s mental framework (Abbott & Ryan, 2001). Learning is not a passive process but it is a deliberate and progressive process that deepens meaning (Abbott & Ryan, 2001). The student does not only reply on a teachers lectures but also on their interactions with the environment around them (Abbott & Ryan, 2001). In this view it is important that the teacher sees the student as the centre of teaching endeavours, by assisting them to obtain information they can integrate into their already known knowledge. There are many ways that a teacher can assist their students, one example is Scaffolding. Scaffolding is where a teacher provides students with just enough help in order to complete the tasks themselves, then over time decreasing the amount of help so that a student can master this themselves.
...drama is an interesting activity to foster and facilitate the role of the teacher and the student in the classroom setting. In facilitating and fostering process drama facilitators and student work collaboratively to create an intrinsic, imaginative world where through dramatic presentations problems are solved and harmonious solutions to aspects of real life experiences is conjured. The principles of process drama are a vehicle that is used to execute the role of the student and facilitator in adding to successive novelty approach to process drama in our classroom setting.
In this paper, I will be focusing briefly on my knowledge and understanding of the concept of Applied theatre and one of its theatre form, which is Theatre in Education. The term Applied Theatre is a broad range of dramatic activity carried out by a crowd of diverse bodies and groups.
A definition of drama is; an episode of life, or fiction that involves emotion or conflict.
Among many teaching styles and learning theories, there is one that is becoming more popular, the constructivist theory. The constructivist theory focuses on the way a person learns, a constructivist believes that the person will learn better when he/she is actively engaged. The person acts or views objects and events in their environment, in the process, this person then understands and learns from the object or events(P. Johnson, 2004). When we encounter a certain experience in our life, we think back to other things that have occurred in our life and use that to tackle this experience. In a lot of cases, we are creators of our own knowledge. In a classroom, the constructivist theory encourages more hands-on assignments or real-world situations, such as, experiments in science and math real-world problem solving. A constructivist teacher constantly checks up on the student, asking them to reflect what they are learning from this activity. The teacher should be keeping track on how they approached similar situations and help them build on that. The students can actually learning how to learn in a well-planned classroom. Many people look at this learning style as a spiral, the student is constantly learning from each new experience and their ideas become more complex and develop stronger abilities to integrate this information(P. Johnson, 2004). An example of a constructivist classroom would be, the student is in science class and everyone is asking questions, although the teacher knows the answer, instead of just giving it to them, she attempts to get the students to think through their knowledge and try to come up with a logical answer. A problem with this method of learning is that people believe that it is excusing the role of...
One hundred years ago, Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a young man developing new insights about learning. He was one of a handful of constructivist-minded writers and educational theorists of the time. Learning theories open educators up to new ideas. They are necessary to expand our knowledge of how learning works. Piaget’s work is a well-tested and educators around the world should be aware of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive development in particular because it will improve the quality of their teaching. Once a teacher knows this theory, they can plan lessons appropriate to their students’ cognitive ability and build upon students’ earlier knowledge in a constructivist way.