Culture and the arts are essential components of a
comprehensive education leading to the full development of the
individual. Therefore, Arts Education is a universal human right,
for all learners.
UNESCO: 'The Road Map of Arts Education‘, 2006:3
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
International Week 2016
Introduction to
Drama in Education & Educational Drama
DRAMA
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
William Shakespeare, As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 139–143
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
The Seven Ages of Man, a series of paintings by Robert Smirke; above: The Schoolboy
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
The Seven Ages of Man, William Mulready
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
The Seven Ages Of Man
Richard Kindersley
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
DRAMA
What is life? 'Tis but a madness.
What is life? A thing that seems,
A mirage that falsely gleams,
Phantom joy, delusive rest,
Since is life a dream at best,
And even dreams themselves are dreams.
Calderón de la Barca, Life is a dream, slose of Act II
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Drama in Education vs. Educational Drama
Drama in education means implementing drama techniques
and activities across the curriculum, e.g. drama pedagogy in
foreign language teaching and learning
Educational drama means drama as a subject
Inclusion vs. Exclusiveness
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
The history of drama pedagogy
Plato (427-347 BC)
children should learn in a playful way and be allowed to blossom
by having as few constraints as possible on them
Quintilian (35-97)
actors are exemplars of the art of delivering speech
Benedictine monks
liturgical, mystery and morality plays - important in educating
people (singing of sacred hymns accompanied by gestures and
movements)
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
The history of drama pedagogy
16th century
drama-related activities increased in European schools under
the influence of humanist ideals of education
the performance of a play in Latin and English to provide a good
training in appropriate behaviour (“proper action”) and to help
to polish the students’ pronunciation skills
Renaissance
drama was adopted as an aid to language study; French and
German were beginning to enter the curriculum; the more
enlightened masters treated them as living languages, and
promoted the oral aspect of their teaching by stage performance
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
The history of drama pedagogy
Acting is one of the most potent means of learning. Thought,
word and act linked together make an impression such as
nothing else can make. In this direction lies the salvation of our
schools. We all know how dull a text-book is; a history of English,
a manual of grammar, even chemistry books are sometimes dull.
But if the teacher uses his book as a suggestion, makes his
history a story, sets his pupils to act it, in make-believe, before
they know what they are doing, they are practising English
composition and English grammar and learning English history.
Rouse, Perse Grammar School in Cambridge, quoted in Coggin 1956:232
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Drama becomes a school subject =
Drama in education (DiE)
Pioneering teachers in the 20th century paved the way for
drama across the curriculum and for the establishment of drama
as an independent school subject
Harriet Finlay-Johnson (1911)
Caldwell Henry Cook (1917)
Peter Slade (1954)
Brian Way (1967)
Dorothy Heathcote
Gavin Bolton
Fleming (1997)
(1979; 1984)
O’Neill (1995)
Neelands
& Goode (2000)
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Drama in education
• learners develop real-life skills (co-operation, conflict
resolution, dealing with emotions such as anger, fear….)
• introduces learners to oral presentation
Play - drama continuum
children's
play
DiE
DiE
DiE
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
DiE
theatre
Drama in education
• drama is a natural interest in young children
• when left playing on their own, drama play comes naturally
• children "make-believe", pretend to be mum, dad, princess,
superheroes etc.
• come to school with a creative and imaginative mind and
experience in self-directed play
• drama activities provide learners with an enjoyable learning
experience
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Drama and educational theorists
Plato
organizing and structuring children’s games creates a sense of
rules and ideal government organization
Spencer
play is vital to a child’s development
Gross
play contributes to the growth of intelligence
Piaget
the decline of symbolic play in childhood is a stage in the
evolution toward games with rules; dramatic playing is
important in a child’s social, creative, cognitive, moral and
affective development
Lewin
make-believe play practices
social rules and their internalization
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Drama and educational theorists
Vygotsky
symbolic play is a way to practise symbolic representation of
objects and events in order to construct knowledge and support
language; a step towards abstract thinking
Elias
the educational environment should be constructed regarding
the child’s feelings – effective and long-lasting learning occur
when emotions are activated
Aslan
in a dramatic context, experiences are constructed with the help
of emotions - participants of drama cannot easily forget what
they have experienced in drama class
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Educational drama
is the approach which uses drama as a teaching and
learning medium
Wessels 1987
is the creation of a dramatic environment where students
learn the subject by playing roles and using other dramatic
techniques while conducting a topic-related investigation
Sağlam 1997/ Gökçen 2014
Learning through drama is contextual
Bolton 1986:36
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Literary analysis as a basis for drama
Process writing and peer assessment in three courses in
teacher education: young adult literature, methodology, and
language skills
YAL novels
The Other Side of Truth & one of three other novels focussing
on migration
to make use of the trainees’ competences in analysing fiction
to develop their writing skills
to implement an assessment scale
to provide feedback to their peers making use of performance
descriptors and narrative feedback
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
From novel to play
• Setting
• Characters
• Plot
• Dialogues
• Stage directions
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
From novel to play
In constructing the plot and working it out with the proper
diction, the poet should place the scene, as far as possible,
before his eyes. In this way, seeing everything with the utmost
vividness, as if he were a spectator of the action, he will
discover what is in keeping with it, and be most unlikely to
overlook inconsistencies.
Aristotle
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Acting is the perfect idiot's profession... acting is the
most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to
earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at
the age of four.
Katherine Hepburn (1907-2003)
Bailey (2014)
Drama activities
• Warming-up activities: handshakes
• Set the occasion for the greeting:
. a reunion party for school friends who have
not met for 20 years
. an exam
. a wedding
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Drama activities
• Whiz - hey - ping
A fast game to get a class up and in action
• Ball games to foster eye contact
• Directed group visualisation: develop a story
• Working with mime: miming a poem, miming
noises
• Detailed interpretation of a piece of mime
• Working with pantomime: What am I doing?
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Drama techniques
• Preparing the articulators: physical warm ups
• Breathing: blowing out candles
• Volume: crescendo
• Changing voices: expressing different moods
• Repetition and memorizing a text
• Shifting the stress and changing the meaning
of a sentence
• Choral speaking
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Drama techniques
• Freeze: create a picture
• Freeze-Walk with emotions
• Freeze-Walk in the weather
• Create tension and suspense
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Drama in language education
In the wake of a communicative revolution a vast number
of innovations have shaped language teaching in the
past few decades.
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Drama in language education
What still happens in the classroom is often focused on
supposedly predictable outcomes achieved by controlled
and structured activities which can be measured in tests
and examinations.
Language is not only acquired or learned this way. What
plays an important role is the implementation of
activities which evoke affective engagement, such as
playfulness, enjoyment and physical movement.
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Benefits of Using Drama
in the ESL/EFL Classroom
Drama activities only
for memorizing texts
& practicing pronunciation?
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Benefits of using drama
in the ESL/EFL classroom
Motivation
1.Imitating the way young learners naturally acquire language
through play, make-believe & meaningful interaction
2.Using the language for genuine communication & real-life
purposes; initiating a need to speak
3.Making language learning an active, motivating experience
4.Gaining the confidence & self-esteem needed to use the
language spontaneously
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Benefits of using drama
in the ESL/EFL classroom
Language Learning
5.Using the language for genuine communication & real-life
purposes; initiating a need to speak
6.Acquiring language by focusing on the message & not the form
of utterances
7.Making what is learned memorable: through direct
experience, affect & by attending to different learning styles
8.Stimulating learners’ intellect and imagination
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Benefits of using drama
in the ESL/EFL classroom
Life Skills
9.Bringing the real world into the classroom (problem-solving,
using dictionaries, research, cross-curricular content)
10.Developing learners’ abilities to empathize with others & to
become better communicators
11.Enhancing communication & presentation skills by
experiencing that words & body language project subtle
messages
12.Catering 21st century learners needs to create, display &
perform
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Implementing drama
in the ESL/EFL classroom
•Short drama activities: easily integrated in
everyday English lessons
•Use of cell phones & tablets: practising,
performing, displaying & providing feedback
•Drama projects (plays, movies): cross
curricular; incorporation of all the learners’
skills and talents
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Using all the learners’ skills & talents:
designing dvd covers
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Using all the learners’ skills & talents:
Designing fake websites
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Using all the learners’ skills & talents:
Some assist the
film directress…
While others slip
into various roles…
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Using all the learners’ skills & talents:
From medieval men…
to dedicated detectives...
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Using all the learners’ skills & talents:
From cosmetics salesman...
to weatherwoman...
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Creative writing:
Planning & editing
Oh god! There is the inspector again!
Ahm… I’ve got to go to the dentist. (Teacher
runs away)
I… I need to pick up my son. (Teacher runs
away)
I ...I…, you there, student, show the inspector
our school…
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Creative writing:
Planning & editing
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Getting own ideas into action
From planning & rehearsing to filming:
An Inspector Calls, Scene 1, final scene
Language levels & drama:
Snitched, Scene 10
Dedication, strive for perfection & fun:
Blooper 1, Snitched
Blooper 2, Snitched
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
The power of drama
as a learning tool
Drama is all about how people present
themselves. The better learners can
communicate the more likely others will see
them as they wish to be seen.
Drama skills can help the learner become the
person they want to be. Boudreault (2010:5)
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
And last
But not least
Can you try to keep it short?
Doing this is a real challenge for a teacher.
Education will never be the same through drama.
Fabulous idea!
Give me some examples, please.
Hilarious comedies, tragic plays and captivating films…
Interesting!
Just imagine, the many opportunities drama offers in
Kindergarten, primary, secondary and tertiary sector…
Let’s leave it open for the audience, it’s enough.
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Whether you are a writer or an actor or a stage manager, you
are trying to express the complications of life through a shared
enterprise. That's what theatre was, always. And live
performance shares that with an audience in a specific
compact: the play is unfinished unless it has an audience, and
they are as important as everyone else.
Lee Hall
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Bibliography
Aristotle (n.d.) http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/aristotle691612.html
Bailey, J. (2014). 'The Perfect Idiot's Profession': When Famous Actors Ridicule Their Craft. The Atlantic.
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/the-perfect-idiots-profession-when-famous-actors-ridiculetheir-craft/266847/
Bolton, G. (1979). Towards a Theory of Drama in Education. London: Longman.
Boudreault, C.(2010). The Benefits of Using Drama in the ESL/EFL Classroom. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XVI, No. 1, January
2010. http://iteslj.org/Articles/Boudreault-Drama.html
Coggin, P.A. (1956). Drama and Education. An Historical Survey from Ancient Greece to the Present Day. London: Thames and
Hudson.
Duff, A. & Maley, A. (2005). Drama Techniques. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gökçen, Ö. (2014) Drama in education: key conceptual features. Journal of Contemporary Educational Studies 1/2014 , pp. 4661.
Hall, L. (n.d.) http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/l/leehall657366.html
Hornbrook, D. (1998) Education and Dramatic Art. London: Routledge.
Mullamaa, K. (2009). Using Different Forms of Drama in the EFL Classroom. Humanising Language Teaching.Year 11; Issue 4;
August 2009. http://www.hltmag.co.uk/aug09/edit.htm
Phillips, S. (2003). Drama with Children. Resource Books for Teachers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sağlam, T. (1997). Eğitimde drama. In: İ. San (ed.). VI. Uluslararası Eğitimde Drama Semineri, Drama Maske Müze. Ankara:
Çağdaş Drama Derneği, pp. 33–35.
Wessels, C. (1987). Drama. Resource Books for Teachers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Winston, J. (2012). Second Language Learning Through Drama: Practical Techniques and Applications: London: Routledge.
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros
Pictures
Slides 1, 19,20, 28-41: private
Slide 3: https://www.hlf.org.uk/sites/default/files/styles/siftgroups_media_fullsize/public/media/pressnews/shakespeare__cobbe_portrait.jpg?itok=Lg6h6UxI&width=800&height=600
Slide 4: http://shakespeare.emory.edu/illustrated_showimage.cfm?imageid=277
Slide 5: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seven_ages_of_man.jpg
Slide 6: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sculpture_%27Seven_Ages_Of_Man%27-Queen_Victoria_Street-London.jpg
Slide 7: http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/art-115986/Pedro-Calderon-de-la-Barca?
Slide 12: http://alchetron.com/Brian-Way-747671-W
Slide 21: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Katharine_Hepburn_promo_pic.jpg
http://www.thefrisky.com/2014-02-11/shirley-temple-black-dies-at-85/
C.Mewald, S.Wallner, E. Weitz-Polydoros