I’ve always found drama an effective tool when teaching children and adults alike. For some reason drama we have seen or been involved in stick in the mind long after the event. I know lines written in puppet plays written and performed around 20 years ago still come back to my husband and me at various times. That’s the power of drama in education and I saw another example of it recently.
Drama, yes I know it’s usually Kyle writing about drama. But this time I want to tell you about how a drama in a church service influenced someone else. After watching the drama in our carols service, a visitor said she was inspired to try something similar with her group at TAFE.
Towards the end of the year students tend to get sick and tired of the same old thing and in an effort to prepare her students for going out into the workforce after their course is finished, this woman thought after watching how effective the drama was at church that it would be an effective way of getting her points across to her students.
Though TAFE has finished for this year she was bubbling with excitement to write a simple script and try it out next year. She plans to co-opt several of the other teachers to help put on the drama.
Funnily enough this teacher had a background in drama herself and has been in a number of local productions, but it had not occurred to her what a useful tool it could be in teaching her teenage and adult students until she saw it demonstrated first hand yesterday.
In one way, it shows what education is all about – being able to be open to new idea wherever we are and to see the potential in certain ways of doing things and then thinking how can I adapt this idea to meet my needs and help my students learn? It’s something for all who are involved in education in any form to keep in mind.
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