EDUC07027 2022 Drama in Education: Theory - Planning - Practice

Identify key thinkers, practitioners and practices in drama-in-education and map its evolution

Demonstrate a practical understanding of the principles for planning a process drama for the learning environment

Demonstrate, through practice, the drama strategy of Teacher-in-Role

Evaluate the roles of teacher and student as co-creators of drama

Drama practice, flipped classroom, seminar.

The required citation style for this module is Modern Language Association (MLA).

This module has two components:

1) The production of a digital graphic, presented during a student-led seminar. This is worth 20% of the module.

The student-led seminars will be held in the later part of the module, in weeks 10-12.

2) A practical drama exam, with accompanying lesson plan and evaluation.

Either repeat project or repeat attend.

The student will be able to:

1. Research and identify key thinkers, practitioners and practices in drama-in-education and map its evolution  

Students will map the evolution of drama-in-education in Ireland, from the publication of the first national primary curriculum in 1971 to date. Through their research they will contextualise the historical place and contemporary development of drama as a curricular subject. Studying the work and writing of Benson, McArdle, Drury, O'Neill, Finneran, and others will enable the students to achieve this. 

2. Demonstrate a practical understanding of the principles for planning a process drama for the learning environment 

Students will study the planning model for process drama, as designed by Bowell and Heap in order to gain a theoretical and practical understanding of the cornerstones and principles of planning for process drama. Schemes of work from the Irish classroom context will be used as exemplars of best practice and the students will apply their planning knowledge so that they can design their own drama workshop.

3. Demonstrate, through practice, the drama strategy of Teacher-in-Role  

Through experimenting with drama strategies, students will learn about performance forms and what they can achieve in a process drama. They will demonstrate how to bring their well-crafted process drama to life for the group, while maintaining the suspension of disbelief. The student will use Structuring Drama Work as their core text for developing their understanding of the classification of strategies and widening their repertoire of strategies, so that they can maximise learning opportunities for the group.  In particular, students will learn about the importance of adopting the strategy of Teacher-in-Role to demonstrate reciprocal pedagogies in the classroom as an approach to learning.

4. Evaluate the roles of teacher and student as co-creators of drama 

Process drama is a collaborative and improvised art-form, and as such one of its strength lies in the fact that students have ownership of their learning. Through playing in-role as co-creator and studying research of classroom drama practices, students will evaluate their first-hand experiences from this module with a focus on shifting values, attitudes and new areas of learning.