DRAMA thoughts #1: Importance of the Arts in Education

Importance of the Arts

in Education

In this general introduction to the Creative Arts, I began to reflect on the importance of the arts in education. The mission statement of the South Australian Education arts initiative ARTSsmart proclaims that the Arts (Ewing, 2010):

Ewing (2010) argues that there is a need for a more integrated, authentic education which all communities can see the value in. She argues that Arts in the school curriculum is a necessity for such an education, and that only then will there be a shift in the patterns of school failure. Just like Sir Ken Robinson, Ewing argues that the traditional academic paradigm needs to shift so that a huge body of students do not become disengaged and think that they are not 'academic' and that 'school is not for me'. This is the necessary step in changing "under-performance and low rates of

completion among Indigenous Australians, young people from low socioeconomic areas and young people in rural communities, which have for the last three decades characterised Australia’s educational provision," (Wyn, 2009, p. 2).

I read Dr Neryl Jeanneret's article on Developing Children's Full Potential: Why the Arts are Important, and these are some of the main points I took from it:

Importance for culture

• Culture is expressed through the Arts, and is crucial to a sense of belonging to a culture and understanding others' culture.
• It is also a way of breaking down barriers between cultures and communicating through the non-verbal from human to human.
• Creates stronger communities
• Teach empathy, openness and promote understanding of others - and develop our compassion and humaneness.

Cognition

• The Arts fosters divergent thinking - the ability to come up with lots of possible solutions to one question or problem. This is a critical skill in the modern world.
• Involves creative thinking and imagining, problem solving, creative judgement and a host of other mental processes. The arts represent forms of cognition every bit as potent as the verbal/mathematical forms of cognition that have been the traditional focus of public education (Cooper-Solomon, 1995).

Way of representing and experiencing the world

• Where science is how we explain the world, art is how we represent it
• Only through the creative arts can we find a way to express our unique way of seeing the world, and understand others' unique way of seeing it.

And now for Drama ...

Defining: Educational or process drama -- the emphasis is not on the performance but the journey. It includes theatre strategies: sculpture, role walking, role play, depiction or still image, improvisation, mime, thought tracking, hot-seating or questioning in role, play-building, mantle or enactment of the expert, conscience alley, readers' theatre to enable participants to make meaning. Enactment or 'walking in someone else's shoes' should be regarded as the essence of educational drama (Ewing, 2010).

Benefits of process drama in education (from Ewing, 2010):

• Helps us make meanings from a range of other perspectives, and suspend our own reality
• Physical enactment or embodiment of an idea or event, to visual and then written representation, extends and develops children's neural circuitry (research in Heath, 2000)
• Storytelling and imaginative writing are enhanced by drama strategies
• Imaginative oral and written storytelling encourage the exploration of existing ideas and create new possibilities
• Children use story to make sense of who they are, and to find their place in the world

Fantastic example of teaching Maths through Drama:

It is clear how engaging and fun drama, when used as a tool, can make Maths!

Case Studies documenting the power of drama

• Research project Art of the Matter: 10 primary teachers in Hamilton, NZ.
• The teachers co-constructed the drama with their students
• This allowed students more agency, by authentically sharing the power and risk-taking between the teacher and students
• liberated students from the traditional conformity of the classroom
• enabled students to push boundaries and to try things out in fictional contexts and through the use of the 'what if' factor
• Assisted in developing a relationship with the art itself, in this case the elements of drama (e.g. role, focus, tension, action, time and space)
• Acting Against Bullying Applied Theatre Program: developed over a decade of action research into conflict and bullying in Australian schools
• Combines improvisation, process drama, forum theatre and peer teaching to address bullying and help students deal with it more effectively
• The three parties to bullying (bully, victim, bystander) and the three stages of escalation in bullying are taught to the students both conceptually and through drama work
• This process was effective at an all girls school where bullying was a real issue

Tips for the classroom: Dramatic play emerges from imaginative play

• Make sure you give children plenty of opportunities for this in the classroom e.g. have a dress up box
• It is important as it gives people a chance to walk in another person's shoes and expand their horizons
• There are a large range of benefits of drama in the classroom
• Language skills and development
• View different perspectives
• Work collaboratively - this is increased by doing a story drama at the start of imaginative play