A Classroom Study on Using Drama Education Techniques to Improve the Learning Performance in Elementary School Life Curriculum

• Main Authors: Kao, Min Chuan, 高敏娟
• Other Authors: Jia-Iuan Chin
• Format: Others
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/u933uc

碩士 === 國立東華大學 === 藝術創意產業學系 === 104 === By putting children at the center of the learning experience, the objective of Life Curriculum in elementary school is to guide them on finding the beauty of people, places, and things in everyday life, developing interest in learning and asking questions, and trying different ways to solve questions and accumulate successful experience. However, during the class teaching, teachers often face the challenge of how to guide students effectively. In this context, this study hopes to show that through incorporating drama education techniques into the teaching of elementary school Life Curriculum and using drama method to help students learn to study all kinds of subjects, it not only improves the student-teacher interaction in class but also enables students to fulfill their potential and express themselves in an open and receptive teaching-learning atmosphere. A class of 12 elementary school second-graders that the researcher teaches, including 8 boys and 4 girls, was the subject of the study. The teaching material used in the study, “Blow Bubbles” from Book 4 of Nan-I’s Life Curriculum, was expanded by the researcher/teacher from 3 to 5 units (“Travel with Bubbles,” “Blow Bubbles,” “What Is a Bubble?,” “Under the Sea,” and “Mermaid Princess”). The complete lesson plan required 16 teaching sessions, and drama education techniques were applied in the teaching of the class. The finding of the study suggests that the course design should incorporate drama education techniques step by step into an elementary school Life Curriculum class. Using suitable fairy tales or picture books based on lesson topics is highly welcomed by students. The difficulty encountered during the teaching was maintaining the class order. A teacher should act as a facilitator to guide students effectively and apply drama education techniques flexibly in class. It is also found that incorporating drama education techniques into a Life Curriculum class may increase students’ interest in learning as well as their abilities to express themselves and solve problems.