[Summary].Educational drama has developed to this day, and has become a new form of integrated education that integrates game education, project-based education, situational education, experiential education, theater education, and interactive learning. The functions of educational drama are mainly focused on five aspects: expression improvement, thinking promotion, social integration, self-construction, and psychological healing. Educational drama is suitable for classroom teaching of various subjects, especially interdisciplinary integrated teaching. Teacher training, cadre training, industry training and other training fields are also increasingly using educational drama. It emphasizes the use of drama structure in teaching and training, involving three links: prologue, plot segment, and epilogue, with content, role, focus, information, tension, audience, performance, strategy and other elements.
Hong Ruixiang is a lecturer at the National Institute of Educational Administration.
In recent years, the development of educational drama has been in full swing. At the basic education stage, the "Compulsory Education Curriculum Plan and Curriculum Standards (2022 Edition)" proposed "educational drama" for the first time, in which the "Compulsory Education Art Curriculum Standards (2022 Edition)" clearly pointed out that it is necessary to understand the relevant theoretical knowledge of "educational drama", and design and organize dramatized classroom learning activities according to demonstration cases. In practice, many educators have integrated educational drama into the classroom teaching of various disciplines, and found that it can not only stimulate students' interest in learning, improve their concentration in learning, but also cultivate students' in-depth learning ability and knowledge transfer ability. Educational drama is also increasingly used in the training field, such as teacher training and counselor training through educational drama, and cadre training through the creation of leadership theater [1] and the construction of embodied situations [2]. So, what exactly is educational drama? What does it do? And how to carry it out.
one
What is Educational Drama?
Educational drama originated in Europe and the United States in the early 20th century, began to be introduced to Hong Kong and Taiwan in China in the seventies and eighties, and developed in the mainland (mainland) at the beginning of the 21st century. Educational drama was originally known as drama pedagogy, and today it has become a new form of integrated education that integrates game education, project-based education, situational education, experiential education, theater education, and interactive learning. [3]
Educational drama is not drama education, although both are the integration of drama and education, drama education refers to the teaching of drama knowledge and the cultivation of drama talents, while educational drama refers to the achievement of non-dramatic specific educational purposes through drama as a medium or means. Educational drama is not concerned with the presentation of drama on stage, but with the educational gains in the process of drama. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Zhang Boling and Yan Yangchu and others paid attention to the significance of drama to personality education, and later developed textbook dramas in China, but because of the lack of special and systematic theoretical monographs on the one hand, and on the other hand, they still paid attention to the stage presentation of drama, so it could not be regarded as educational drama in the strict sense, but at least it can be said that China's educational ancestors have paid attention to the value of drama in education.
As an imported product from the West, there is still some confusion and controversy in the understanding and use of educational drama by Chinese scholars,[4] and there is a lack of a consistent operational definition in the academic circles,[5] but there is a consensus on its subject, object, and mediator, that is, educators (subjects) educate educational objects (objects) through dramatized practical activities (mediators). The uniqueness of educational drama in education is mainly reflected in three aspects: first, the integration of drama structure, that is, educational activities are carried out in the structure of drama, focusing on the action performance of educational objects in the immersive drama situation; The second is the integration of the subject and object of education and the educational environment, that is, the interaction between the educator and the educational object and the elements in the educational environment is emphasized, and the participants of the educational drama are also observers; The third is to emphasize the practice of groups, and to teach in the form of drama is to put theoretical knowledge into practice, so that the educational objects can "move" in the drama situation, and this "movement" cannot be completed by individuals alone, but requires cooperation between groups.
Educational drama has a strong inclusiveness, and now the ERP sand table simulation that is popular in industry training, and the script killing, escape room, etc., which are more popular among young people, are all in line with the characteristics of educational drama, when their themes and content have specific educational nature, so that participants can acquire knowledge, acquire skills, and inspire thinking in specific areas of non-drama, it can be called educational drama.
II. II. II
What is educational drama used for?
Educational drama is a learning mode that integrates the structure of drama, emphasizes the integration of subject and object with the educational environment, pays attention to the role of the group, and attaches importance to practice. Some scholars believe that the use of educational drama can promote the improvement of learners' cognition, sociality and aesthetics,[6] and some scholars believe that it can develop the self-declaration ability and interpersonal expression ability of primary and secondary school teachers and learners. [7] Some scholars have viewed the function of educational drama from the perspective of teacher education, believing that it can cultivate the self-reflection, communication ability and creative education ability of future teachers in teacher training colleges. Some scholars have explored the function of educational drama from the aspects of psychological education and language learning. On the whole, its educational function is mainly concentrated in five aspects.
1) Expression improvement.
First of all, educational drama allows learners to experience different situations and different roles, in the process, learners need to express themselves, listen to and communicate with others, and drama makes learning more concrete. Secondly, in addition to the expression of the positions of various characters, the way of expression and communication in drama also requires cooperation with others, and this cooperative relationship also promotes learners to communicate with others. In addition, the variety of ways in which language is expressed in theatre and the use of different linguistic patterns by different people allow theatre to learn literature and language through direct self-experience. Through creation and performance, through interactive reactions and development in contexts, symbolic symbols can be transformed into concrete and meaningful. The strong impression left by the learner in the specific situation will be applied to the real environment in the future, so that it can be expressed more clearly and appropriately.
2) Thinking facilitation.
In drama, the development of the cause and effect of the plot is very important. The development of this causal relationship makes the behavior of the participants inevitably linked to the language. First of all, it allows learners to establish logical concepts. This development of logical thinking is a very important part of educational drama and can help learners grow. The second is the cultivation of imagination, which is to help learners use their imagination to face various things that need to be learned under the purpose of education, and to imagine external factors or the position of others in combination with their own specific situations. Educational drama often uses the form of improvisation, which has a good effect on the participants' associative ability and adaptability. Finally, the cultivation of judgment, each participant is required to think about and analyze the situation he or she is facing in the context of the play, so as to promote the development of the whole situation through self-interpretation. Educational drama is often implemented in small groups, and everyone can develop situations through expression, action and judgment, so that learners can actively consider various factors and make decisions, and develop the ability to think and judge independently.
3) Social integration.
One of the most important features of educational drama is that it is carried out in groups. On the one hand, the group allows the individual to fully express himself, and on the other hand, the individual can learn to "integrate into society" in the group, and the participating individuals can share each other's ideas, reach consensus, respect and obey the opinions of the group, and realize that the completion of a big job is inseparable from the group, so as to better integrate into the society. Drama itself is a social activity, and the participants in the drama situation, because of the different roles they play, each person's position is different. This interaction between differences can help learners become aware of the differences between people and manage interpersonal relationships appropriately. The form of drama is often like a mirror, the situation can reflect some social realities, and learners can also present many unaware behaviors in the real society in the performance, in which the drama situation is developed in the end, whether there is a complete story and ending, participants will have a further understanding of society and themselves.
4) Self-construction.
Drama is actually going through a certain process in the life of a person or a certain group of people, and whether the characters in the drama situation succeed or fail, it provides learners with a reference that can be applied to real life. Educational drama can cultivate empathy among participants, because the drama and the characters themselves require them to experience various situations from different standpoints, so as to generate new thinking and perception. This helps learners to think from a richer perspective and perspective, and to find themselves in the heterogeneity of people. In the process of educational drama, participants often encounter different dilemmas and problems. Faced with the same problem, different people often have different thinking, so how to find the most appropriate solution in the situation? Drama can give full play to the imagination of learners, which can be from others to self, from the past to the future, and participants can construct their ideal self and seek their own value in an infinite time and space environment.
5) Psychological healing.
Educational drama provides a platform for participants to feel different emotions and respond in a critical and creative way. In educational drama, the teacher will provide a variety of situations and clues, and guide the learner to develop the situation. This process can help learners develop good emotional sensitivity, better handle relationships with others, and form a good psychological foundation. In addition, theatre can provide a transitional space between the real and the virtual, which allows participants to express themselves more honestly. In this process, participants have the opportunity to experience different emotions, and can also release some negative emotions, such as anxiety, anger, fear, jealousy, etc., which also achieves the effect of psychological healing to a certain extent. Now there is also a particularly popular psychological mode in the world - drama therapy, which is to integrate drama into psychology as a form.
Three
How is Educational Drama Applied?
Drama is a comprehensive art form, which can stimulate emotions, convey values, and integrate all kinds of knowledge and culture, so educational drama can be used in almost all kinds of teaching and training, especially interdisciplinary integrated teaching and training fields that emphasize emotional stimulation and consensus cohesion. Educational drama can promote the connection between disciplines in learning content, create real situations in the learning process, guide learners to participate in learning methods, and develop learners' comprehensive literacy in learning outcomes, which can meet the intrinsic demands of interdisciplinary theme teaching. [8]
a) Teaching process.
Regarding the implementation process of educational drama, many foreign scholars have combined their own practice and reflection to sort out. For example, Gavin Burton proposed a three-stage teaching process of "deciding on action, starting action, and ending action". [9] "Decide to act" is when the teacher sets up a dilemma situation and then asks the learner to discuss the event; "Take action" means that learners retell events as characters and rehearse key plots. "End of action" means that the teacher summarizes the whole process of action and asks learners to share it. Tarrington et al. proposed a five-stage teaching process of "general explanation-defining problem-developing problem-problem solving-review". [10] "General explanation" means that the teacher explains the learning content and asks questions that require the learner's thinking; "Defining the problem" is to provide detailed information about a specific event to create a situation, in which the learner can discuss the problem in relation to the situation; "Developmental Questions" is when the teacher provides information to keep the event moving forward and has learners work in groups and act as a person; "Problem solving" refers to the solutions to the problems proposed by different groups of learners, and the teacher leads the learners to discuss the impact of different solutions on the event and people, and plays the possible outcomes of important solutions. "Review" is to take turns or assign learners to share the whole teaching process and ask learners to write letters to the event figures.
Regardless of the specific steps of the curriculum, on the whole, the process of educational drama is generally dialectical, with a prologue, plot segment and epilogue, just like drama. Zhang Xiaohua believes that no matter what type of teaching, the process of educational drama should have a structure of pre-text, session, and denouement. [11] The pre-content is the prologue to the teaching and training activities, the purpose of which is to arouse the learner's interest in the topic. The main part of the teaching is next, and there can be many parts in this part, in which the learner can practice the activity, just like the plot segments in the drama process, such as "defining the problem, developing the problem, and solving the problem" in the Tarrington teaching process is the main part of the teaching. The epilogue is also the end, which takes place at the end of the lesson, and is actually a sharing** and reflection on the whole lesson, with the aim of promoting a deeper understanding of the subject matter by the learner.
2) Pedagogical elements.
The most prominent feature of educational drama is the use of drama structure in the teaching process, the so-called drama structure is the process of orderly arrangement of people in action, that is, the performance of people's actions is suitable for the logical arrangement of the relationship between cause and effect. Because the structure of a play is composed according to the order of the behavior and performance process of the characters in the play, the people in the action need to carry out their actions in a structure with a certain logical sequence to express their characteristics, so the drama is to show the people in the action. Of course, the action here refers not only to the physical action, but also to the psychological motivation of the mind and external behavior. [12] In fact, this means that educational drama is concerned with the performance of human actions, emphasizing the orderly arrangement of human behavior.
This characteristic requires that teaching should involve context, roles, focus, sign, tension, audience, performance, and strategies. [13] From the English original word, "content" should actually be translated as "background", which actually refers to a situation, event or story created by combining fact and fiction of a dramatic plot, which is actually the concretization of the theme. Roles refer to the roles taken on by learners or teachers in educational drama activities that require interaction with the roles played by other students. Focus refers to the way in which learners respond to situations in a plot segment. Information refers to cues or instructions that affect the situation and affect the behavior of the character. Tension is a force that promotes the development of drama and the continuation of activities, such as different characters' different attitudes or different views on the same event, this difference will form tension, thought-provoking, so to speak, tension is the interaction of different focuses. The audience refers to the participants and interactors in the educational drama activities, and the educational drama places great emphasis on the communication between the actors and the audience, and both the performers and the viewers can communicate, test and clarify the psychological and social aspects of the performance in a timely manner. Performance generally refers to the presentation of drama in the classroom and in the classroom, and like the educational drama at the primary and secondary school level, it encourages the presentation of ornamental stage drama in the later stage of the curriculum. The strategy is for teachers, i.e. the idea of designing the whole educational drama practice.
c) Form carrier.
There are many forms of teaching in educational drama, and the most distinctive and basic is the game. Jonothan Levy once said, "Drama can teach high-quality controlled play, and it can also teach high-quality creative ...... under pressure."This is because the precursor and prototype of the drama is precisely the game". [14]
In educational drama, games are often presented as "conventions". The "Paradigm of Role-playing" is a series of simple and clear activities that allow learners and teachers to imagine and act in response. Once learners understand and become familiar with these "cosplay paradigms", they can also explore and learn through the world constructed by the "cosplay paradigms". In essence, the "acting paradigm" is to stipulate the order in the classroom through dramatization, so that learners can "play with control" in the classroom, or it can be said that the "acting paradigm" of educational drama is various types of drama games. The "play-through paradigm" of educational drama enhances the effectiveness of drama in learning, on the one hand, it provides a structure and framework for teachers to design lessons, and on the other hand, it can engage learners in real time, encourage learners to participate in debate and negotiation, promote understanding of things, and help them explore their inner self and the outer world. Jonothan Neelands and Tony Goode believe that the "acting paradigm" of educational drama can be divided into four categories (see Table 1) [15]: first, the "acting paradigm" of context-building action, which aims to help create the situation required for drama activities, and help learners establish the time, space and related character characteristics of drama activities; So that they can better create and participate in theatrical situations. The second is the "acting paradigm" of narrative action, which is generally used in important events and can be used to introduce or create plots. These activities allow learners to develop stories with appropriate language and behaviour in context, and to test their understanding of hypothetical narratives. The third is the "playing paradigm" of poetic action, which is a way to examine the story and a way to change the narrative conventions. From a realistic point of view, examining events from different angles, from the perspective of the connotation of the drama, helps to carry out the activity from a more diverse perspective, rather than just a plot development without new ideas. Fourth, the "role paradigm" of reflective action, which needs to be performed in a detached way to examine its meaning. This "role-playing paradigm" can provide learners with the opportunity to say the important content, key points, voices of the characters or make comments in the play, etc., to help learners understand the spirit and connotation of the issues and reflect on the true meaning of the characters' actions in the play.
Teachers can choose from a variety of "cosplay paradigms" and integrate one or more "cosplay paradigms" into teaching according to the theme and content. In the practice of exploring the practice of using educational drama to carry forward the great spirit of party building, some teachers designed an educational drama activity with the theme of "Deng Jiaxian's Choice",[16] in which "key events", "if I were you", "teachers into the play" and the three "role paradigms" were integrated. At the beginning of the activity, the teacher first wrote a documentary about Deng Jiaxian, giving students a situational introduction, so that they could have a basic understanding of the main characters in the next drama activities, and find out the key events that happened in his life - Deng Jiaxian overcame all difficulties and returned to China after completing his studies, but received a secret task from the state. Whether to stick to the desert incognito or stay with your family has become a dilemma. The teacher throws a question to the students with "If I were you" and "play the paradigm": "If you were Deng Jiaxian, what would you choose?" After thinking about it, the students stood in two columns under the guidance of the teacher, one column agreed that Deng Jia would go to the desert first, and the other column supported him to stay. Then, "Teacher into the Play" plays Deng Jiaxian, walks through the alley between the two columns, and when he walks in front of a student, he guides the students to persuade Deng Jiaxian played by the teacher from their own standpoint.
4) Implementation conditions.
An important feature of educational drama emphasizes collaboration, which requires the collective to be relied on, and the process of educational drama cannot exist without the collective. The practice of educational drama needs to be organized through cooperative learning or student team learning. However, this collective is limited, educational drama is generally composed of "small groups", this small group should not exceed 20 people, of course, this has a lot to do with the teaching time, the number of teachers and experience, but it must be seen that educational drama emphasizes the participation of individual situations, pays attention to the relationship between individual self and the outside world, if the number of people is too large, it will affect the function of educational drama.
Educational drama itself is a theory developed based on on-site teaching, and practice is also a very important feature of it, which comes from Rousseau and Dewey's "learning by doing" and "learning by doing". Educational drama is the organization of the classroom through various dramatic elements and the discussion and exploration of a common theme. The emphasis on experience in the classroom emphasizes a sense of participation, presence and interaction based on reality. This kind of experience requires real personal experience, and only in the process of experience can we obtain a deep perceptual cognition, and use it to deepen rational cognition, so educational drama needs to be carried out "offline".
At present, the research on educational drama mostly regards drama as a way, medium or means in the field of education. Treating drama only as a tool for education cannot give full play to the educational function of drama. In the future, on the basis of attaching importance to the instrumentality of drama, we should also examine and explore the concept of education from the perspective of drama, so as to bring more possibilities and development to the development of education in the new era.
This article is the research result of the 2021 Open Project (202111037) of the Palace Museum, which was supported by the "Mercedes-Benz Star Wish of the China Youth Foundation" and the "Beijing Palace Museum Cultural Relics Protection Association".
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Principals of Primary and Secondary Schools, Issue 11, 2023 Theory**.