DRAMATISATION METHOD OF TEACHING

INTRODUCTION:

Drama is primarily a living experience. It is a recreation of the experiences of

human relationship of people, of character, of situations, stories and
emotions. It helps the child to expand the boundaries of his life space
experience and enables him to express the imaginations, make believe his
ideas, his concepts and his feelings about, events and happenings of the
days.

MEANING OF DRAMATSATION:

ETYMOLOGICAL MEANING:

The word ‘Drama’ means derived from Latin word “drama” meaning  "play,

drama," or from Greek word “ dramatos or  drao ” mean "‘action, deed; play,
to act, perform" (especially some great deed, whether good or bad). In
Dramatizing an Individual attempts to act or do, as somebody else has acted
or is expected to act, at a certain time, in a certain place and situation

GENERAL MEANING: Dramatization means the reconstructing of an

experience in the past which is of historical significance. It is the attempt to
transcend the barrier of time and place and relive the experiences
concerned.

DEFINITIONS OF DRAMATISATION:

 According to free Dictionary, “Dramatization is an act or art of

dramatizing a work adapted for dramatic presentation”.
 According to Thesaurus Dictionary, “Dramatization is construction
or representation of a novel, history, an incident or an event in a
dramatic form.”
 According to SACSA Framework, “The dramatization is the
enactment of real and imagined events through role play, play making
and performances, enabling individuals and groups to explore shape
and represent ideas, feelings and their consequences in Symbolic or
dramatic form.”
Thus, from above definition we can say that dramatization is a specific
method or mode/act of dramatizing an event or history. Dramatisation
provides living experiences of emotional nature to the students about the
past events, stories, situations involving people and human relationships.
Dramatisation develops insight, creativity, imagination, ideas and concepts.
It bring to them alive the past happenings and events.

PROCEDURAL STEPS OF DRAMATIZATION:

The dramatization teaching method refers to the use of traditional drama
techniques, such as improvisation, Storytelling, role playing and games for
sensitising the students about various socio-economic problems. It has
been described as synthetic art which involves the purposive co-ordination
and control of the delicate organs of speech and muscles of the body, when
combined with a sense of rhythm with the view to feel and a sense of
intelligence, expression of emotions and ideas.

The steps under dramatization are as follow:-

I. Preparation: The preparation is the first stage of the dramatization

method of teaching. While preparing a lesson on problem of poverty the
teacher may make some provisions for dramatizing the caste restrictions
and the economic restrictions that were prevalent among society. He may
also plan the good episodes to be dramatised in the class room.

(1) Selection of the Topic: First of all teacher should select the topic for
drama or acting which meet the curriculum demand of the economics
students and which really affects the learners behaviour.

(2) Selection of the students: Secondly teacher should select the students
who are suitable for various characters as well as interested for playing
drama.

(3) Assigning the role: After the selection of students next step of teacher
is assigning the different role to the student according to their personality
as well as their interest and knowledge.
(4) Training and practice: The learners practice the drama in the class
room and discussion is carried out in the class focusing on the main events.
The teacher help them to get skill and expression of the emotions.

II. Presentation: The second phase of the dramatization technique is the

presentation of the drama. This phase may include the following steps:

(5) Conducting the Drama: First step in Presentation phase of

dramatization is conducting the drama which the teacher as well as
students have planned in this method. The teacher should see that drama
played should be interesting as well as easy. Teacher should make all the
arrangement needed during dramatization.

(6) Performance: The learners perform the drama in the class room and
discussion is carried out in the class focusing on the main events. An
innovative method is to be adopted, which ensures the active participation of
the learners.

(7) Background work/ Choreography: To make the plot more vivid a power
point presentation/movie which includes the background of the play,
dramatist, main characters, plot and the development of the plot can also be
shown to the learners.

III. Evaluation: The evaluation is the final stage of the Dramatization

method of teaching in which teacher has to review, analyse and evaluate
the performance of the drama form various angles and objectives. This
phase may include the following steps:

(8) Recording: Teacher should make proper recording of the drama so that
it can be evaluated properly and suggestions can be given to students. After
recording teacher should give them to actors or role players so that proper
discussion can be made and evaluation of drama can be done effectively.

(9) Discussion:
The Group work /home assignment can include questions beyond the text
(from real life situation) and facilitate the students to connect knowledge
outside the classroom

DIFFERENT FORM OF DRAMATISATION:

Dramatisation may vary from spontaneous acting out of rotes to be carefully

rehearsed full length plays complete with customise and scenery. Between
these extremes there are such other forms as puppet shows, pageants,
pantomimes, tableau etc. Teachers of economics have the choice of many
special activities which they may use to make their teaching more
interesting and effective. Dramatisation in its various forms provides
worthwhile learning experiences and may take the form of plays, pageantry,
pantomime, puppetry, etc. Dramatization is of two types:

1. Extempore Dramatization/ Informal Drama: In this form of

dramatization the instruction without prior-preparations, is imparted to the
children in the class through this method. This process develops the power
of thinking and imagination of the pupils.

2. Prepared Dramatization/ Formal Drama: In this type of

dramatization, preparations is made completely under the teacher control
beforehand. Every student uses written material to memorize dialogues and
act according to instructions of the directors. Students may get preparation
for their role before acting. It helps the students to learn the art of
preparations of dialogue and to acquire the habit of learning. They can also
memorize things. There are two types of Formal Drama:

A. Full-length play: A full length play is vivid and realistic in nature. It

give a full representation of a whole scheme to be presented in the
classroom. The whole idea of the topic, the emotional situation,
happenings etc., can be presented to the students in natural way. It
takes hours to perform. For its success a professional standard is
 required. Detailed preparations and rehearsal is very much essential
in a full length play.

B. Class Dramatization: A good y teacher can undertake certain concept

for dramatizations inside the classroom in order to make his teaching
effective and natural. He may dramatize only a part of a lesson.

3. The Pageant: In this, type of dramatization, more importance is paid to

setting and actions and then to speed. Persons appear in proper dresses and
make up and parade before the audience. There may be background music
or song appropriate to the occasion to make the pageant more interacting.
Instead of dresses and make up, only posters can be hang around the necks
of pupils to indicate the personalities they represent in the topics like.
People living in different regions, etc., may form the subject matters for
pageants. Pageants can give a lot of information in an interesting form
within a comparatively short time. They are more helpful in giving clarity of
the concept, if organised after the study of a topic has been completed.
Pageants cannot be considered as part of the everyday classroom
programme because they require a great deal of labours, money and are
rather inflexible.

4. The Pantomime: In a pantomime, participants express themselves

through only bodily actions usually to be accompaniment of music. No
announcement is made to give the audience any Idea about, what is being
presented. Pantomiming does not require rehearsals, costuming or staging.
It can be utilised in almost any classroom and in many learning situations.
Pantomime are particularly variable for shy children.

5. The Tableau: This is acted play without words. The students either act as
individual or as silent motionless posing. It is very effective in representing
at emotional theme. It is also prevented generally without any
announcement and the audience is to given what is being prevented. Since
the tableau is an acted play without words, some attention must be paid to
costumes and scenery. Tableau well-prepared and printed occasionally can
be of much value as an aid to teaching economics.
6. Puppetry: It is a specialisd form of dramatisation which ordinarily
employs tool like fingers of human and animal forms. The puppets may be
mechanically operated or they can be operated by hand with the help of
strings. It is the operator who speaks for the puppet in different tones and
plays different roles. If the teacher knows the operation of puppets, he may
deliver whole lesson in economics through them. There can also be puppet
shows with proper use of light and stage effects.

7. Shadow play: Shadow play is devoid of speech, like the tableau. In this
technique of dramatization, a screen is placed between the actors and
audience. In order to reflect a shadow of the actors on screen, a light is kept
at their back. The audience see only the shadow, not the actors.

TYPES OF LEARNING STRATEGIES:

Dramatisation is based on the following learning strategies:

a. Interactive Learning: The dramatization is based primarily on the

concept of interactive learning and group work in the classroom, as well as
genuine language input from the “real world” for meaningful interactive
communication.

b. Learner-centered Learning: This kind of instruction involves the giving

over of “power” in the learning process to the learners themselves. It also
strives to allow for personal creativity and input from the students, as well
as taking into account their learning needs and objectives.

c. Cooperative Learning: Students share information and achieve their

learning goals as a group as well as from their teacher.

NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF DRAMATIZATION METHOD:

(1) Emotional and Psychological Importance: Children are active by
nature. They love activity. Play is in their born tendency. They like to
imitate. Through dramatization, they satisfy their inner urge to act and play.
They get an opportunity to express their inner feelings and emotions.
Dramatisation has cathartic value. After the release of Pent up energies and
emotions, it has a curative effect on emotional disorders. The release of
inhibitions through role play is the objective of socio-drama. The pupils play
different roles and satisfy their inner tendency to play, to imitate, to express
and to enjoy themselves.

(2) Provides education with entertainment: Besides entertainment

dramatisation provides education. It helps in better learning. Dramatised
events are rarely forgotten. Not only the participants but the viewers also
learn and remember the dramatised happenings clearly, and for a longer
period of time.

(3) Provide make belief acts and situations: Children indulge in make
believe plays and acts. It release their emotions. It develops their creativity
and the aesthetic sense. Dramatisation develops creativeness in the
teaching of Economics, especially when episodes of commercial events are
concerned and involved by engaging themselves in make believe acting they
learn what no teacher can teach.

(4) Encouragement of Group work: Dramatisation provides opportunities

for group work in the form of planning, executing and evaluating plays. It
encourages co-operative activity and increase social interaction.

(5) Academic importance. Dramatisation provides knowledge of various

subjects like History, Geography, Art, Music and Various items of
dramaturgy like staging, lighting, costuming and decorating etc. in an
attractive and effective manner and that too incidentally. Even those pupils
who do not play any role but act as spectators are benefitted by the school
drama through the acquisition of certain new facts, through entertainment
and through the suggestions presented in the play.

(6) Social importance: Dramatisation has a great social value. It develops

the qualities of co-operation and social understanding. It provides many
opportunities for training in team work.
(7). Organisational value. The staging of dramatic performance provides a
rich experience in organisation with the result that the organisation with the
result that the organisational ability of the student is developed

(8) Creation of awareness, Through dramatisation an awareness can be

created among the students about social, economic and other type of
problems. In this context social, religious and national events can be
dramatised to leave a permanent impression on the minds of the students,

(9) Rid of stage Fear: The participants get rid of stage fear with the help of
dramatization.

TEACHER’s ROLE IN DRAMATISATION:

1. Explain the Motive:

Tell your students, why you are doing these activities. What we will achieve
in terms of academic learning as well as skills after completion of the
presentation of the drama.

2. Guide and Prepare students thoroughly:

The teacher has to play the role of the guide at the stage of preparation and
presentation. It’s the teacher who will help them to arrange various
resources and information. Teacher has to ensure that students will do
enough rehearsal before the performance. As a guide teacher has to play
following role:

• Introduce the topic

• aim of the activity

• Check instructions by asking checking questions

• Briefly demonstrate the activity with a student / or get students to do

an example / model.

• Show any relevant material

• Monitor students and help them as necessary.

3. Give clear instructions:

The teacher should give clear instruction to the participants as well as

spectators about their duties, roles and responsibilities, so that there be no
ambiguity about the process.

4. Allow plenty of preparation time:

The teacher should give plenty of preparation time to the participants to

prepare themselves for their duties, roles and responsibilities, so can get
confidence in theirselves.

5. Put students into relevant pairs / groups

Group formation should be done carefully in case of Multi ability Grouping.

The composition of groups is important. Learners should have a variety of
focus and interact with as many different learners as possible. You need to
consider balancing strong and weak learners, as well as considering
personalities and gender etc.

6. Feedback.

After completion of the performance, they teacher has to give proper and
adequate feedback to everyone, so that they can improve their selves for
future performance. Teacher has to sensitize the students about their
strength and weak areas.

ADVANTAGES OF DRAMATISATION:

1. It is based on Psychological urge of the child:

Dramatic instinct is a very dominant one in the mental make-up of the child.
Hence, all children like acting, whether they are born actors or not.
Dramatization is full of education, potentialities and fun, so it is helpful to
satisfy the basic urge of the child as well as providing them experience of
learning while playing. It is psychological to help in developing the power of
the learning of the students.

2. Provides direct involvement in learning on the part of all students:

Child is active and energetic by nature. The traditional learning methods

force them to be passive learning and snub their basic urge of activeness.
But the technique of dramatization is involving them in direct learning by
doing through active participation through their role.

3. Helpful to improve language skills and pronunciation:

In dramatization, the learners have to remember their dialogues as per their

role and have pronounce every word very carefully. This will help them to
improve their language skills as well as their pronunciation. Language
efficiency ensure their retention and survival in the education.

4. Listening skills are improved:

In dramatization, the participant learners have listen the dialogues of their

co-performer carefully to perform their roles or being audience they have
listen all actors to understand the whole drama. This will help them to
improve their listening skills. This in returns help to improve their
concentration in the education.

5. Allows for exploration on solutions:

By seeing drama, students become interested in the problem and start

exploring the basic causes working behind the problem and about the
possible alternatives.

6. Develop the creative instincts:

Through Dramatization, we can develop the creative instincts of the

children. As in case of Panto-mime and pageant, the performer has to
depend upon his own imagination for performing their role because there is
no written work or preparation in advance. This will help to develop their
creative instincts. It has to develop the power of self-creativeness and
activity

7. Give freedom form rigid atmosphere:

It provides a change to the students from the formal and rigid atmosphere of
class room and reading of books.

8. Learning by doing:

It provides them an opportunity to acquire knowledge through activity and

learning by doing/performing.
9. Develop the power of sympathy and imagination:

In dramatization, students fall in love with some of beautiful characters of th

drama. It also help them to develop the power of sympathy and imagination.

10. Develop Power of observation:

The students has to observe keenly to the performance of every player to

understand the story of the drama in true sense. Develop Power of
observation also develop through this method.

11 Develops correct speech habits. Dramatisation has linguistic

importance as well. From the linguistic point of view dramatisation improves
his speech, expression and use of vocabulary. He learns better
pronunciation, intonation, tone, accent, pause, rhythm and other qualities
of elocation.

12 Develops imagination Power: Dramatisation is valuable in that at its

best it can train the imagination and develop initiative, originality and
ingenuity.

13 Develops aesthetic Sense: Dramatisation develops aesthetic sense

among the pupils.

LIMITATIONS OF DRAMATISATION:
(1) Economic factor:

It is a costly activity. Most of the Schools with poor financial conditions

may not be able to afford it. Implementation of the technique of
dramatization requires money, several institutions are not rich enough to
provide so much of money for the teaching of the one subject.

(2) Uneconomic:

Dramatisation is an uneconomic method as it takes too much time. It also

consume a lot of energy of the students. It requires a lot of labour.
Costumes, decors and preparation of physical environment may create
difficulties

(3) Undue Importance to non-academic factors:

 It generally leads to stressing minor non-academic points like customise
and setups and less important aspects of a subject.

(4) Lack of Knowledge in the art of Dramatizaion: Specialist teachers are

essential to execute these which are not easily available. Dramatization
requires some technical knowledge. Every teacher does not process it.

(5) Dilution in Subject Matter:

The subject matter and central idea of dramatisation may be changed and
twisted to make it more dramatic.

(6) Dominance of Few:

Most of the time dramatisation is confined to a few students. The same

students may be chosen time and again to play the roles.

(7) Difficulties related to Setup:

Effectiveness of dramatisation depends upon Background setup. Costumes,

decors and preparation of physical environment may create difficulties.

(8) Apprehension of indiscipline: While dramatization is going on,it is not

possible for the teacher to maintain the rigid discipline in the
classroom.

(9) Difficult Enacting: Certain events of economic history are difficult to

enact. It is difficult to enact successfully the scene of war.

(10) Problem of Dialogue: In employing this technique, it is necessary to

have good dialogues. Writing of good dialogue requires aptitude as well as
time. It is not possible for every teacher of history to do it successfully.

(11) If students be limited, it may be boring:

If number of students is limited, it be to hectic and boring because one

student has to play number of character and duties.

(12) Students may be too self-conscious:

In stage performance student may become too self-conscious that may lead
to dispersion, tension, anxiety and stress, which is not good for mental,
psychological and cognitive health of the student.
 (13) Not appropriate for large groups:

In large group it is not possible to assign the role to everyone. In such

situation few shy and introvert students may remain ignored, whereas some
overactive and extrovert students may dominant the process.

SUGGESTIONS/ PRECAUTIONS FOR EFFECTIVE USE:

The following Precautions should be taken while organising dramas:

(1) Dramas should have educational value besides entertainment value.

Economic problem related to social issues/themes should be preferred.
More and more students should be involved. They may depict the evils of
social customs, caste system and economics based societal divisions.

(2) It would be better if dramas are organised under the careful direction of a
specialist teacher.

(3) The theme of the play should be according to the mental level of the
Students.

(4) The dialogues, dresses, situations and actions should be as realistic as

possible.

(5) Vulgar, obscene and criminal plays or scenes should not be staged.

(6) Students who have interest and aptitude should be enrolled as members
of the dramatic club.

(7) The teacher-incharge should be really capable person who is having

interest, aptitude and ability for dramatics.

8) Selection of plays must be made in a judicious manner by a committee of

experts. At the Primary level fables and folk tales may be preferred and
at the secondary level, plays with Economics problems of local, state and
national themes should be given preference.

(9) The preparation of the plays must be thorough and perfect. A number of
rehearsals must be made before the final presentation.

(10) Dramas should not be staged for its own. The basis of staging dramas
should be to develop understanding. It should not be staged if it takes
too much time.
(11) Similarly this activity should be avoided if the same understanding can
be developed easier and better through some other method.

(12). The teacher should make an effort to assign roles to all the children. The
distribution of roles should be done according to the interest and
abilities of the students.

CONCLUSION:

No one can deny that the Dramatic instinct is a very dominant one in the
mental make-up of the child. Hence, all children like acting, whether they
are born actors or not. Dramatization is full of education, potentialities. It
presents an emotional situation, which is necessary for effective learning.
Dramatization provides an excellent opportunity for group work and social
participation and many practical works in history can be correlated it. It
provides stable knowledge, and students learn by doing and so their
experiences are strengthened.