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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2013) 000–000

3rd Cyprus International Conference on Educational Research

IMPORTANCE OF DRAMA IN PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION

Aysem Tombaka*
a
Teacher. OsmanTurkay Nursery School. Ozanköy -TRNC

Abstract

In this study, the main aim was to draw attention to the importance of the pre-school drama and drama based education. In
today’s educational system the first step is the pre-school education;Taking into account of Children's developmental
characteristics, individual differences and abilities,aiming to provide healthy form of physical, emotional, linguistic, social
and mental aspects of development, positive personality, and reveal the creative aspects, and providing this education we
ensure that child has the self confidence. Using drama in the educational step is the most important way of expressing the
persons feeling in an healthy manner; to improve the child's imagination, to enable child to think and act independent, to
improve the child's social awareness and cooperative awareness. At this point pre-school drama education plays a important
role. Therefore the importance of pre-school drama must be considered to enable children to benefit from it. In this study, the
relevant literature was searched and differences between the pre-school education was considered.
© 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of

Keywords: Cyprus Turkish Folk Literature, culture, pottery, dance, drama. ;

Aysem Tombak. Tel.: +0-542-856-2296

E-mail address: aysemtombak@hotmail.com
 Aysem Tombak/ Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2021) 000–000
1. Introduction

Communities are most important factor in the existence of a country, therefore type of persons forming a
community and their quality and characteristics are important as well. We are not born equipped with all the
essential knowledge and skills, so, environments providing new learning opportunities and chances during
childhood years are very important for the future success of a child. According to many researchers, early years
in the development of a child is considered to be vitally important in the formation of a child's intelligence,
personality and social behaviours (meb.gov.tr). Research proves that education during early years of development
has long time lasting impacts on the formation of children and researchers specially emphasize the importance of
the quality of education during this period. The main purpose of pre-school education is to maximize the
potential a child brings by birth, thus, kindergarten (nursery school) is the institution providing the best organized
playing atmosphere for children. In this atmosphere children find an opportunity for physical, mental, emotional
and social development. During pre-school period children learns rules for collective living and develops an
attitude for assistance and cooperation as well. Meanwhile, while learning to protect his or her own rights, a child
also learns sharing and not violating other persons' freedom. Pre-school education being the first step of
contemporary education system, provides a program of education aiming to provide self confidence to children,
thus, pre-school education occupies an important place in the education system and during this education,
children's development properties, personal differences and capabilities are taken into account so that children
find a chance for physical, emotional, lingual, social and mental development in a healthy way. Pre-school
education also intends to lay the foundations for a positive personality and aims to reveal creative aspects of
children.
Creative drama; are action status, improvisations and animations formed by students according to their own
original ideas, creative discoveries and knowledge about the subject without having to refer to a written text (San,
1991). According to this definition about creative drama, it can be said that drama takes the student to centre and
makes the student active during the process of learning and provides the teacher to play the role of a guide during
the process and enables students to make presentations by doing and experiencing and provides a permanency by
using all the audiovisual, tactual and affective learning fields of products created during the process. In this
manner learning quality gets stronger and healthier in terms of learning principles. Drama studies or practices
gives attendants the opportunity to examine various social roles and social problems. Animation of different
social problems enables individuals to better understand the society and relationships in the society. During these
interactions solutions for problems are also examined and attendants gain experience from studies towards
problem solving (Önder 1999). Here at this point contribution of drama to education is not only towards teaching
how to learn but also towards educating. In this context, why drama is important in pre-school education
constitutes the problem of this research.

2. Methods and exercises

In this study the importance of drama and learning based on drama in pre-school education is emphasized.
Most important gains for using drama in education are; achieving expression of feelings in a healthy way,
developing creative imagination in children, giving a chance to children to think and express themselves
independently and developing children's social awareness and cooperative consciousness. Here at this point
drama in pre-school education plays an important role. This is a descriptive study using scan modelling. Scan
model is a research approach aiming to describe a situation which existed in the past or which exists now in the
manner it exists now or which existed in the past (Karasar, 2003). Here the important thing is observing the
situation properly and revealing the results. Project researcher can directly investigate an object or individual but
can also refer to pre-kept various records (written documents and statistics, images, audiovisual records) and can
interpret sparse data by unifying them in a system by means of his or her own observations (Karasar 2003). The
 Aysem Tombak/ Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2021) 000–000
study is 3 dimentional. Pre-school education, learning based on drama and relationship between drama and pre-
school education is examined and settled in a holistic manner.

3. Pre-school Education

Pre-school education period covers a child's first 36-72 months and lasrs until a child starts primary education.
Pre-school education plays an important role in the future lives of children and during this period a child's
physical, psychomotor, social-emotional, mental and lingual development is largely completed and personality is
formed. Again during this period children continually change (meb.gov.tr). It is therefore important that during
early years children live and grow up in a healthy environment. Pre-school educstion has many benefits for
children, families and society. The fastest growing period of a child is during 0-6 years, i.e., early childhood
period. Two-thirds of the formation of brain structures and functions are completed between 0-4 years. According
to a research conducted by Bloom and his friends measuring IQ level of seventeen year old individuals, 50% of
intelligence is formed between pregnancy and four years, 30% between four - eight years and only 20% of
intelligence is formed between eight and seventeen years (meb.gov.tr). Experiences during early childhood
period are decisive or determinative for the way brain operates. Pre-school education supports social and
emotional development thus, enables grown ups to be more productive and efficient. It also provides that grown
ups may use their potential fully.
Pre-school education not only ensures that children in the long run are more productive, more creative and more
skilled in problem solving, but also ensures that socially, children learn how to share their toys and interest of
grown ups, enabling kids to learn talking mutually as well. What is more, they learn to find solutions for
problems rising in relationship and conflicts with their peers and learn to show respect to rights of other children
too. All these will help children in their future lives develop problem solving skills which will help them find a
solution for all emerging problems. Emotionally, children's doing their own tasks or works, finding solutions to
their own problems and taking some decisions by themselves, improves and escalates their self confidence.
Children's realizing that they may both stay away from their parents and may also look after themselves during
the abscence of their parents will not only increase children's feelings of self confidence and independence but
will assist in developing self-consolatory and self distraction skills as well. Children also learn about limits and
rules of living in a society during pre-school education. Physically due to regular activities, fine motor skills
develop in children. In addition to this, children use and develop their rough motor functions like running,
jumping, throwing and climbing as well. Mentally children gain marhematical and scientific skills like matching
objects, sorting and classification, measuring, observing and producing new ideas. Animation, imitation and
imaginary games help the development of the power of imagination and talking with friends and teacher develops
lingual skills. Activities like reviewing books, painting and drawing help the development of early reading and
writing skills. Other than this, the activities done during pre-school period require attention and focusing and this
helps in the development of these functions of the brain.
Children first learn with motion-based actions. It is known that during both pre-school education and first years
of primary education children prefer to learn in a motion-based and touch-based way. However, traditional
schools focus on educating children by means of vision and hearing, i.e., in an audiovisual way. Such an
education is not suitable with developmental requirements of children, because there isn't only one channel of
learning and teaching and multi-faceted development of children must be supported. This requirement is one of
the principles of developmental education (Erden ve Akman, 1995). Pre-school period is the period during which
development of brain and rate of establishment of synaptic connections are experienced in the most intense and
fastest way. Development of brain forms a strong ground for children's cognitive, lingual, motor, social and
emotional development. Therefore children grow very quickly especially during first six years of their lives,
which is called pre-school period and they get competent and proficient in a surprisingly fast way. So, the way
for children's realizing their own potential and becoming a productive member of society is opened. Because
brain develops very fast during pre-school period, this is a period during which brain is open most to
 Aysem Tombak/ Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2021) 000–000
environmental impacts. In this context environment deeply influences children's development and learning
motivation. The amount how much a child can discover, what he or she can learn and at what speed a child can
learn is closely related with how supportive child's environment is and what sort of opportunities are provided to
the child (TC; MEB, 2013).
In order for children to grow up and develop in a healthy way and to develop a positive attitude towards learning
we need to create an environment in which skilled cognitive stimuli, rich language interactions, positive social
and emotional experiences are presented to children. Here, children's independence must also be supported. All
this is possible only in a healthy family atmosphere and with a quality pre-school education.

4. Drama Based Learning

Drama is a field that makes the individual active, and affects the cognitive, affective, dynamic, and social aspects
of a person. With its content, drama has qualities, which enable the individual to take pleasure, and develops
one’s aesthetic side.
Educational drama is a synthesis of movement, sense, language and communication, thought and feeling (Önder,
2012).
Learning becomes permanent when it is executed from proximity to the remote, from simple to complex, and by
executing and living it. Research findings show that, – time kept constant – people remember 10% of what they
read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, 50% of what they both see and hear, and 90% of what they
see, hear, and do. 1% of our learnings are through tasting, 1.5% through touching, 3.5% through smelling, 11%
through hearing, and 83% through seeing (meb.gov.tr). Drama is one of the most effective teaching methods
because it enables the child to get involved in the process, do, live, feel, implement, and think. Games are an
indispensable part of a child’s life. Children learn about life, rules, and many other things in a natural way,
through games. Drama exists within the child’s nature through games. Children get a chance to express
themselves more comfortably through drama, which contains a gaming process. Looking at studies in drama
implementations, which are effective in realizing both permanent and functional learning, it can be seen that it is
more productive that almost all other methods, especially unavoidable in developing perception (Önder, 2006).
Learning is memorizing knowledge and break into pieces those of educational value according to their meanings,
comprehend, and to internalize (Arkın, 1952). Considering that the best style for a child to learn is through work,
within work, the theory of learning by doing and living is of great importance. Creative drama is the action
situations, improvisations, animations created by children, based on their original thoughts, creative findings and
knowledge, without being committed to a written text (San, 1996). Based on this definition, it is possible to say
that drama places the learner in the center, makes him/her active in the learning process, keeps the teacher in the
role of a guide, makes sure that all the learning fields of audio, visual, tactile, and affective products created
during the process are used, put down by doing and living, and thus made permanent. In this way, the quality of
learning becomes stronger and healthier from the aspect of learning principles.
Drama enables the child to become active in the learning process by placing him/her in the center. Children are
able to think creatively, critically, multi-dimensionally, and freely, show cognitive, social, affective, and
psychomotor development, have fun, create empathy, implement their knowledge, and develop cooperative skills
through drama, where active learning is realized. Becoming members of a group enables children to think that
they are also members of the society, thus become aware of the values of the society (Ulutaş, 2011).
The aims of using drama in education changes according to the age of the children, the relative conditions, and
the objectives of the leader. Despite these differences, there general aims not affected by age, conditions, and
objectives. The most important of these can be listed as follows: Enabling the expression of feelings in a healthy
way; developing the creative imagination of the child; giving the child a chance to think and express
independently; developing the social awareness and cooperative working consciousness of the child (Bayram,
1999).
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Drama activities give an opportunity to the participants to examine various social roles and problems. Creating
different social problems enables the individuals to understand the society and social relations better. Solution
styles of problems are also examined during these interactions, thus participants gain experiences from works
towards solving problems (Önder, 1999). Children use their knowledge and experiences in real world to create
an imaginary world in drama and they learn to examine relations and events while they define roles and situations
in the drama they design. Besides these, children identify with the roles they undertake and study relations and
events. As a result of this, children are supported in expressing themselves, becoming sensitive towards others,
and doing things with the group (O’Neil and Lambert, 1991; Woolland, 1993). Therefore, the contribution of
drama is not only to learning and teaching, but to training as well.
Some of the gains expected from drama activities can be listed as recognizing different experiences, gaining
experience in different events and situations by getting into different roles, enabling the development of the will
to perceive life multi-directionally and to research, learning through doing and living, and making learnings
permanent. Considering these gains, it can be said that drama has an important effect on the development of
individuals (Akyol, 2003).
The way to establish the cognitive development of children in pre-school education is through an effective and
learner centered program, an environment full of stimulants of all senses, and through an educator adapted to the
cognitive development process of the child, carrying out positive interaction and the methods he/she will use.
Drama and dramatic activities in pre-school education positively affects the cognitive development of the child,
connected to all development areas (Akın, 2002). Drama enables the development of imitation and imagination
skills of the child; it provides an understanding of the instructions given during activities and remembering them
later, thus developing perception and memory, attention and concentration.
Dramatic activities and drama in pre-school education provides children with opportunities to use language
actively, and to develop language as a tool of oral communication. Rhythm, tempo, and accent activities are also
used and developed in drama.
Social, emotional development can be defined as individuals getting to know themselves and their emotions,
reaching a healthy identity by gaining self-confidence, independence, initiative, and feeling of success, and the
process of living in harmony with the society. Personality development of the individual and the basis of
socializing starts during the pre-school stage (Alpan, 2006). Role activities in drama help develop the empathy
skills of the child. Dramatic activities help the expression and control of feelings, motivate undiscovered
feelings, and sometimes help in discharging negative feelings. Taking part in activities increases the self-
confidence of the child. Parallel to the psychomotor development, physical growth, and development of the
central nerve system, the organism gaining voluntary activity is an important dimension of motor development.
Through drama activities, the child learns his/her body and learns to move various parts of the body, walk, run,
jump, take various steps, crawl, climb etc. accompanied by music or rhythm. It is not enough for children taking
part in drama activities just to look, hear, taste, or smell. It is necessary to see while looking, to feel while
touching, and to be aware. Aesthetic capacities of children develop this way. Moreover, as children get the
opportunity to learn their bodies better, they are aware of the functions of body parts and how to take care of
them, and they develop their self-care skills.

5. Result

Consequently, it can be seen that drama in pre-school education;

- Increases the creativity and imagination, the skill of taking decisions, thinking independently and the
motivation to discover,
- During the process of drama, it develops communication skills by talking to their friends and bringing
out their inner voices,
- It contributes to self-perception of the children and to the development of positive self-concept,
- It develops the feeling of cooperating with a group because there is a group work, develops social
sensitivity, feeling of responsibility, and social living skills and social skills,
 Aysem Tombak/ Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2021) 000–000
- While increasing psycho-motor skills, it creates coordination and balance in organs, flexibility in
movements, and agility,
- Should have a place in pre-school education since it contributes to all the fields of development of pre-
school children.

6. Suggestions

- Seminars, panel discussions, conferences, and workshops etc. should be organized for pre-school
educators focusing on the relationship between drama and field developments,
- In-service training courses on drama should be given to teachers,
- Drama lessons should take place in other departments as well, not just in some departments of faculties
of education.

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