This first class was great! It was so much fun to act out the “Fertifree” drama (it’s been a long time since I’ve done any acting improvisation.) I must say I initially had trouble staying in character and kept giggling, but this was mostly because I was enjoying myself so much! I think I just need a little more practice to fully get back into the swing of things. It was also good to compare notes with the reading and to see how the same scenario was played out by a different group. The main fault with our drama was that nobody wanted to take on the “boss” role. It was difficult because everyone put in their two cents worth but when we disagreed about the solution there was no one to make a final decision. In a real life situation, this would not be the case – ultimately someone would call the shots - and therefore our drama was not realistic (perhaps it doesn’t need to be though?). Other than this though, I personally found the experience very worthwhile. It was interesting to see the different characters and ideas that people invented – things that I would never have dreamt up on my own! Even though I don’t feel like we achieved a proper solution to the problem (quite a few of us opted for the unrealistic “magic fix” of deciding to ignore the pollution), this task helped me to see the potential benefits of the collaborative problem-solving process.

In the reading for this week, the main reason why Chris’ session was more successful than Derek’s seems to be because Chris is able to keep her students on task by taking on a main guiding role within the drama. She also effectively directs the course of the drama by injecting different props and focussing the children with thought-provoking questions. Although Derek had also created an interesting scenario, he hadn’t adequately catered for the possibility of the children diverging away from the real problem at hand. If he had some back-up props or re-focussing questions ready, he may have been able to more successfully influence the course of the drama, without taking the control away from the students. Obviously different groups work in different ways also, and perhaps Derek’s students were less practised at learning through drama, or did not have enough prior knowledge about the issues at hand. Chris’ students, on the other hand, had been studying conservation for a number of weeks before the scenario was introduced, and this prior learning obviously aided their problem solving within the drama.

The areas of learning covered in the drama include:

Knowledge-based
- How a factory may operate (the types of jobs and machines that may be found there) (incidental)
- That chemicals can potentially have good and bad effects on the environment (focus)
- That this may affect different people in different ways (focus)

Skills-based
- Practise at miming, staying in character, improvising (and other associated acting skills) (focus)
- Listening skills (incidental)
- Working as a team (focus)

Cognitive development
- The ability to examine all sides of a story (focus)
- Problem-solving (focus)
- Decision making (focus)
- Metacognition (incidental)

(Obviously I didn’t plan this learning experience so it is difficult for me to say exactly which ones were a focus for the teacher and which ones were incidental – I can only guess…)

It’s quite scary but until now I don’t think I have really realised the deeper educational value inherent in imaginative play and how valuable it can be as a teaching strategy (especially when it is structured and well developed like the “Fertifree” exercise we did in class). To tell you the truth, after years of nannying I have become a little bored of playing tea parties/doctors and nurses, and have neglected to consider the important lessons (be it social, cultural, skills-based, or otherwise) that children are learning in socio-dramatic play. More importantly I am now starting to consider what information I can introduce when playing these games so that the children involved have a more fully rounded learning experience. The possibilities are endless! From the discussions in class, it is obvious I’m not the only one who has failed to see the full potential of imaginative play. We’re all aware of the games we played as children, but I don’t think we’ve all analysed “why” we needed to play them or “what” we were learning through the experience. The games that featured highly in my repertoire were post office, shops, perfume factories, soldiers, and ones involving special powers (such as talking to animals). I remember thoroughly enjoying making realistic props (stamps, envelopes, etc) and setting up a life-like stage, but most of all, I think the benefit to me was the social/cultural learning that occurs when taking part in this type of play. Growing up on a farm I didn’t have a lot of interaction with other people before kindergarten, so I think these types of games helped me to try to understand how people relate to each other in different situations.

The reading raises five main points about successful collaborative learning:
- Improved pupil self-esteem and motivation
- The benefit of working in groups of mixed ability
- The different ways of working regarding action and abstract tasks
- Group problem solving generates higher order learning, and
- The importance of clear instructions and feedback from the teacher (Galton & Williamson 1992).

Personally, I think task description and expectation of outcomes is of vital importance. I remember times when a group I’ve been working in have failed terribly in a task because we were unsure about the exact requirements. I also think for some tasks it is helpful if you have similar learning styles to other people in the group, as you may share common ideas and goals (although in the same way it is often beneficial to work with people of varying abilities and ways of working as this stretches your development in the long term). The skill of listening to others and being able to compromise is also a huge advantage in group work, and this is something that often needs to be practiced and modelled in the classroom. It is important to try to remain objective and to give everyone a fair chance to contribute to the drama. This type of behaviour will generally bring about a better learning experience for everyone involved.

Whoops, I think I may have written too much (sorry)…