Foreword
‘Drama for Learning and Creativity’ has been a learning journey for all the teachers and consultants involved. The success of the project is due to their individual and collective energy. There is a passionate commitment to whole class Drama as a teaching and learning medium throughout the three phases of the fieldwork period. Without exception, there is a determination to move children’s learning forward. The participants recognise that the project also represents a way to improve their own and others’ understanding of what it is to be a teacher in the early part of the twenty-first century.
‘Drama for Learning and Creativity’
‘Drama for Learning and Creativity’ is successful in meeting the criteria set out in the Bid Document.
The findings to support this judgement are presented in the following groups of bullet points.
The management of ‘Drama for Learning and Creativity’
· The management and structure of the action research ensures there is a clearly identified, evidence-oriented and manageable core for each of the schools’ projects. It is a very strong feature of the project.
Use of funding
· The use made of the funds available is entirely appropriate to the demands and needs of a research project.
· There is evidence of careful forward planning for the dissemination of the project’s findings.
Research methodology
· The research methodology that underpins the school-based action research enables teachers and consultants to collaborate in sustained, thoughtful ways. It sees the teachers assume responsibility for the direction of their fieldwork. There is consistent evidence that this responsibility has a profound effect on the teachers’ thinking about whole class Drama teaching, and its practice in the classroom.
· Two related parts of the school-based action research are highly effective. The seminars to bring together teachers and consultants help both parties to realise their roles. They are a major contribution to the excellent working relationships between teachers and consultants. Second, the precise allocation of consultants makes sure that expertise is matched with schools. This deepens the first two school-based phases of the fieldwork.
· The teachers’ initial research questions are adapted, discussed with consultants and developed in ways which add depth to the action research. The evidence available shows that one outcome of such deliberation is whole class teaching which stimulates and engages pupils of all ages and abilities.
The impact of ‘Drama for Learning and Creativity’
· The entry and exit questionnaires are evidence that an increasing number of schools now use Drama regularly as a methodology. Over 90% of schools surveyed state that Drama is influencing their development plans. Drama is now a significant priority for over half the schools in the survey, an increase of over 15%.
· The exit questionnaire shows that all schools in the survey (100%) now have Drama in their improvement plans.
· ‘Drama for Learning and Creativity’ influences head-teachers as well as teachers. This suggests that the schools in the survey are developing both the policy and practice of whole class Drama teaching, with over 80% of the primary and middle schools surveyed now having a teacher responsible for Drama.
· Over 90% of the teachers surveyed report an increase in their confidence to teach Drama.
· The data points to a connection between confidence, knowledge and skill that has implications for the future of Drama teaching, especially at Key Stages One and Two.
· The teachers’ journals show that pupils respond positively to what whole class Drama offers them as learners. There is consistent evidence that pupils think that it provides them with opportunities for affective and cognitive engagement with their learning.
· By the time of the end of the project over 95% of the teachers surveyed are working with Drama in an increasing number of subjects.
· There are equally firm quantitative indicators that the increase in the curriculum areas which feature Drama is matched by a rise in the time allocated on a regular basis to Drama. Over a third of schools now allocate more than an hour a week to Drama.
· Teachers now work in the classroom with a significantly increased range of Drama conventions. Teacher in role, Hot seating and Thought tracking are far more evident in teacher’s work. As a result there is a different Drama ‘diet’ emerging which has the potential to broaden significantly children’s learning opportunities.
· Drama is now viewed to be a means to develop pupils’ thinking. Teachers associate it with creative thinking, communication and expressive skills. Examples from three projects show that pupils take part in speculation, hypothesis making and testing, searching for reasons and making justifications rather than looking for the ‘right’ answer. They experience standing in another person’s shoes and the exploration of other viewpoints than their own.
Publications
· The project is meeting its targets of producing high-quality publications directed at a range of audiences. For example, there has been print media coverage in the Times Educational Supplement, a web site became operational in January 2006 and an academic paper is to be presented at a major European conference on creativity. A CD ROM, which has accompanying materials, has been completed.
Communication with the management group of ‘Drama for Learning and Creativity ’ during the period September 2005 – July 2006
The ease of communication with the project management group means there is no difficulty with gaining access to any material necessary for the three phase evaluations. One result is the availability of a substantial body of data for this report. There are, therefore, quotations from teachers and pupils as well as references from teachers and consultants’ writing in the main body of the report.
Regular contact with the project management team not only makes writing the fieldwork’s three phase evaluations easier but it also enables me to act more as a critical friend to the project. This gives me an opportunity to undertake a learning journey too. It encourages me to think about how I see the role and shape of Drama teaching, especially in the light of government proposals for initial teacher education, and the school curriculum more generally.
As with the three phase evaluations, the writing of this report is actively encouraged and supported by Lorraine Harrison, Head of the School of Education.
D A Simpson
University of Brighton, School of Education,
Falmer, Brighton BN1 9PH
01273 643376 October 2006
Contents
Page
Foreword 2
Contents 7
Tables and Appendices 8
Introduction - ‘Drama for Learning and Creativity’ 10
Evaluation Methodology 15
Results from ‘Drama for Learning and Creativity’ 22
Moving On 63
Bibliography 69
Appendices 71
Tables and Appendices
Tables
Table One The original research questions
Table Two The subject areas where Drama is in use by the end of ‘Drama for Learning and Creativity’
Table Three The combinations in teachers’ choices of the five purposes of Drama
Table Four Drama conventions in the classroom
Table Five Combinations in the teachers’ choices of the five purposes of Drama
Table Six Planet Perfecton
Table Seven Owl Babies
Table Eight Rainforest
Appendices
Appendix 1 Funding for ‘Drama for Learning and Creativity’
Appendix 2 Success criteria
Appendix 3 Evaluation schedule
Appendix 4 Are more schools now using Drama?
Appendix 5 Teacher confidence and Drama teaching
Appendix 6 What impact is Drama having on learning and creative outcomes?
Appendix 7 Extracts from a research teacher’s diary
Appendix 8 Extract from a research teacher’s log
1. Introduction - ‘ Drama for Learning and Creativity ’
Introduction
‘Drama for Learning and Creativity’ is initiated by Norfolk LEA. NESTA provides a major source of financial support. There is assistance on a much smaller scale from the University of Brighton School of Education who fund release from teaching for its evaluation and dissemination.
The project investigates the capacity of whole class Drama to initiate, sustain and enhance children’s creativity and learning. It involves 60 schools in Norfolk LEA during the academic year 2005/6, with evaluation and dissemination running from June 2006 to May 2007. At its centre there are 14 schools which are designated as research schools. In these primary, middle and secondary schools, teachers work with consultants on a variety of whole class, teacher-initiated and managed projects. They are designed to stimulate creativity through Drama-based teaching and learning.
The project’s structure and organisation
‘Drama for Learning and Creativity’ is a collaborative venture. Teachers and consultants concentrate on how Drama can develop children’s creative capabilities. There is a management group of three, all of whom act as consultants to the schools in the project. It is led by Patrice Baldwin, Advisor for the Arts (Norfolk LEA) and Chair of National Drama, with two consultants, Pam Bowell (Kingston University and a former Chair of National Drama) and Kate Fleming (Drama Consultant and Vice Chair of National Drama). All three are experienced, highly-regarded Drama teachers with substantial classroom backgrounds. All have taken part in small-scale Drama and Arts projects before and are published widely in this field. Advice and support for the project management team comes from the Executive Committee of National Drama, the principal subject organisation for Drama in the United Kingdom.
The funding allows for two levels of involvement, an inner group of 14 chosen research schools and an outer looser grouping of over 50 schools (fuller details of the funding and expenditure are in Appendix 1). The inner group is made up of schools from Key Stages One to Four, with pupils from Reception to Year 10 taking part. Both the inner and outer levels of involvement work on investigations into Drama teaching and learning. The first seminar for the inner group of research schools (November 2005) emphasises the collaborative nature of the project. Teachers from the research schools work with the consultants to shape the wording and form of their project. Following the seminar the consultants spend half a day in each school on the research school’s chosen investigation. This takes several patterns. For example, in some schools a consultant leads a teaching session whilst in others the teaching is shared or the consultant joins the Drama in an agreed role. In the period from January to May 2006 the consultants make a second visit to their delegated schools, and both teachers and consultants meet for a further twilight seminar. Throughout the fieldwork teachers and consultants are in regular contact via email, phone and the exchange of longer documents.
The outer group, which comprises over 50 more schools, are also visited twice between November 2005 and May 2006. Visits are made by either Patrice Baldwin, a Drama consultant or a local authority advanced skills teacher. Like the inner group, the outer group have two visits and are offered help and advice. However, they do not work to an agreed research question.
The project management team meets on a number of occasions. It also meets with the executive of National Drama which enables reports on work in progress, as well as questions about the fieldwork, to be discussed fully with leading members of the Drama subject community. As each phase of the fieldwork finishes, the project evaluator reports on how far and to what extent the project is meeting its targets (see Appendix 2). This sets up a dialogue between the evaluator and project management team that lasts for the length of the fieldwork.
Background to ‘ Drama for Learning and Creativity ’
The project is the first in depth, classroom based Drama research project initiated by a national drama subject association – National Drama – in partnership with a local education authority.
The project focuses on the relationships between whole class Drama teaching, creativity and learning. It comes from the project management group’s belief in Drama as something which is highly engaging to pupils. In their view Drama:
· Develops pupils’ inter-thinking and learning;
· Stimulates creativity through role play and sustained imaginative experience;
· Enables visual, auditory and kinaesthetic access, understanding and expression;
· Focuses on engaging empathically in ways that combine the cognitive and affective.
[Bid Document, Section B4]
Drama is seen as an inclusive, multi-faceted agency for the holistic development of children as learners. For the project management team, it is a learning medium that utilises a range of intelligences. They believe these engage all learners in ways which often go beyond the prescribed methods and formal teaching that dominate the current curriculum [Bid Document, Section B4].
The management team’s view of Drama is in sympathy with ‘All Our Futures,’ the 1999 government report into the Arts. This report provides a definition of creativity which they support and use in their bid application. Creativity [NACCE 1999: 12] is:
“Imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce outcomes that are both original and of value.”
The management group adopt this definition for two reasons. The local authority’s schools work within a curriculum framework that endorses this report. The ‘Every Child Matters’ policy [DfES 2005] draws on ‘All Our Futures’ and shares its commitment to a creative curriculum in which imaginative enquiry are part of all pupils’ entitlement. ‘All Our Futures’ itself refers to its description of creativity as a democratic one. This is in keeping with two key, related areas of the project, what happens in the classroom and the sharing of ideas between teachers and consultants. The interplay between classroom and discussion - which is led by ideas rather than by either teachers or consultants - is a sharing, supportive one that is part of the approach to the Arts championed by ‘All Our Futures.’ It relies upon equal voices in and out of the classroom.
‘All Our Futures’ goes on to state that creative thinking and behaviour is always imaginative, purposeful, original and valuable. The management group take this further in order to identify what they consider to be the ”features” of drama within a context of creativity and learning [Bid Document, Section B5]. They choose five features of creative thinking and behaviour from the QCA document ’Creativity: Find it, Promote it’ [QCA 2005]. These are:
· Questioning and challenging;
· Exploring ideas, keeping options open;
· Making connections and seeing relationships;
· Envisaging what might be;
· Reflecting critically on ideas, actions and outcomes.
The five “types of behaviour” are to be exemplified by the processes and outcomes of the research schools’ projects [Bid Document, Section B5].
The success criteria for ‘Drama for L earning and Cr ea tivity’
The success criteria come from the Bid Document. They are arranged under three headings, Classroom Centred, Drama Subject Community and Influence on Government Curriculum Policy (Appendix 2).