On Monday we started the class going over what the non-prac people did when we were away on prac. Basically they got together and devised a lesson based around journalism using a process/teacher in role approach which sounded really cool. We are going to be doing this soon when they go away on prac but we will be looking at inventions which has so many possibilities and before I go rabbiting on about anything I guess I better wait till I learn more.

So besides getting the run down of what they non-pracies did we were talking about Adults and drama/theatre in education. Basically we discussed when we had seen theatre that had left an impression, the problems a teacher may encounter when teaching adults, situations where drama is used for adults and theatre designed specifically to educate. We also watched a video from the IDEA conference that took place in Brisbane during the 90s as well as talking about Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the oppressed. I just realised the weeks questions are pretty much about what we talked about so I guess I’ll answer them and fed in any info from the class that is important and then looking further at the sheet that is exactly what it says to do (idiot).

What times can I think of when theatre has left an impression on me, what way did it impress me and did it alter my thinking about a topic or idea? The first play that comes to mind is hoods which I saw at the Drama Vic conference. The play was absolutely incredible about 3 children left in a car by their mother who was picked up by the cops for stealing. The show was great in the way that the two actors used loads of theatrical techniques to tell this story which slipped in and out of fantasy but left the audience with the cold and stark reality that some children face. It made me feel sad and angry because it made me think about domestic violence and abuse and how that affects so many young people. I’m not sure about the pieces intention but i felt it surely pointed towards a lack of support and misdirected blame that victims of abuse and their families must have to go through. This play was spoken about briefly but another that i hadn’t seen was called ’stole’ which was about the stolen generation and a few of the people said that it had really developed their interest in finding out more about the stolen generation.

Can I think of any examples of theatre specifically designed to educate or influence adults? I can’t really think of any but if I do I’ll come back to this and have a stab. Actually is this like Theatre of the Oppressed because this was developed by Boal to hopefully help people deal with and be educated about how they are oppressed. Maybe I’m reading too deep into it.

What examples can I think of where drama is used to educate or train? We didn’t really come up with much for this in class but after reading O’Tooles article my brain clicked on and I really start thinking about how much it is really used. The stuff we came up in class with was when training for first aid and CPR type of medical things, role play situations when preparing for sales situations and team building exercises using drama games. I was thinking about the medical bit and I’m sure I’ve heard of training nurses and doctors using puppet/robot hybrids to practise certain techniques, operations or procedures on which is certainly drama (playing doctors). I was then thinking about the police, armed forces, fire-fighters who run drills and action games that are supposed to simulate real life crisis situations again drama. I was watching on 60minutes last year how the battalion or whatever that was going over to Afghanistan was being trained by the special ops over there playing out scenarios that they had encountered during there time over there. I think the playing the scenario can be taken back a step further to anyone who has every participated in a fire drill has used drama for training because it is a what if question being played out as if it were real. I’m sure there are lots more situations where drama is used that I’m not thinking about.

What factors inhibit the use of drama as pedagogy for adults? In class we really thought that drama probably couldn’t be used was an effective educational tool with adults because it is in the realm for children and playing but this is as O’Toole says in his article just because a lot of adults have their own preconceived idea of what drama is and means when in fact it is far broader then they understand. We also thought that certain adults may find participating in drama as silly and pointless because it is in the realm of fun, its not serious, its not what education or training is about. O’Toole also comments on this explaining that adult education is often professionally and industrial driven putting it in the cognitive realm of comprehension skills and technical knowledge, not like the humanist approach taken with children in education. We also spoke about some Adults possibly believing the way they know they learn is the best way and not prepared to take any steps outside of their own perceptions of what education is and how it should be presented.

Just have to Google what ameliorating and palatable means but now that is done; are there any ways of making these above factors better to make drama more acceptable for adult learners? I guess to make drama more acceptable for adult learners it first requires education about what drama is and how often they probably engage in drama activity without even knowing or thinking about it. This can be followed up by showing them the purpose of the activities and what it aims to achieve in using drama. The other thing would be to give the students options about what they wanted to do and how this could be achieved and finally just engaging in good teaching practices.

Further ways that drama may be used or applied in the teaching of adults? One thing which was brought up in class and also my EXE401 class was using drama students (uni) to help education students teach in a mock classroom set up so they can try varies behaviour management strategies or something. Drama could also be used in crisis situations to help people deal with what has happened to them using theatre/drama as a tool for therapy which could pose problems but on the other hand could really help people deal with the issues they need help with. I’m not sure if rainbow of desire deals with this at all but O’Toole was talking about it, something I’ll have to have a look into.

Any reference to the O’Tooles article is referenced O’Toole, John (2000) Adults, earning and Drama. In J. O’Toole and M. Lepp (Eds) Drama for Life: Stories of Adult Learning and Empowerment. Brisbane Australia

Just before I finish I will write a bit about Boal, We looked briefly at Boal and his Theatre of the Oppressed which I have looked at quite a bit and find incredibly interesting. I developed a unit for work on it last semester which I haven’t yet had the opportunity to try out but am hoping to do so next semester. I really like this type of theatre because it really opens up the problems people may be facing into a forum that allows them to discover ways in dealing with this oppression that won’t end in further oppression for them or others and that isn’t just magic. I use Boal’s Games for actors and non-actors quite a lot for warm ups.