The place of educational drama in workplace and vocational training
Creators: name: Smigiel, HM
Publisher: name: University Of Tasmania
Year: 2023

description: This project had a number of main foci. The first was to introduce workplace and vocational trainers to educational drama methods currently being used in school based education. The second was to identify the strengths and limitations of the application of these strategies in a variety of training contexts. The third was to compare these outcomes with those of quasi-dramatic techniques (such as role play and simulation) already being employed in training programs. The final focus was to establish the possible place of educational drfil!1a in training programs of the future. A review of the literature of vocational and workplace training indicated the need for radically new approaches to training methods. The review also identified the importance of the development of \soft\" skills as outcomes of contemporary training programs. These skills are defined as communication skills team building skills interpersonal skills conceptual and analytical ability and individual or self understanding. Educational drama has been largely unexplored as a methodology in training programs. The literature of educational drama indicated that drama methodologies have the capacity to develop competencies particularly in the area of these soft skills. The project was predicated on the belief that drama has the potential to provide new types of learning experiences for participants in workplace and vocational training and consequently new learning outcomes. The project's implementation involved the design and delivery of a four-day training workshop for ten vocational and workplace trainers who volunteered to participate. The trainers were then required to select and trial drama methods that were appropriate in their particular workplace training programs and to reflect on the learning outcomes that were achieved by participants. The project was implemented over a period of five months during which the trainers met on a regular basis to discuss the project and the problems and successes that they were each experiencing. The project utilised a qualitative research approach that provided detailed description of enacted educational drama strategies in a range of training contexts. It was crucial that these descriptions were able to be interpreted in the context of the particular training program in which they were employed with knowledge of the trainer delivering the program in terms of the trainers' personal capabilities commitment resistance adventurousness and understanding of educational drama. The qualitative approach included anecdote and description and data collection involved group and individual interviews observation of educational drama strategies being implemented in the workplace and the trainers' reflective journals. The analysis of data followed the techniques described by Strauss and Corbin (1990). It was interpretative in nature and involved the coding of data and the development of a \"paradigm model\" as a framework for the subsequent discussion of the outcomes identified by the trainers involved in the project. The learning outcomes for participants in the workplace training programs where these drama methods were employed were identified through the triangulation of the data collected from the sources referred to above. These learning outcomes were compared with those of traditional role play and simulation. Results showed that educational drama has greater potential to achieve required training outcomes particularly in the area of soft skills than those quasi-dramatic methods currently being employed."