It is ironic that although most English teachers consider drama to be within their curricular domain, drama is used more often as a teaching method in other disciplines. English teachers tend to relegate drama to theater courses, isolating drama techniques from most English classrooms. Yet, the literature on classroom drama suggests that there is considerable untapped potential for using drama as a teaching method. Experts emphasize that using dramatic techniques as a teaching method is not the same thing as teaching theater.
Theater is an art form which focuses on a product, a play production for an audience.
Classroom drama is not learning about drama, but learning through drama. In dramatic activities, students use and examine their present knowledge in order to induce new knowledge. Heathcote also emphasizes the way drama encourages enactment of many different social roles and engages many levels, styles, and uses of language. Language is the central tool and concern for Heathcote, who notes the crucial nature of communication in society and places communication at the center of the educational system. Other researchers and theorists also attribute many benefits to using drama in the classroom.