Active Learning Through Role-Playing
Contributed By: Irena Acic
To start off our GTC meeting this winter, we have chosen to discuss the methods of active teaching/learning, with a focus on role-play. First, we pointed out some problems with traditional lectures - students are sometimes not following at a all, or they are passively writing down information without thinking about the material. One of the common challenges that teachers face in their work is how to help students remember information while keeping them engaged. This can be achieved through combining traditional teaching methods with active learning.
Active learning can be defined as "anything that involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing" (Bonwell & Fison, 1991). With the help of a PowerPoint presentation, we noted all the key differences between the traditional and active approach. Almost everyone in the room shared their experiences with both of these approaches. Some of them were positive, some will be remembered as an opportunity to grow and perfect ourselves as teachers.
Next we listed major benefits of active learning, according to the Cornell University Center for Teaching and Excellence. Active learning:
- Reinforces important material, concepts, and skills.
- Provides more frequent and immediate feedback to students.
- Addresses different student learning styles.
- Provides students with an opportunity to think about, talk about, and process course material.
- Creates personal connections to the material for students, which increases their motivation to learn.
- Allows students to practice important skills, such as collaboration through pair and group work.
- Builds self-esteem through conversations with other students.
- Creates a sense of community in the classroom through increased student-student and instructor-student interaction.
Active learning s especially important for Generation Z. Because of students' frequent use of technology, we need to take a different approach to teaching. We need to keep in mind that previous generations were patiently reading War and Peace and today students read tweets and Facebook posts that are very short and not so demanding.
There are many techniques of active learning we could implement in our work. Some of them are: group work, class discussions, student teaching, role-playing and problem solving.
The Concise Oxford English Dictionary definition of role-playing is "behaving in accordance with specified function." If we translate this to the classroom setting, we will have students who perform an activity resulting in learning outcomes. Students are physically and intellectually involved in their lessons and that allows them to express themselves in a scientific context and develop an understanding of difficult concepts. Role playing allows students to practice what they have learned, to have a concrete basis for a discussion, and to develop increased awareness of their feelings and feelings of others, Role-play also promotes working in groups and can potentially increase student enthusiasm and interest.
We listed many disciplines where role-playing can be used as a valuable tool (e.g. sociology, la, medicine, science). Research has shown that medical students can improve their performance significantly if learning through role-play (Nestel & Tierney, 2007). Another study by McCarthy and Anderson (2000) has shown that the students who participated in role-play in history and political science classes did better on standard evaluations than their traditionally instructed peers.
Of course role playing has some down sides as well so ideally, we should combine it with other teaching methods. Some of the down sides are:
Embarrassment and discomfort - Some students might be worried about what others will think of them, rather than how the situation can be solved.
Disorganization - Role playing works best when the teacher explains the purpose beforehand and outlines ground rules. If not, things can spiral out of control.
After a lively discussion, we ended the meeting briefly summarizing the steps of preparing and conducting a role-play activity in the classroom:
1) Warm-up - Prepare students by explaining the goals and rules. Encourage them to interact with each other and work with you. Teachers should select role plays that will give the students and opportunity to practice what they have learned. At the same time, we need a role play that interests the students. One way to make sure your role play is interesting to let the students choose the situation themselves.
2) Action - Select the role players and start the interaction. Role playing can be temporarily stopped several times to allow for comments and feedback. Whether taking any part in the role play or not, the role of the teacher is to be as invisible as possible.
3) Closure - Discussion of what is learned during role playing and how it can be used in real life situations. Once the role play is finished, spend some time on debriefing. This does not mean pointing out and correcting mistakes because that might makes students less confidence and less willing to do the other role plays. Follow-up means asking every student's opinion on the role play and welcoming their comments. The aim is to discuss what has happened in the role play and what they have leaned. In addition to group discussions, an evaluation questionnaire can be used.
References:
Bonwell,
Charles C. & Eison, James A. (1991) Active
Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom
Nestel,
D. & Tierney, T. (2007) Role-play for
medical students learning about communication: Guidelines for maximising
benefits
McCarthy
P. & Anderson L. (2000) Active
Learning Techniques Versus Traditional Teaching Styles: Two Experiments from
History and Political Science
Useful
links:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/B:IHIE.0000047415.48495.05
There are many techniques of active learning we could implement in our work. Some of them are: group work, class discussions, student teaching, role-playing and problem solving. M2150-860 exam dumps
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