Learning to teach moral education through drama in a Chinese primary school

This thesis explores the possibilities of introducing drama to facilitate primary children’s moral learning in the Chinese educational context. As she is an inexperienced teacher, the author also focuses on her own self-improvement in learning to teach through educational drama as well as examining drama’s potential to complement the moral education curriculum for primary aged children in China. The thesis begins with a literature review that explores the authority-oriented nature of the moral education curriculum in mainland China and points out that basic challenges still exist in the current course despite reforms that have been implemented since 1999 on a national scale. It then argues for the potential of story-based drama as an innovative pedagogy that may help students develop their autonomous moral thinking as a way to address some of the shortcomings that exist in the present moral curriculum. The key methodological approach is that of reflective practitioner case study, using mixed methods to assess the impact of the author’s teaching on the children’s moral thinking. The fieldwork itself was undertaken in May and June, 2016, with two groups of children in two different primary schools in Beijing, China. There were fifteen sessions taught to 31 children in total, including one preparatory workshop and three story-based schemes of work in each school. In terms of the main findings, on the one hand, the author offers practical suggestions for other learner teachers who might wish to create a playful, cooperative and ensemble-based drama classroom in the light of her own experience. On the other hand, it also reveals that the incorporation of story-based drama into the existing school curriculum is workable, and this new approach can be seen to some extent to assist pupils in aspects of their citizenship education, imaginative development and dialogic thinking capabilities. The evidence also suggests that educational drama can promote gifted children’s moral growth by developing their peer relationships and creative thinking abilities. The author recommends that a longitudinal study on a larger scale can be conducted by experienced teachers to stimulate more and deeper research on the use of story-based drama in similar contexts, that this may further extend the understanding of Chinese teachers of this resourceful new approach and begin to inform policy makers