Experience, understanding and reflection : A theoretical and an empirical study of how teachers think when they use drama as a method

This thesis consists of two parts and focus on how teachers think when they use drama as a method. It is a didactic study in which the questions what, why and how will be elucidated. The first part is theoretical and contains theoretical perspectives of education in general and theoretical perspective focused in drama as a learning method. The theoretical study comes from Aristotle and his mimesis, which is related to how children learn about the world and how they acquire their first knowledge. Other for the subject important theorists that I have been inspired of is Dewey and his learning by doing and Marton & Booth with their phenomenographic point of view. Drama as a method is based on Bolton and his view of drama as a method, both from the past and till today. The second part consists of an empirical survey through interviews. The interviews were tape-recorded and the transcribed text were analysed. From a didactic point of view the teachers were asked about how they think when they use drama as a method. The aim of the interviews was to give drama as a method an essence. The result from the survey of how the teachers describe drama as a method can be shown from the following aspects: - learning about yourself - from knowledge about yourself practise cooperation - develop skills to communicate - practise the student to use all senses in acquire knowledge - using their fantasy to develop their creativity - widen the students intellectual from a holistic point of view In the discussion the two parts of the thesis are related to each other.Report code: LiU-PEK-R-245