Reflection Journal Week 8 (12/3/12)

1. What makes a good Process Drama and to what extent do you think that was achieved today? 


Firstly, let's define the term 'Process Drama'. Essentially, every participants are involved and engaged in problem-solving and character building through dramatic forms. In contrast to theatre, there is no external or passive audience. More than that, Heathcote has described process drama as 'lived at life-rate and operates from a discovery-at-this-moment basis rather than being memory-based.' (As cited by Bowell and Heap, 2001, Pg 7)


A good process drama should deal with knowledge about the art form, drama, personal and social learning and cross-curricular learning. Basically, it deals with life and is flexible, different from specialization in a subject. Hence, the planning of a process drama is very important because if the planning is strong, the knowledge, skills and values are not transferred to the participants. Therefore, learning objectives should be carefully selected to cater to the needs of the students and their ability to learn. The learning process must be contextualised, where learning is engaged within the participants, so that they are committed to what they are doing and thereby contributing their ideas. As a result, they gain more and deeper insights in the matter from their peers and teachers as facilitators through sharing and collaborative work. This creates a sense of ownership as they feel that they are responsible to their own learning. Moreover, drama creates a sense of awareness and sensitivity within the participants that make them feel and think more than they are in their real life situations because when real life situations are represented in drama, the participants critically think and reflect on these issues. 


Process Drama is also a process of making meaning for ourselves in relation to our society and surroundings. They are required to explore issues that occur in daily life and respond to it. Every thinking and action that we do requires us to think the four Ws (what, why, when, where) and How. Through that, we are making meaning and our lives become purposeful. In process drama, it is less on story and acting, more on problem-solving and living at that moment. While they do process drama, they have to be spontaneous and think on the spot. Their actions then begins to unfold the story, where they are more of the story tellers/ story makers. Therefore, participants have more control of the story than the story itself controls the actors.


According to Bowell and Heap(2001) described that there are six principles that makes a good process drama:
Theme - content that has topics which deal with personal or social development.
Context - a setting that is related to the theme. Allowing participants to explore within the area of context by their characters.
Roles - to let participants see the different perspectives and develop empathy and relationship with the character.
Frame - builds up tension by comparing protagonist and antagonist. 
Sign - Objects, sounds, language, symbols, gestures etc. to give meaning.
Strategies - Using elements of drama to make meaning and comparisons.


Teachers are the most important in process drama. Other than planning and strategizing, teachers also must guide and provide directional instructions. They are facilitators instead of 'teachers'. As Heathcote (cited in Wagner, 1999) said, 'an educator is a self-conscious master teacher who works daily to show others how to find material, select symbols, acheive dramatic focus, heighten tension, and slow pace to lead children to significant moments of insights.' (Pg 3-4) Without a facilitator, the learning process will be in a mess and could go out of the way. Students will see teachers as the higher knowledgeable person and will look towards the goals of the teacher. When they have questions or doubts, they ask the teacher. The teacher also engages student's critical thinking through questioning and reflecting, whether in dialogue or during the process of making. 


Another strategy that can make a good process drama is to have a teacher-in-role. Teachers are not only facilitators, they are also participants, which make a lot of difference in the play itself. The play then becomes a reality because nobody is watching outside of the play. According to Heathcote and Bolton (1995), they state that teacher-in-role enables the child by being 'framed as a human being responsible for the enterprise, he has no choice but to aim beyond his normal ability and to break the confines of rigidly held concepts.' (Pg 35) When adults are involved, the play gets serious and the student is required to think beyond his thinking ability and capacity in order to carry out the task. 


I think the activities carried out was very suitable and good for process drama because there is teacher-in-role which Mr Kwok acted as the MP and the chairperson of the resident committee. Getting him involved means (to us) serious work but it was also fun because a teacher gets to 'play' along with us. So instead of a theatrical based work, it becomes a process-oriented work where everyone is involved. When we become the residents, we become in character and we fought for our own positions and rights. It is a space where we, as residents, can state our opinions freely. We, as a committee, also come up with different solutions and perspective of the situation. However, we had the problem of how the teacher should get out of role so that the students know when they are in role or when they are not. I like the part where each group had to create a short piece on why they do not support the en bloc and why they support because then we are able to come up with possible situations to support our stand. 


Bibliography


Heathcote, D. & Bolton, G. (1995) Drama for Learning: Dorothy Heathcote's Mantle of the Expert Appriach to Education. Heinemann: USA.


Wagner, B. J. (1999) Dorothy Heathcote: Drama as a Learning Medium. Calendar Islands Publishers Maine: USA.


Bowell, P. & Heap, B. (2001) Planning Process Drama. David Fulton: London.
Pamela Bowell and Brian S. Heap (2001) Planning Process Drama_David Fulton_London.pdf