Task 4D - Literature 1

Literature 1 – Making sense of Drama, A guide to classroom practice by Jonothan Neelands.

As my idea for my inquiry is the transition from practitioner to teacher I thought I’d look into articles or books that related to this topic. Whilst conducting research in my local library I came across, “Making sense of drama, a guide to classroom practice” by Jonothan Neelands. It was first published in 1984 by Heinemann Educational Books Ltd.

This book is designed to give teachers from all subject areas an insight and confidence to explore the possibilities of drama in the classroom. It helps practitioners to plan and evaluate drama lessons as well as exploring the relationship between classroom drama and performances.

I thought that this book was an interesting find and would be useful when I carry out my inquiry because I want to pursue a career in the education world, whether that be in primary or secondary teaching. As I have mentioned previously, I currently teach a Saturday drama class at a dance school but this book highlights the attitude of a teacher in an educational setting.

A direct quote from the book is, “Drama (in the educational context) is not as concerned with the transmission of theatre-skills as it is with the construction of imagined experience. Imagined experience (controlled by the conventions of game and theatre) is seen as being particularly efficient context for children to try out and experiment with new ideas, concepts, values, roles and language in action (i.e. in the situational context in which they would naturally occur). Drama is to do with the child experiencing rather than with the child performing.” This also relates to my inquiry as I wanted to explore if a performer had any skills that could be transferred to a teacher role. It states that though the skills are important it isn’t as important as imagination.