SDEA Pilot Certification Programme: The Nuts and Bolts of Teaching Drama

Very soon, the National Arts Council will be requiring all NAC-AEP instructors to obtain relevant pedagogical qualifications to continue leading workshops for NAC-AEP cycle 2017/18. This compulsory requirement will have an immediate impact on our careers as drama educators. To that end, SDEA has been working hard on our Continuing Education Training (CET) programme to be rolled out in 2016-2018 to support the profession. The result would be a Certificate of Completion recognised by the National Arts Council. SDEA had invited a group of artists and drama educators to be a part of our pilot programme titled The Nuts and Bolts of Teaching Drama conducted in March 2016.

The series of 4 workshops is designed to lead participants to consider some of the essential principles all drama teachers need to be familiar with when preparing and conducting drama lessons with groups. This profile group helped to shape the content of upcoming Continuing Education & Training (CET) programme that supports the needs, lifestyle and challenges as a drama educator.

The pilot will take place on 12 and 19 March 2016 between 9am to 4pm. These are not full sessions of CET that are 40 hours in total but 4 microteaching sessions aimed at testing the quality and relevance of content. The topics covered during the sessions are:

1)    Effective Engagement Strategies for Teaching Drama

Participants will be introduced to key drama strategies and theatre conventions to manage and facilitate authentic learning. Through these, they will develop facilitation skills to activate creativity and critical thinking in their learners.

2) Planning the Drama Lesson

In this session, participants will be led through a practical session on how to select activities aligned to learning objectives.  Participants will also design lesson plans that assist in knowledge and skills building, reflection and extending learning beyond the drama classroom.

3) Strategies for Evaluation in the Drama Classroom

This session introduces several practical methods to evaluate students’ performance in drama lessons. It also prepares participants to collect evidence of learning as well as methods to plan forward.

4) Design of Learning Environment and Managing the Drama Classroom

This session offers practical facilitation techniques to help the drama educator better manage student behaviour and elicit appropriate responses whilst maintaining the spirit of play and creativity.