This article describes teachers' collaborative inquiry into the pretend "bad guy" play of 12 children in a university laboratory preschool classroom in the northeastern United States. The article describes the inquiry process and includes details and documentation of children's decisions, actions, and interactions related to the bad guy…

Oral storytelling supports young children's learning and development differently than stories read aloud from picture books. It gives children an opportunity to exercise their imagination, communicate effectively, enhance their social literacy, and build community in a different way. Oral storytelling encourages a heightened and more sophisticated…

In the current age of academic rigor, standards and accountability, the fostering of caring relationships in the classroom may not always be a priority. Expressing care for another person is a skill that can be taught and nurtured through a supportive educational environment. Sociodrama encourages each of its participants to develop…

Blending the arts into students' learning of science concepts through role-play and drama is unusual pedagogy in schools. For seven Australian Year Five students seeking extended learning, advanced scientific concepts were learned during the creative process of script writing and production of a science play called "Hectic Electric". A…

Mime is discussed as a group recreational activity. (JD)

Explores the benefits and hazards of staging simulated news incidents in the classroom to teach journalism students the need to maintain a professional stance at all times. (HTH)

Reports on 10 documents from the ERIC system that provide insight on the creative process and information on a variety of creative classroom activities. (PD)

The article explores the use of drama in counseling gifted, creative, and talented students. Five constituent instruments (stage, subject, director, auxiliary egos, audience) in the psychodramatic method are described as well as the four techniques (double ego, mirror technique, role reversal, soliloquy technique) basic to the psychotherapy…

The basic premise of the Movement Research Project (MRP) is to have groups of undergraduate students investigate, report, demonstrate, and teach selected movement activities of peoples from various historical periods by combining movement with dramatic techniques. (JN)

Defines theater as a medium in which students can channel their energies in positive and creative ways. Addresses the issue that major universities should concentrate on training secondary theater teachers rather than performance actors in order to improve theater education at the secondary level. Recommends a unification of the national theater…

Suggests that drama provides an excellent opportunity for children to learn about history, especially children who have not yet reached the formal operational level of development. Describes a program coordinated with a historical museum in which children reenact a school day in 1888. (ARH)

Emphasizes the educational benefits derived from research in dramatics arts. Cites research indicating that role playing has a positive effect on oral language, moral reasoning, and self-esteem. Points out that teachers and administrators do not include dramatic instruction in their curriculum, and offers ways to make dramatic arts more appealing.…

This paper argues the value of drama processes in science classrooms as a way of enabling students to learn openly from and with each other and of enhancing higher order learning skills. Role-playing, focus, and tension are described as constructs to guide the pedagogy of drama processes. (YP)

Four articles focus on children's make-believe play: (1) "Make Believe Play: Why Bother?" on the role of pretending in early learning; (2) "Fantasy and Exploration: Two Approaches to Playing" on children's imaginative styles; (3) "Infants Don't Pretend, Do They?" about developing play abilities; and (4) "Problems…

Pretend play and language growth are related through representational thought. Fundamental to representational thought are five connectives, at the theoretical level, which link pretend play and language growth: motor actions, roles and role changes, creative expression, concentration, and decentration. At the research level, results of selected…