- Email: [email protected]
Importance of Drama in Pre-school Education
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 143 (2014) 372 – 378
CY-ICER 2014
Importance Of Drama In Pre-School Education Aysem Tombaka* a
Teacher. OsmanTurkay Nursery School. Ozanköy -TRNC
Abstract In this study, the main aim was to draw attention to the importance of the pre-school drama and drama-based education. In today’s educational system the first step is the pre-school education; Taking into account of Children's developmental characteristics, individual differences and abilities, aiming to provide healthy form of physical, emotional, linguistic, social and mental aspects of development, positive personality, and reveal the creative aspects, and providing this education we ensure that child has the self confidence. Using drama in the educational step is the most important way of expressing the persons feeling in an healthy manner; to improve the child's imagination, to enable child to think and act independent, to improve the child's social awareness and cooperative awareness. At this point pre-school drama education plays a important role. Therefore the importance of pre-school drama must be considered to enable children to benefit from it. In this study, the relevant literature was searched and differences between the pre-school educations was considered.
© 2014 2014 The Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access Ltd. article under the CC BY-NC-ND license © Authors. Published by Elsevier (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of CY-ICER 2014. Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of CY-ICER 2014. Keywords: Cyprus Turkish Folk Literature, culture, pottery, dance, drama.;
1. Introduction Communities are most important factor in the existence of a country, therefore type of persons forming a community and their quality and characteristics are important as well. We are not born equipped with all the essential knowledge and skills, so, environments providing new learning opportunities and chances during childhood years are very important for the future success of a child. According to many researchers, early years in the development of a child is considered to be vitally important in the formation of a child's intelligence, personality and social behaviours (meb.gov.tr). Research proves that education during early years of development has long time lasting impacts on the formation of children and researchers specially emphasize the importance of the quality of education during this period. The main purpose of pre-school education is to maximize the Corresponding name: Aysem Tombak. Tel.: +0-542-856-2296 E-mail address: [email protected]
1877-0428 © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of CY-ICER 2014. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.497
Aysem Tombak / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 143 (2014) 372 – 378
potential a child brings by birth, thus, kindergarten (nursery school) is the institution providing the best organized playing atmosphere for children. In this atmosphere children find an opportunity for physical, mental, emotional and social development. During pre-school period children learns rules for collective living and develops an attitude for assistance and cooperation as well. Meanwhile, while learning to protect his or her own rights, a child also learns sharing and not violating other persons' freedom. Pre-school education being the first step of contemporary education system, provides a program of education aiming to provide self confidence to children, thus, pre-school education occupies an important place in the education system and during this education, children's development properties, personal differences and capabilities are taken into account so that children find a chance for physical, emotional, lingual, social and mental development in a healthy way. Pre-school education also intends to lay the foundations for a positive personality and aims to reveal creative aspects of children. Creative drama; are action status, improvisations and animations formed by students according to their own original ideas, creative discoveries and knowledge about the subject without having to refer to a written text (San, 1991). According to this definition about creative drama, it can be said that drama takes the student to centre and makes the student active during the process of learning and provides the teacher to play the role of a guide during the process and enables students to make presentations by doing and experiencing and provides a permanency by using all the audiovisual, tactual and affective learning fields of products created during the process. In this manner learning quality gets stronger and healthier in terms of learning principles. Drama studies or practices gives attendants the opportunity to examine various social roles and social problems. Animation of different social problems enables individuals to better understand the society and relationships in the society. During these interactions solutions for problems are also examined and attendants gain experience from studies towards problem solving (Önder 1999). Here at this point contribution of drama to education is not only towards teaching how to learn but also towards educating. In this context, why drama is important in pre-school education constitutes the problem of this research. 2. Methods and exercises In this study the importance of drama and learning based on drama in pre-school education is emphasized. Most important gains for using drama in education are; achieving expression of feelings in a healthy way, developing creative imagination in children, giving a chance to children to think and express themselves independently and developing children's social awareness and cooperative consciousness. Here at this point drama in pre-school education plays an important role. This is a descriptive study using scan modelling. Scan model is a research approach aiming to describe a situation which existed in the past or which exists now in the manner it exists now or which existed in the past (Karasar, 2003). Here the important thing is observing the situation properly and revealing the results. Project researcher can directly investigate an object or individual but can also refer to pre-kept various records (written documents and statistics, images, audiovisual records) and can interpret sparse data by unifying them in a system by means of his or her own observations (Karasar 2003). The study is 3 dimentional. Pre-school education, learning based on drama and relationship between drama and preschool education is examined and settled in a holistic manner. 3. Pre-school Education Pre-school education period covers a child's first 36-72 months and lasrs until a child starts primary education. Pre-school education plays an important role in the future lives of children and during this period a child's physical, psychomotor, social-emotional, mental and lingual development is largely completed and personality is formed. Again during this period children continually change (meb.gov.tr). It is therefore important that during early years children live and grow up in a healthy environment. Pre-school educstion has many benefits for
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children, families and society. The fastest growing period of a child is during 0-6 years, i.e., early childhood period. Two-thirds of the formation of brain structures and functions are completed between 0-4 years. According to a research conducted by Bloom and his friends measuring IQ level of seventeen year old individuals, 50% of intelligence is formed between pregnancy and four years, 30% between four - eight years and only 20% of intelligence is formed between eight and seventeen years (meb.gov.tr). Experiences during early childhood period are decisive or determinative for the way brain operates. Pre-school education supports social and emotional development thus, enables grown ups to be more productive and efficient. It also provides that grown ups may use their potential fully. Pre-school education not only ensures that children in the long run are more productive, more creative and more skilled in problem solving, but also ensures that socially, children learn how to share their toys and interest of grown ups, enabling kids to learn talking mutually as well. What is more, they learn to find solutions for problems rising in relationship and conflicts with their peers and learn to show respect to rights of other children too. All these will help children in their future lives develop problem solving skills which will help them find a solution for all emerging problems. Emotionally, children's doing their own tasks or works, finding solutions to their own problems and taking some decisions by themselves, improves and escalates their self confidence. Children's realizing that they may both stay away from their parents and may also look after themselves during the abscence of their parents will not only increase children's feelings of self confidence and independence but will assist in developing self-consolatory and self distraction skills as well. Children also learn about limits and rules of living in a society during pre-school education. Physically due to regular activities, fine motor skills develop in children. In addition to this, children use and develop their rough motor functions like running, jumping, throwing and climbing as well. Mentally children gain marhematical and scientific skills like matching objects, sorting and classification, measuring, observing and producing new ideas. Animation, imitation and imaginary games help the development of the power of imagination and talking with friends and teacher develops lingual skills. Activities like reviewing books, painting and drawing help the development of early reading and writing skills. Other than this, the activities done during pre-school period require attention and focusing and this helps in the development of these functions of the brain. Children first learn with motion-based actions. It is known that during both pre-school education and first years of primary education children prefer to learn in a motion-based and touch-based way. However, traditional schools focus on educating children by means of vision and hearing, i.e., in an audiovisual way. Such an education is not suitable with developmental requirements of children, because there isn't only one channel of learning and teaching and multi-faceted development of children must be supported. This requirement is one of the principles of developmental education (Erden ve Akman, 1995). Pre-school period is the period during which development of brain and rate of establishment of synaptic connections are experienced in the most intense and fastest way. Development of brain forms a strong ground for children's cognitive, lingual, motor, social and emotional development. Therefore children grow very quickly especially during first six years of their lives, which is called pre-school period and they get competent and proficient in a surprisingly fast way. So, the way for children's realizing their own potential and becoming a productive member of society is opened. Because brain develops very fast during pre-school period, this is a period during which brain is open most to environmental impacts. In this context environment deeply influences children's development and learning motivation. The amount how much a child can discover, what he or she can learn and at what speed a child can learn is closely related with how supportive child's environment is and what sort of opportunities are provided to the child (TC; MEB, 2013). In order for children to grow up and develop in a healthy way and to develop a positive attitude towards learning we need to create an environment in which skilled cognitive stimuli, rich language interactions, positive social and emotional experiences are presented to children. Here, children's independence must also be supported. All this is possible only in a healthy family atmosphere and with a quality pre-school education.
Aysem Tombak / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 143 (2014) 372 – 378
4. Drama Based Learning Drama is a field that makes the individual active, and affects the cognitive, affective, dynamic, and social aspects of a person. With its content, drama has qualities, which enable the individual to take pleasure, and develops one’s aesthetic side. Educational drama is a synthesis of movement, sense, language and communication, thought and feeling (Önder, 2012). Learning becomes permanent when it is executed from proximity to the remote, from simple to complex, and by executing and living it. Research findings show that, – time kept constant – people remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, 50% of what they both see and hear, and 90% of what they see, hear, and do. 1% of our learnings are through tasting, 1.5% through touching, 3.5% through smelling, 11% through hearing, and 83% through seeing (meb.gov.tr). Drama is one of the most effective teaching methods because it enables the child to get involved in the process, do, live, feel, implement, and think. Games are an indispensable part of a child’s life. Children learn about life, rules, and many other things in a natural way, through games. Drama exists within the child’s nature through games. Children get a chance to express themselves more comfortably through drama, which contains a gaming process. Looking at studies in drama implementations, which are effective in realizing both permanent and functional learning, it can be seen that it is more productive that almost all other methods, especially unavoidable in developing perception (Önder, 2006). Learning is memorizing knowledge and break into pieces those of educational value according to their meanings, comprehend, and to internalize (Arkın, 1952). Considering that the best style for a child to learn is through work, within work, the theory of learning by doing and living is of great importance. Creative drama is the action situations, improvisations, animations created by children, based on their original thoughts, creative findings and knowledge, without being committed to a written text (San, 1996). Based on this definition, it is possible to say that drama places the learner in the center, makes him/her active in the learning process, keeps the teacher in the role of a guide, makes sure that all the learning fields of audio, visual, tactile, and affective products created during the process are used, put down by doing and living, and thus made permanent. In this way, the quality of learning becomes stronger and healthier from the aspect of learning principles. Drama enables the child to become active in the learning process by placing him/her in the center. Children are able to think creatively, critically, multi-dimensionally, and freely, show cognitive, social, affective, and psychomotor development, have fun, create empathy, implement their knowledge, and develop cooperative skills through drama, where active learning is realized. Becoming members of a group enables children to think that they are also members of the society, thus become aware of the values of the society (Ulutaş, 2011). The aims of using drama in education changes according to the age of the children, the relative conditions, and the objectives of the leader. Despite these differences, there general aims not affected by age, conditions, and objectives. The most important of these can be listed as follows: Enabling the expression of feelings in a healthy way; developing the creative imagination of the child; giving the child a chance to think and express independently; developing the social awareness and cooperative working consciousness of the child (Bayram, 1999). Drama activities give an opportunity to the participants to examine various social roles and problems. Creating different social problems enables the individuals to understand the society and social relations better. Solution styles of problems are also examined during these interactions, thus participants gain experiences from works towards solving problems (Önder, 1999). Children use their knowledge and experiences in real world to create an imaginary world in drama and they learn to examine relations and events while they define roles and situations in the drama they design. Besides these, children identify with the roles they undertake and study relations and events. As a result of this, children are supported in expressing themselves, becoming sensitive towards others, and doing things with the group (O’Neil and Lambert, 1991; Woolland, 1993). Therefore, the contribution of drama is not only to learning and teaching, but to training as well. Some of the gains expected from drama activities can be listed as recognizing different experiences, gaining experience in different events and situations by getting into different roles, enabling the development of the will
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to perceive life multi-directionally and to research, learning through doing and living, and making learnings permanent. Considering these gains, it can be said that drama has an important effect on the development of individuals (Akyol, 2003). The way to establish the cognitive development of children in pre-school education is through an effective and learner centered program, an environment full of stimulants of all senses, and through an educator adapted to the cognitive development process of the child, carrying out positive interaction and the methods he/she will use. Drama and dramatic activities in pre-school education positively affects the cognitive development of the child, connected to all development areas (Akın, 2002). Drama enables the development of imitation and imagination skills of the child; it provides an understanding of the instructions given during activities and remembering them later, thus developing perception and memory, attention and concentration. Dramatic activities and drama in pre-school education provides children with opportunities to use language actively, and to develop language as a tool of oral communication. Rhythm, tempo, and accent activities are also used and developed in drama. Social, emotional development can be defined as individuals getting to know themselves and their emotions, reaching a healthy identity by gaining self-confidence, independence, initiative, and feeling of success, and the process of living in harmony with the society. Personality development of the individual and the basis of socializing starts during the pre-school stage (Alpan, 2006). Role activities in drama help develop the empathy skills of the child. Dramatic activities help the expression and control of feelings, motivate undiscovered feelings, and sometimes help in discharging negative feelings. Taking part in activities increases the selfconfidence of the child. Parallel to the psychomotor development, physical growth, and development of the central nerve system, the organism gaining voluntary activity is an important dimension of motor development. Through drama activities, the child learns his/her body and learns to move various parts of the body, walk, run, jump, take various steps, crawl, climb etc. accompanied by music or rhythm. It is not enough for children taking part in drama activities just to look, hear, taste, or smell. It is necessary to see while looking, to feel while touching, and to be aware. Aesthetic capacities of children develop this way. Moreover, as children get the opportunity to learn their bodies better, they are aware of the functions of body parts and how to take care of them, and they develop their self-care skills. 5. Result Consequently, it can be seen that drama in pre-school education; - Increases the creativity and imagination, the skill of taking decisions, thinking independently and the motivation to discover, - During the process of drama, it develops communication skills by talking to their friends and bringing out their inner voices, - It contributes to self-perception of the children and to the development of positive self-concept, - It develops the feeling of cooperating with a group because there is a group work, develops social sensitivity, feeling of responsibility, and social living skills and social skills, - While increasing psycho-motor skills, it creates coordination and balance in organs, flexibility in movements, and agility, - Should have a place in pre-school education since it contributes to all the fields of development of preschool children.
Aysem Tombak / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 143 (2014) 372 – 378
6. Suggestions -
Seminars, panel discussions, conferences, and workshops etc. should be organized for pre-school educators focusing on the relationship between drama and field developments, In-service training courses on drama should be given to teachers, Drama lessons should take place in other departments as well, not just in some departments of faculties of education.
Referances Adıgüzel, Ö. (2010). Yaratıcı Drama 1999-2002 Yazılar (Creative Drama). Naturel Yayıncılık. Ankara. 1. Baskı. Adıgüzel. Ö. (2013). Eğitimde Yaratcıc Drama (Creative Drama in Education). Pegem Akademi. Ankara. 3. Baskı. Akın, Y. (2002). Altı Yaş Grubu Çocuklarında Başkasının Bakış Açısını Alma Yetisi Üzerinde Eğitici Drama Programının Ve Aile Tutumlarının Etkisinin İncelenmesi. (Yayımlanmamış Yüksek Lisans Tezi) (Studying the Effect of Educational Drama Program and Family Attitudes on the Ability of Six-Year-Old Children Copying the Perspectives of Others. Unpublished Master Thesis). Marmara Üniversitesi Eğitim Bilimleri Estitüsü. İstanbul. Akyol, A. K. (2012). Okulöncesi Eğitimde Drama ve Öğretmenin Rolü (Drama in Pre-school Education and the Role of the Teacher), Ankara Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi. Sayı 201. Akyol, A. K. (2003). Drama ve Dramanın Önemi (Drama and the Importance of Drama). Gazi Üniversitesi Arşiv, Cilt1, Sayı 2, s. 179192. Alevcan, S. (2005). Drama Uygulamaları, Belirli Gün ve Haftalar İçin (Drama Applications for Specific Days and Weeks). Ya-Pa Yayın Pazarlama San. ve Tic. A.Ş., İstanbul. Arkın. E. (1952). Öğretmen Ansiklopedisi ve Pedagoji Sözlüğü (Teacher Encyclopedia and Pedagogical Dictionary). İstanbul. Bir Yayınları Bayazıt, B., Acar, F., Ateş, O. & Sağıroğlu; İ. (2003). 5-6 Yaş Grubu Çocuklara Uygulanan Yaratıcı Drama ve Modern Dans Etkinliklerinin Çocukların Sosyal Gelişimine Etkisi (The Effect of Creative Drama Applied to 5-6 Year old Children and Modern Dancing on the Social Development of Children). İ Ü Spor Bilim Dergisi. 11; 3 (ÖS). Sayfa 119-122. Bayram, E. vd. (1999). İlköğretim Drama 1 (Öğretmenler İçin) (Primary Education Drama 1- for teachers -). Ankara: Devlet Kitapları Yayınları, Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı Yayınları. Bloom, B. Stability and Change in Human Characteristics, Willey, New York, 1964 Ceylan, Ş. & Ömeroğlu, E. (2012). Yaratıcı Drama Eğitimi Alan ve Almayan 60-72 Aylar Arasındaki Çocukların Sosyal-Duygusal Davranışlarının Bazı Değişkenlere Göre İncelenmesi (A Study of 60-72 month old Children’s Social-Affective Behaviors Taking/Not Taking Creative Drama, According to some Variables) . Kastamonu Eğitim Dergisi. Cilt 20. No 1. Sayfa 63-80. Cömertay, B. (2006). Dramanın 5-6 Yaş Grubu Çocuklarının Dil Edinimine Etkisi. (Yayınlanmamış Yüksek Lisans Tezi) (The effect of Drama on the Language Acquisition of 5-6 Year old children – unpublished master’s thesis-). Çukurova Üniversitesi, Adana. Çelen, F. K., Çelik, A., & Seferoğlu, S.S. (2011). Türk Eğitim Sistemi ve Pisa Sonuçları (Turkish Educational System and the Pisa Results). Akademik Bilişim, 2-4 Şubat 2011. Erbay, F. & Ömeroğlu, E. (2013). Anasınıfına Devam Eden Çocuklara Verilen Yaratıcı Drama Eğitiminin Çocukların İşitsel Muhakeme ve İşlem Becerilerine Etkisinin İncelenmesi (Studying the Effects of Creative Drama on the Oral Judgment and Process Skills of Children attending Kindergarten). Eğitim ve Bilim. Cilt 38. Sayı 69. Erden, M. & Akman, Y. (1997). Egitim Psikolojisi Gelisim-Ögrenme-Ögretme (Educational Psychology Development-LearningTeaching), Ankara: Arkadas Yayınevi Fazlıoğlu, Y. (2011). Dramanın Çocuk Gelişimine Etkisi. İlköğretimde Drama (The Effect of Drama on Child Development, Drama in Primary Education). Kriter Yayınları. İstanbul. Gürkan, T. (1982b), “Neden Okul öncesi Eğitim?” (“Why Pre-School Education?”), Ankara Üniversitesi Eğitim Bilimleri Dergisi, 15 (2): 215-219.) Hendy, L. & Toon, L. (2001). Supporting Drama And Imaginative Play In The Early Years. Open University Press. Philadelphia. Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı (2013). Okulöncesi Eğitim Programı (Pre-school Educational Program).Ankara. Okvuran, A. (2002). Dramanın Öğretimi ve Dramaya Dayalı Öğrenme. Eğitim Bilimleri ve Uygulama 1 (Teaching Drama and Drama based Learning, Educational Sciences and Application 1). 1. 115-131 O‟Neil, C., and Lambert, A. (1991). Drama Structures A Practical Handbook For Teachers. Heinemann Educational Books, Inc. Chelpenman, England. Önder, A. (2006). Eğitici Drama Uygulamalarının Altı Yaş Çocuklarının Kendilik Algısı Üzerindeki Etkisi (The Effect of Educational Drama on the Self-perception of Six-Year-old Children). Kazım Karabekir Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi. Sayı 13. Önder, A. (1999). Yaşayarak Öğrenme İçin Eğitici Drama –Kuramsal Temellerle Uygulama Teknikleri ve Örnekleri (Educational Drama for Learning through Living – Theoretical Basis, Application Techniques, and Samples). İstanbul: Epsilon Yayıncılık, 1. Baskı. Önder, A. (2012). Okulöncesi Çocukları İçin Eğitici Drama Uygulamaları (Educational Drama Applications for Pre-school Children).
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Aysem Tombak / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 143 (2014) 372 – 378 İstanbul: Morpa Kültür yayınları, 1. Baskı. Ömeroğlu, E. (1992). Okulöncesi İşitme Engelli Çocukların Kaynaştırılmasında Yaratıcı Drama Eğitiminin Kullanılması (Using Creative Drama Education in the integration of Pre-school Hearing-impaired Children). Özel Eğitim Dergisi. (1), 2. Sayfa 31-33. Ömeroğlu, E. (2003). Okul Öncesi Eğitimde Drama (Drama in Pre-school Education). Ankara: Kök Yayıncılık. Ömeroğlu, E., Ceylan, Ş. Y., Erbay, F. & Özyürek, A. (2011). Okulöncesi Eğitimde Dramatik Etkinliklerden Dramaya Teoriden Uygulamaya (From Dramatic Activities to Drama, from Theory to Practice in Pre-school Education). Ertem Matbaası. 2. Baskı. Ankara San, İ. (1991a). Eğitimde Yaratıcı Drama (Creative Drama in Education). Ankara Üniversitesi Eğitim Bilimleri Fakültesi Dergisi. Cilt: 23, Sayı: 2. San, İ. 1996). Yaratıcılığı Geliştiren Bir Yöntem ve Yaratıcı Bireyi Yetiştiren Bir Disiplin: Eğitsel Yaratıcı Drama (A Method that Develops Creativity and a Discipline that Trains the Creative Individual: Educational Creative Drama). Yeni Türiye Dergisi. Eğitim Özel Sayısı. Ocak-Şubat 1996. Yıl 2. Sayı 7. İstanbul. Sezgin, B. ve diğerleri. (2008). Oyun, Drama, Tiyatro Etkinlikleri Müfredat Çalışması (Program Study of Game, Drama, Theater Activities). İyi İşler Matbaası. İstanbul. Szecsi, T. (2008). Creative Drama In Preschool Curriculum: Teaching Strategies Implemented In Hungary. Child Education, 85(2),120. Tuluk, N. (2013). Yaratıcı Drama (Creative Drama). Pivolka. Yıl 3, Sayı 12. Sayfa 10. Ulutaş, A. (2011). Okulöncesi Dönemde Drama ve Oyunun Önemi (The Importance of Drama and Game in the Pre-school Stage). Adıyaman Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi.Yıl 4.Sayı 6
ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 143 (2014) 372 – 378
CY-ICER 2014
Importance Of Drama In Pre-School Education Aysem Tombaka* a
Teacher. OsmanTurkay Nursery School. Ozanköy -TRNC
Abstract In this study, the main aim was to draw attention to the importance of the pre-school drama and drama-based education. In today’s educational system the first step is the pre-school education; Taking into account of Children's developmental characteristics, individual differences and abilities, aiming to provide healthy form of physical, emotional, linguistic, social and mental aspects of development, positive personality, and reveal the creative aspects, and providing this education we ensure that child has the self confidence. Using drama in the educational step is the most important way of expressing the persons feeling in an healthy manner; to improve the child's imagination, to enable child to think and act independent, to improve the child's social awareness and cooperative awareness. At this point pre-school drama education plays a important role. Therefore the importance of pre-school drama must be considered to enable children to benefit from it. In this study, the relevant literature was searched and differences between the pre-school educations was considered.
© 2014 2014 The Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access Ltd. article under the CC BY-NC-ND license © Authors. Published by Elsevier (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of CY-ICER 2014. Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of CY-ICER 2014. Keywords: Cyprus Turkish Folk Literature, culture, pottery, dance, drama.;
1. Introduction Communities are most important factor in the existence of a country, therefore type of persons forming a community and their quality and characteristics are important as well. We are not born equipped with all the essential knowledge and skills, so, environments providing new learning opportunities and chances during childhood years are very important for the future success of a child. According to many researchers, early years in the development of a child is considered to be vitally important in the formation of a child's intelligence, personality and social behaviours (meb.gov.tr). Research proves that education during early years of development has long time lasting impacts on the formation of children and researchers specially emphasize the importance of the quality of education during this period. The main purpose of pre-school education is to maximize the Corresponding name: Aysem Tombak. Tel.: +0-542-856-2296 E-mail address: [email protected]
1877-0428 © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of CY-ICER 2014. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.497
Aysem Tombak / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 143 (2014) 372 – 378
potential a child brings by birth, thus, kindergarten (nursery school) is the institution providing the best organized playing atmosphere for children. In this atmosphere children find an opportunity for physical, mental, emotional and social development. During pre-school period children learns rules for collective living and develops an attitude for assistance and cooperation as well. Meanwhile, while learning to protect his or her own rights, a child also learns sharing and not violating other persons' freedom. Pre-school education being the first step of contemporary education system, provides a program of education aiming to provide self confidence to children, thus, pre-school education occupies an important place in the education system and during this education, children's development properties, personal differences and capabilities are taken into account so that children find a chance for physical, emotional, lingual, social and mental development in a healthy way. Pre-school education also intends to lay the foundations for a positive personality and aims to reveal creative aspects of children. Creative drama; are action status, improvisations and animations formed by students according to their own original ideas, creative discoveries and knowledge about the subject without having to refer to a written text (San, 1991). According to this definition about creative drama, it can be said that drama takes the student to centre and makes the student active during the process of learning and provides the teacher to play the role of a guide during the process and enables students to make presentations by doing and experiencing and provides a permanency by using all the audiovisual, tactual and affective learning fields of products created during the process. In this manner learning quality gets stronger and healthier in terms of learning principles. Drama studies or practices gives attendants the opportunity to examine various social roles and social problems. Animation of different social problems enables individuals to better understand the society and relationships in the society. During these interactions solutions for problems are also examined and attendants gain experience from studies towards problem solving (Önder 1999). Here at this point contribution of drama to education is not only towards teaching how to learn but also towards educating. In this context, why drama is important in pre-school education constitutes the problem of this research. 2. Methods and exercises In this study the importance of drama and learning based on drama in pre-school education is emphasized. Most important gains for using drama in education are; achieving expression of feelings in a healthy way, developing creative imagination in children, giving a chance to children to think and express themselves independently and developing children's social awareness and cooperative consciousness. Here at this point drama in pre-school education plays an important role. This is a descriptive study using scan modelling. Scan model is a research approach aiming to describe a situation which existed in the past or which exists now in the manner it exists now or which existed in the past (Karasar, 2003). Here the important thing is observing the situation properly and revealing the results. Project researcher can directly investigate an object or individual but can also refer to pre-kept various records (written documents and statistics, images, audiovisual records) and can interpret sparse data by unifying them in a system by means of his or her own observations (Karasar 2003). The study is 3 dimentional. Pre-school education, learning based on drama and relationship between drama and preschool education is examined and settled in a holistic manner. 3. Pre-school Education Pre-school education period covers a child's first 36-72 months and lasrs until a child starts primary education. Pre-school education plays an important role in the future lives of children and during this period a child's physical, psychomotor, social-emotional, mental and lingual development is largely completed and personality is formed. Again during this period children continually change (meb.gov.tr). It is therefore important that during early years children live and grow up in a healthy environment. Pre-school educstion has many benefits for
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children, families and society. The fastest growing period of a child is during 0-6 years, i.e., early childhood period. Two-thirds of the formation of brain structures and functions are completed between 0-4 years. According to a research conducted by Bloom and his friends measuring IQ level of seventeen year old individuals, 50% of intelligence is formed between pregnancy and four years, 30% between four - eight years and only 20% of intelligence is formed between eight and seventeen years (meb.gov.tr). Experiences during early childhood period are decisive or determinative for the way brain operates. Pre-school education supports social and emotional development thus, enables grown ups to be more productive and efficient. It also provides that grown ups may use their potential fully. Pre-school education not only ensures that children in the long run are more productive, more creative and more skilled in problem solving, but also ensures that socially, children learn how to share their toys and interest of grown ups, enabling kids to learn talking mutually as well. What is more, they learn to find solutions for problems rising in relationship and conflicts with their peers and learn to show respect to rights of other children too. All these will help children in their future lives develop problem solving skills which will help them find a solution for all emerging problems. Emotionally, children's doing their own tasks or works, finding solutions to their own problems and taking some decisions by themselves, improves and escalates their self confidence. Children's realizing that they may both stay away from their parents and may also look after themselves during the abscence of their parents will not only increase children's feelings of self confidence and independence but will assist in developing self-consolatory and self distraction skills as well. Children also learn about limits and rules of living in a society during pre-school education. Physically due to regular activities, fine motor skills develop in children. In addition to this, children use and develop their rough motor functions like running, jumping, throwing and climbing as well. Mentally children gain marhematical and scientific skills like matching objects, sorting and classification, measuring, observing and producing new ideas. Animation, imitation and imaginary games help the development of the power of imagination and talking with friends and teacher develops lingual skills. Activities like reviewing books, painting and drawing help the development of early reading and writing skills. Other than this, the activities done during pre-school period require attention and focusing and this helps in the development of these functions of the brain. Children first learn with motion-based actions. It is known that during both pre-school education and first years of primary education children prefer to learn in a motion-based and touch-based way. However, traditional schools focus on educating children by means of vision and hearing, i.e., in an audiovisual way. Such an education is not suitable with developmental requirements of children, because there isn't only one channel of learning and teaching and multi-faceted development of children must be supported. This requirement is one of the principles of developmental education (Erden ve Akman, 1995). Pre-school period is the period during which development of brain and rate of establishment of synaptic connections are experienced in the most intense and fastest way. Development of brain forms a strong ground for children's cognitive, lingual, motor, social and emotional development. Therefore children grow very quickly especially during first six years of their lives, which is called pre-school period and they get competent and proficient in a surprisingly fast way. So, the way for children's realizing their own potential and becoming a productive member of society is opened. Because brain develops very fast during pre-school period, this is a period during which brain is open most to environmental impacts. In this context environment deeply influences children's development and learning motivation. The amount how much a child can discover, what he or she can learn and at what speed a child can learn is closely related with how supportive child's environment is and what sort of opportunities are provided to the child (TC; MEB, 2013). In order for children to grow up and develop in a healthy way and to develop a positive attitude towards learning we need to create an environment in which skilled cognitive stimuli, rich language interactions, positive social and emotional experiences are presented to children. Here, children's independence must also be supported. All this is possible only in a healthy family atmosphere and with a quality pre-school education.
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4. Drama Based Learning Drama is a field that makes the individual active, and affects the cognitive, affective, dynamic, and social aspects of a person. With its content, drama has qualities, which enable the individual to take pleasure, and develops one’s aesthetic side. Educational drama is a synthesis of movement, sense, language and communication, thought and feeling (Önder, 2012). Learning becomes permanent when it is executed from proximity to the remote, from simple to complex, and by executing and living it. Research findings show that, – time kept constant – people remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, 50% of what they both see and hear, and 90% of what they see, hear, and do. 1% of our learnings are through tasting, 1.5% through touching, 3.5% through smelling, 11% through hearing, and 83% through seeing (meb.gov.tr). Drama is one of the most effective teaching methods because it enables the child to get involved in the process, do, live, feel, implement, and think. Games are an indispensable part of a child’s life. Children learn about life, rules, and many other things in a natural way, through games. Drama exists within the child’s nature through games. Children get a chance to express themselves more comfortably through drama, which contains a gaming process. Looking at studies in drama implementations, which are effective in realizing both permanent and functional learning, it can be seen that it is more productive that almost all other methods, especially unavoidable in developing perception (Önder, 2006). Learning is memorizing knowledge and break into pieces those of educational value according to their meanings, comprehend, and to internalize (Arkın, 1952). Considering that the best style for a child to learn is through work, within work, the theory of learning by doing and living is of great importance. Creative drama is the action situations, improvisations, animations created by children, based on their original thoughts, creative findings and knowledge, without being committed to a written text (San, 1996). Based on this definition, it is possible to say that drama places the learner in the center, makes him/her active in the learning process, keeps the teacher in the role of a guide, makes sure that all the learning fields of audio, visual, tactile, and affective products created during the process are used, put down by doing and living, and thus made permanent. In this way, the quality of learning becomes stronger and healthier from the aspect of learning principles. Drama enables the child to become active in the learning process by placing him/her in the center. Children are able to think creatively, critically, multi-dimensionally, and freely, show cognitive, social, affective, and psychomotor development, have fun, create empathy, implement their knowledge, and develop cooperative skills through drama, where active learning is realized. Becoming members of a group enables children to think that they are also members of the society, thus become aware of the values of the society (Ulutaş, 2011). The aims of using drama in education changes according to the age of the children, the relative conditions, and the objectives of the leader. Despite these differences, there general aims not affected by age, conditions, and objectives. The most important of these can be listed as follows: Enabling the expression of feelings in a healthy way; developing the creative imagination of the child; giving the child a chance to think and express independently; developing the social awareness and cooperative working consciousness of the child (Bayram, 1999). Drama activities give an opportunity to the participants to examine various social roles and problems. Creating different social problems enables the individuals to understand the society and social relations better. Solution styles of problems are also examined during these interactions, thus participants gain experiences from works towards solving problems (Önder, 1999). Children use their knowledge and experiences in real world to create an imaginary world in drama and they learn to examine relations and events while they define roles and situations in the drama they design. Besides these, children identify with the roles they undertake and study relations and events. As a result of this, children are supported in expressing themselves, becoming sensitive towards others, and doing things with the group (O’Neil and Lambert, 1991; Woolland, 1993). Therefore, the contribution of drama is not only to learning and teaching, but to training as well. Some of the gains expected from drama activities can be listed as recognizing different experiences, gaining experience in different events and situations by getting into different roles, enabling the development of the will
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to perceive life multi-directionally and to research, learning through doing and living, and making learnings permanent. Considering these gains, it can be said that drama has an important effect on the development of individuals (Akyol, 2003). The way to establish the cognitive development of children in pre-school education is through an effective and learner centered program, an environment full of stimulants of all senses, and through an educator adapted to the cognitive development process of the child, carrying out positive interaction and the methods he/she will use. Drama and dramatic activities in pre-school education positively affects the cognitive development of the child, connected to all development areas (Akın, 2002). Drama enables the development of imitation and imagination skills of the child; it provides an understanding of the instructions given during activities and remembering them later, thus developing perception and memory, attention and concentration. Dramatic activities and drama in pre-school education provides children with opportunities to use language actively, and to develop language as a tool of oral communication. Rhythm, tempo, and accent activities are also used and developed in drama. Social, emotional development can be defined as individuals getting to know themselves and their emotions, reaching a healthy identity by gaining self-confidence, independence, initiative, and feeling of success, and the process of living in harmony with the society. Personality development of the individual and the basis of socializing starts during the pre-school stage (Alpan, 2006). Role activities in drama help develop the empathy skills of the child. Dramatic activities help the expression and control of feelings, motivate undiscovered feelings, and sometimes help in discharging negative feelings. Taking part in activities increases the selfconfidence of the child. Parallel to the psychomotor development, physical growth, and development of the central nerve system, the organism gaining voluntary activity is an important dimension of motor development. Through drama activities, the child learns his/her body and learns to move various parts of the body, walk, run, jump, take various steps, crawl, climb etc. accompanied by music or rhythm. It is not enough for children taking part in drama activities just to look, hear, taste, or smell. It is necessary to see while looking, to feel while touching, and to be aware. Aesthetic capacities of children develop this way. Moreover, as children get the opportunity to learn their bodies better, they are aware of the functions of body parts and how to take care of them, and they develop their self-care skills. 5. Result Consequently, it can be seen that drama in pre-school education; - Increases the creativity and imagination, the skill of taking decisions, thinking independently and the motivation to discover, - During the process of drama, it develops communication skills by talking to their friends and bringing out their inner voices, - It contributes to self-perception of the children and to the development of positive self-concept, - It develops the feeling of cooperating with a group because there is a group work, develops social sensitivity, feeling of responsibility, and social living skills and social skills, - While increasing psycho-motor skills, it creates coordination and balance in organs, flexibility in movements, and agility, - Should have a place in pre-school education since it contributes to all the fields of development of preschool children.
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6. Suggestions -
Seminars, panel discussions, conferences, and workshops etc. should be organized for pre-school educators focusing on the relationship between drama and field developments, In-service training courses on drama should be given to teachers, Drama lessons should take place in other departments as well, not just in some departments of faculties of education.
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