Jaleed

Indeed very much of what passes for science is 'make believe' and good science is indeed show business. There is no reason at all why science should not be portrayed artistically, dramatically or even comically. The fact that much of science is communicated in incoherent coded language does not make it any more authoritative or increase its veracity. Science is one of the philosophies, not the exclusive domain of the 'scientist'

I suppose, for science teachers, with tutorials, practicals, lectures, etc, using drama as a learning tool, must be a bit difficult, time wise! Otherwise, i believe, it is one of the best methods of teaching, assimilating, learning !

Thank you for this. I also 'believe' in using drama but do you have any evidence that it helps students assimilate learning. Can you give me any examples from your own practice?

Hi Martin. That's a very interesting question, and is relevant everywhere I think. Often times teachers feel that drama does not highlight their role the way they think it should be, and also deviates them away from the "main purpose" of the lesson. I disagree with that, but that's often the frustration expressed by teachers. Here in Palestine we have been employing the mantle of the expert, a drama technique, with teachers, including science teachers particularly in the primary levels. Here's a link to some of our initiatives: http://www.qattanfoundation.org/en/qcerd

Best wishes to you

Hi Bisan. Thank you very much but I tried the web link and the web page comes up as 'not available'. Do you have any data from studies or publications that I could refer to. I know the 'mantle of expert' from the work of Dorothy Heathcote but would like to know more about your work in Palestine.

I often have my students act out molecular scenarios - running around in a large area, and then confining them to a smaller area to demonstrate how gas pressure changes with volume, playing tug of war to demonstrate dipole moments, etc. But that's not exactly drama. You might find this link interesting. https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/enhancing-learning-through-drama

Martin,

I agree this needs to happen more, and this is the reason why we just released this new book on Artful Science (http://www.shelleducation.com/samples/51086s.pdf). It is a step in the right direction, now we just need the research side of the discussion. Maybe my co-authors have a response to this as well.

Thank you to linking me to Bisan's work through this discussion as well.

http://www.shelleducation.com/samples/51086s.pdf

@ Martin, yes, I have tried this out, in a subject like Immunology! I had given freedom to the students to choose any topic of their interest in Immunology and they came up with fantastic ideas. They wrote their own skits and presented in front of us, in the department . As an incentive, we marked them and gave small prizes. It was held for the first time and worked out very well. So if additional time is available, I think, drama can act as a good learning tool. Come to think of it, we can allot one time slot for it !!!

Thanks to all of you for the links and the responses so far. These are wonderful and very helpful.

There is a small but growing community of us right now who are researching drama in science classrooms. At the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) conference in Cyprus this year there were about five papers on drama - not many I know - but that's more than the two papers from the last one in 2011!

I would like to be involved in a symposium on drama education for the next conference which will be in Helsinki in 2015. If anyone can get there and would be interested to give a paper that reports empirical work in drama in science education, that would be great.

I also have a couple of research papers on my research-gate profile that you might be interested in and I have written a book of ideas for short dramas and whole lessons and the details are also on the profile.

I also have a major paper coming out in the British Educational Research Journal on the theoretical side of drama in science and also setting an agenda for researchers. I will place details on my profile when it is available.

@ Martin, that's great! Can we attend your Helsinki conference online and present a paper ??

Hi Martin

Marianne Odergaarde from Norway has used drama to illuminate ethical issues in genetics. The Wellcome Trust also ran a drama festival in science for schools about ten years ago which was adjudicated, not very helpfully, by Richard Dawkins. In fact the Wellcome Trust has run through its Pulse and arts awards schemes, many initiatives which include the use of drama in science. Some of these have been extraordinarily moving and effective. See our edited book Creative Encounters which you can download from the Wellcome Trust site.

But I wonder:

1. What is the evidence that science teachers are reluctant to use drama in science?

2. What might be an underlying rationale for this type of pedagogy in science? I feel this is very complex and depends to some extent on what explicit metaphysic you hold about science?

3.Why do you feel science teachers should use drama in science? Why should it be a more effective technique than any other approach?

We must mull this over a drink some time.

Ralph

Hi Martin,

Yes, we are very familiar here with Dorothy's work, and we do refer to it in all of our work in Drama. Perhaps this link would work: http://www.qattanfoundation.org/en/drama-education

Unfortunately most of our publications are in Arabic, but if you are interested I may connect you with the persons working on this.

Best wishes,

Bisan

Drama is an excellent method of communication and can bring impenetrably complex subjects within reach. The use of drama in science documentaries is well established and brings a humanistic element to science. I took part in a drama exercise recently to assist the speaker to demonstrate an epidemic. It was fun and informative. Even more recently I sat on the judging panel at the Institute of Physics 'Three Minute Wonder'. Watching a paper on nanotechnology delivered in rhyme and the use of simple and funny props to demonstrate resonance in ultra thin membranes was very entertaining. Especially since we used the 'Strictly Come Dancing' format for the judging.

Not high brow drama of course but still a great way to communicate science!

Science is not showbiz. Science is not make-believe.

Think Bill Nye the Science Guy. What better way to make science fun and easy to understand. There needs to be more than read, remember and regurgitate in the science classroom.

Jaleed

Indeed very much of what passes for science is 'make believe' and good science is indeed show business. There is no reason at all why science should not be portrayed artistically, dramatically or even comically. The fact that much of science is communicated in incoherent coded language does not make it any more authoritative or increase its veracity. Science is one of the philosophies, not the exclusive domain of the 'scientist'

Science teachers have often used analogies and metaphors in their efforts to explain concepts and ideas. Isn't that what the good stories in context and some of the practical exercises we use are trying to do? I think drama is another example of metaphorical learning. The pupil's bodies and movements stand for components and processes - for example the actions of electrons in a circuit or molecules vibrating in a heated metal bar. A pupil said to me, after a lesson using drama to simulate the components and roles of parts of the cell nucleus, that the drama was better than watching a film or a computer simulation showing the same thing, "It makes you learn this stuff quicker ... and I reckon you'll remember it better".

This is just one example, but I wonder if other people have some similar findings they can share?

In the business leadership area there are writings on enactments, critical incidents, socio drama that argue participants grain greatly by viseralizing learning. A powerful example is from Milgram of the 'authority experiments' who enacted the challenge his students reported to learn the difference between setting the assignment -with the authority of the professor versus performing the assignment as a student. An example from social science. Yet we need to acknowledge the felt risks in moving from proposing actions to their enactment. Stanley Milgram, famous for his experiments on authority, was curious about a cocktail party hunch that New Yorkers were rude. He assigned his Columbia students to ask strangers for their seats on crowded subway trains without giving a reason. A high number in the first group felt too fearful to even make the request. To explore that finding, he tried it himself.

Dismissing his students’ fears, Dr. Milgram set out to try it himself. But when he approached his first seated passenger, he found himself frozen. “The words seemed lodged in my trachea and would simply not emerge,” he said in the interview. Retreating, he berated himself: “What kind of craven coward are you?” A few unsuccessful tries later, he managed to choke out a request. “Taking the man’s seat, I was overwhelmed by the need to behave in a way that would justify my request,” he said. “My head sank between my knees, and I could feel my face blanching. I was not role-playing. I actually felt as if I were going to perish.” (Milgram as quoted in New York Times, 2004).

Thomas,

This is a wonderful story and Milgram's experience on the bus seems to fit with Stanislavsky's claim that unless a theatre actor lives the part he can never really convince an audience of its truth when the role is played out. In your answer above you referred to the term 'critical incidents' and I wonder if you can share with me what this means for you in the realms in which you have worked. What is a 'critical incident' and what makes it 'critical'? Can you give me an example?

Schon and Argyris introduced this method to us in executive learning settings - Below is a brief description. With Nora Grasselli we have a chapter in L. Vansina's book Humaness in Organizations that describes its use in executive education settings.

Think of a critical incident in your work. The incident must be an actual encounter with an other individual or group. It should be a challenging episode, one where you doubted your effectiveness or where you felt frustrated and less successful than you felt was possible. In considering which incident to choose for critical analysis, the following criteria should be considered:

• The episode was not an over determined and a no-win situation, that is, one in which nothing you might have done would have significantly altered the final outcome.

• Think of episodes in which the choice of a different strategy or manner of interacting might have resulted in more favorable and satisfying outcomes.

• Avoid incidents in which you acted as the “star” or risk taker, where your behavior was generally impressive or effective, given the circumstances.

• The episode is one you still find somewhat puzzling, you have not yet completely understood why it turned out the way it did.

There is a difference between 'to have fun with science' and 'to understand science'. A nice show may be a vehicle to accept learning scientific subjects but not to understand them.

A nice idea for many scientists would be that they understand what science is. The strict definition is a search for the truth, not the finding of it. Those who claim to have found the 'truth' are priests not scientists. Indeed the discovery of absolute truth would make scientists redundant, as there would be no further purpose in their work.

When science ceases to be fun it ceases to have any purpose too. It is precisely because we understand so little that science is important to us. I hope I never fully understand and, that I never cease to find science fun!

Bcz they are not trained like that.

Then there a need of STAFF DEVELOPMENT in this direction.

You can organize a conference on the same. Good idea.

Its a matter of mental flexibility of the teacher. the devotion he has for his teaching. the way he underwent training. the freedom he has got in curriculum transaction. Drama can be used very effectively to teach certain topics but not so effectively for others. one has to be judicious and intuitive.

Choosing methods for teaching any aspect or topic content in science is one of the most important, but also one of the hardest and long-term, professional attributes that teachers must learn. I use the term 'professional attributes' here rather than 'skills' with good reason. In England there is currently a rhetoric about teaching, largely promulgated by government, that teaching can be defined by a list of skills in which the teacher can be trained through apprenticeship. For most professional attributes we have found a training apprenticeship model to be wholly inadequate to prepare good teachers.

So far, in our research using drama to teach science, we have found that one of the main problems for science student teachers (and we suspect this also applies to many practising teachers) is that they lack a pedagogy of drama that they can carry into and mix with a pedagogy for science teaching. We see this as marking a 'pedagogical border crossing' between drama and its effective deployment for science teaching. The idea of a pedagogical border crossing has also cropped up in the work of Fels and Meyer and for Dorion, who analysed role plays in science teaching. So, easing the crossing, or eliminating it all together, is our ultimate professional development aim.

Dear all, especially Martin

I have been introducing elements of drama in my teaching of science students over the years. currently I find myself venturing into the research area of Indigenous knowledge as part of Science Education and how to bring that across in Teacher training. I also write scripts and plays for puppets. It is then performed for young and old especially to introduce various aspects of both IK and science. Anyone with experience and or links, it will be appreciated.

Thank you

Dear Sanette,

I work at CPUT in Cape Town so we must stay in touch. Our drama research group was based there. I have sent details of the Performing Science book, contents list and and reviews via RG but cannot upload the whole book for copyright reasons. Your work with puppets scripts sounds interesting. If you publish any research or have web materials please let me know.

Thank you so much, will do! Though I had drama training when much younger, my background is medical science, sport science and eventually education. now I am where I want to be and will continue with drama, science and IK in Africa.

Yes, it is good tool this has to done in an highly professional manner:

 Advantages

1. It is good for the poor student

2.  Syllabus need to be planned accordinly

3. Concerned board need to approve, bcz they concentrate rapid coverage of syllabus.

Disadvantage: Time

Dear Sanette, 

Noticing that you went to University of Limpopo, I felt I must recall that it was to the banks of the Limpopo that the Elephant's Child of insatiable curiosity fame, went to discover something that changed him for ever!

This would make a good puppet show!

At the end of Kipling's story there is verse that sums up the scientific method: 

I keep six honest serving men, they taught me all I knew

There name are What and Where and When

And How and Why and Who

Barry. I think Newton was having fun with his science too? 

"I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

Isaac Newton