An Approach to Children's Theatre Through Creative Dramatics

An Approach to Children’s Theatre Through Creative Dramatics

CHAPTER ONE

Purpose of the study

This study aims to find out the extent to which perceived creative drama activities could be used as a tool for children’s theatre using pupils in primary schools in lkwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State. In specific terms, the study intends to:

Determine if perceived creative drama activity relates with children’s theatre in terms of school learning in Ikwerre Local Government Areas of Rivers State,
Find out if perceived creative drama relates to children’s theatre in terms of social development in primary schools in Ikwerre local government of Rivers State,
Find out if perceived creative drama relates with children’s theatre in terms of emotional development in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Determine the extent to which perceived creative drama relates to children’s theatre in terms of cognitive development in primary schools in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

For an in-depth study to be carried out in any academic research, past scholarly works done in that area of study ought to be reviewed, to ascertain the validity of the current work under investigation.

Concept of creative drama

According to Wards (1958), creative drama is informed by many ideas and practices. It is principally valued as a learning medium rather than an art form. It is governed through criteria other than aesthetics. Its objectives are directed towards the growth and development of participants rather than the entertainment or stimulation of the observers. In other words, participants use and examine their present knowledge to induce new knowledge. Researchers and theorists contend that participation in creative drama increases creativity, originality, sensitivity, fluency, emotional stability, cooperation, and examination of moral attitudes. It encourages users to explore, clarify, and elaborate feelings, attitudes, and ideas. This is because, according to Huck, and Kuhn(1968), it requires participants to organize, synthesize, and articulate ideas, and provide an excellent opportunity for reflection and evaluation of the conclusion of the study.

It is worthy of note that creative drama existed since the Greek Dionysian festival and the Egyptian dramatization of their god ‘Osiris’. The creative drama is also known as play by children of the day, according to Siks. and Lease, (1971) is a very well-recognized drama piece. Right from childhood, children have been known for their fantastic imaginative spirit. No child needs prompting to play; playing comes so naturally to them, just like breathing. Children pretend to be characters they see in adulthood. They play mummy and daddy and they also play individually or in groups.

In some cultures, the free expression of play is inhibited. Children are supposed to be seen and not heard. Playing is considered a useless activity, but children continue to play. During the middle ages, as pointed out by Edward, P. the quality of child care began to improve. Gradually parents began to pay more attention to their children. In the 17^th century, parents and educators tried to write child training. In other words, they tried to teach children and mold them into shape. According to Ward, W (1958), by the 18^th century, real change in the treatment of children became clear, societies for the prevention of cruelty on children came into being. This gave rise to Darwin, R’s book, on the origin of species… (1959), the book aided scholars in the study of children.Towards the end of the 19^thcentury, this study received greater attention in the United States and other parts of the world.

This brings in all manner of professionals to the limelight who at the time, investigated the children’s development programs. Sik and Lease (1971:201) affirm that: “It was not until the early twentieth century (20^th ^c) when interest in child welfare spread widely throughout the country that more adults began to express their thoughts and feelings towards children.” It was, however, through the effort of Winifred Ward, America’s first lady of creative drama, that creative drama was developed. She inspired society which brought the vision into the limelight.

However, informal education which could be linked to creative drama does not necessarily take place in the classroom. This involves mime, story-telling, role-playing, improvisation, crafting, gaming, among others. This method allows children to take an active part in the session either by dramatizing the topic that is being taught or by asking questions on the topic. This is referred to as, dramatizing teaching which Nwamuo (1982:45), believes “… is a training or taught making relevant judgments”. Children become more creative through their engagement in arts, crafts, painting, carving, and molding to make meaning out of their creative activities.

Children’s play-house could be regarded as a center for informal education. This is because the activities of the program take place in the same environment other than the classroom. They learn through their involvement in the activities and they help in the creativity and designing of the lessons. Some of the programs on television and the radio are designed especially for children and they form part of the children’s playhouse. Examples are ‘Tales by moonlight’ a Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) network program.

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research design

The research design used for this study is a survey descriptive design research design. According to Isangedighi, Joshua, Asim, and Ekuri (2004), survey research design involves the collection of data to accurately and objectively describe existing phenomena. Studies that make use of this approach are employed to obtain a picture of the present conditions of particular phenomena. Kerlinger (2006) for instance describes survey research as that which is directed towards determining the nature of a situation as it exists at the time of the investigation. He further describes it as a type of research that studies large and small populations by selecting and studying samples chosen from the population to discover the relative incidence, distribution, interrelations of the sociological and psychological variables.

Survey research is therefore very useful for opinion and attitude studies. It depends basically on questionnaires and interviews as means of data collection. The survey research design is economical in the sense that a study of representing samples will permit inferences from generalization to populations that could be too expensive to study as a whole.

Population of the study

In this study, the researcher chooses a population of one hundred and twelve (112) primary school teachers from Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State; made up of fifty-one (51) males and sixty-one (61) female teachers. The population was chosen because the researcher is from the area and is familiar with the activities of the schools.

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

This chapter deals with the result of the statistical analysis of data gathered for the study as well as their discussion and interpretations are presented. The presentation of the data was done following the trend of the four hypotheses directing the study.

Hypotheses-by-hypotheses presentation of the result

In this section each hypothesis is re-stated in the null form, the variables are identified and the result of the statistical analysis carried out to test the hypotheses are presented and interpreted. The 0.05 level of significance was used for the statistical testing of each hypothesis.

Hypotheses one

There is no significant relationship between the perception of creative drama and pupils’ school learning.

The Independent variable in this hypothesis is creative drama, while the dependent variable is Pupils’ school learning. Pearson product-moment correlation analysis was employed to test the hypotheses. The result of the analysis is presented in Table 1.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter deals with the summary and conclusion of the entire study. The chapter is therefore presented under the following sub-headings.

Summary of the study
Conclusion
Recommendations
Suggestions for further study

Summary of the study

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the perception of creative drama activities on the social development of primary school pupils in Ikwerre local government area of Rivers State, Nigeria. To achieve this purpose, the following null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study.

There is no significant relationship between creative drama and pupils’ cognitive development

There is a significant relationship between creative drama and pupils’ school learning in Ikwerre local government areas of Rivers State.
There is no significant relationship between creative drama and pupils’ social development in primary schools in Ikwerre local government of Rivers
There is no significant relationship between creative drama and pupils’ emotional development in Ikwerre local government of Rivers State.
There is a significant relationship between creative drama and cognitive development in primary school pupils in Ikwerre local government area of Rivers State.

Literature was reviewed according to the hypotheses directing the study. A survey research design was adopted for the study. This design was considered appropriate because it allows the researcher to make inferences and generalizations of the population by selecting and studying the sample for the study. A total sample of two hundred (200) respondents was randomly selected for the study. The selection was done through the simple random sampling technique. This was to give

every member of the population area equal and independent opportunity of being selected for the study. The questionnaire was the main instrument used for data collection. It was designed by the research under the supervisor’s guide that has its face and content validity.

Pearson product-moment correlation analysis and independent t-test were considered the most appropriate statistical techniques employed to test the hypotheses based on the nature of the variable involved. The 0.05 level of significance was used for the statistical testing of each hypothesis with critical values and degree of freedom. The result of the analysis revealed that creative drama activities significantly relate to pupils’ learning, social development, emotional development, and cognitive development of primary school pupils in Ikwerre local government area of Rivers State, Nigeria. Based on the findings of the study recommendations and suggestions for further studies were made

Conclusion

Based on the result of the findings of the study the following conclusion was made.

Creative drama significantly relates to pupils’ school learning in Ikwerre local government areas of Rivers State.
Creative drama significantly relates to pupils’ social development in Ikwerre local government of Rivers State.
Creative drama significantly relates to pupils’ emotional development in Ikwerre local government of Rivers State.
Creative drama significantly relates to cognitive development in primary school pupils in Ikwerre local government area of Rivers State.

Recommendations

Based on the result of the findings of the study and their implication for the future of the educational process in the country as a whole, the following recommendations were made.

Government should insist on the inclusion of creative drama as a subject in the primary schools’ curriculum in all the states of the federation.
Inspection should be carried out to ensure this is carried out even in the local government

Professionalism in the field should be encouraged and employed for adequate dissemination of

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