Creative drama activities designed to help children learn difficult science concepts were integrated into an inquiry-based elementary science program. Children (n = 38) in an upper elementary enrichment program at one primary school were the participants in this action research. The teacher-researcher taught students the Full Option Science…

This 3-year longitudinal study investigated the associations of student (aged 9 to 10 years at the beginning of the study; n = 281; 51% girls) participation in extracurricular activities with teacher-rated socioemotional behavior and school achievement. MANOVA results showed that, after controlling for the grade level and the initial level of the…

This article investigates the role of the arts in enabling prisoners to engage with learning and improve their literacy, and the impact this has on their rehabilitation and desistance from crime. It draws on data collected from prisoners who participated in arts interventions in three different Scottish prisons. It argues that participating in the…

Drama is often used as a tool to investigate experience and to assist people to rehearse for change. Dramatic portrayals, however, can reinforce rather than challenge limiting stereotypes, and there is the potential for a positivist approach to research through drama to contribute to a pathologising of the subject and to limit the possibility of…

The effective use of social skills has been positively associated with career success, romantic involvement, academic achievement, and mood. In response, counselors often integrate social skills training into counseling interventions with adolescents to encourage authentic and effective interactions with others. We illustrate some therapeutic…

This study examined how the use of African American literature that depicts Black males influences the reading comprehension and the reading motivation of Black boys as demonstrated through oral, written, and creative expressions. Studies have been conducted using children's literature with Black boys to examine their social interaction with the…

This article describes a research group project that included students and faculty affiliated with Indiana University, along with secondary English teachers and administrators at several high schools in Southeast Indiana, as they developed and refined an approach to literacy instruction that embraces an expanded notion of literacy and supports…

Problem solving is a critical skill for engineering students and essential to development of creativity and innovativeness. Essential to such learning is an ease of communication and allowing students to address the issues at hand via the terminology, attitudes, humor and empathy, which is inherent to their frame of mind as novices, without the…

The self-efficacy beliefs teachers hold about their ability to teach subjects shapes their competence in teaching. Teacher self-efficacy is defined as teacher beliefs in their ability to perform a teaching task. If teachers have strong teacher self-efficacy in the teaching of arts education, they are more likely to incorporate arts in the…

This paper presents the first cycle of a design-based study at Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences, Finland, during which a video-supported forum-theater approach was implemented and evaluated. Students enrolled in the Drama course in the Civic Activities and Youth Work degree program produced and recorded forum-theater performances about…

The post-modern curriculum, drawing on chaos and complexity theory, recognises the realities of a world in flux and posits that the teacher and the class are always teetering "in the midst" of chaos, "not linked by chains of causality but [by] layers of meaning, recursive dynamics, non-linear effects and chance" (Osberg 2008,…

Conflict generated in theatre productions in university theatre departments is unique to its context. Issues of role ambiguity; scarce resources; fear and response to the unknown or unfamiliar; and power relations, among others, influence both the generation and the management of conflict. Examining such conflict and the behaviors used to engage…

Traditionally drama in schools has been seen either as a learning medium with a wide range of curricular uses or as a subject in its own right. This paper argues that the importance of drama in schools is in the processes of social and artistic engagement and experiencing of drama rather than in its outcomes. The paper contrasts the pro-social…

Though classroom time is an adventure of its own, it is when working with the Carlisle High School Shakespeare Troupe, an extracurricular acting company, that the author most consistently and happily experiences this illusion of indefinite time. She has been working steadily with the troupe since the fall of 1984, and the troupe has produced a…

Do individuals know what words Shakespeare actually wrote? Exploring these issues can yield dramatic interest. With references to Shakespeare's Quartos and Folios, the author examines key textual issues and discrepancies in classroom studies of "Hamlet." (Contains 8 notes.)