ROLE-PLAY Lighting fires

More recently, we have seen the value of using

role-play to support the development of the social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL). This initiative draws attention to the factors holding

back learning including children’s difficulties in understanding and managing their feelings, working co-operatively in groups, motivating themselves, and demonstrating resilience in the face of setbacks.

In the Secondary National Strategy for School

Improvement, the section on SEAL states: “Learning from real-life experience is central to the development of social and emotional skills and dealing with real situations and controversial issues are certain to arise. Students should not be sheltered from such issues. “Through them, they can develop an important

range of skills, including listening, accepting other points of view, arguing a case, dealing with conflict and dealing with difficult feelings.” Staff should be prepared to handle personal issues

arising from SEAL activities, to deal sensitively with disclosures made in a group or individual settings, and be clear on issues of confidentiality. Engaging in role-play and debate means that the

individual can rehearse the different roles in certain situations, reflect on the impact of behaviours and comments, and share their thinking with a trusted adult. Such issues frequently centre on: family lifestyle

and values; sex and relationships; physical and medical issues; law and order; financial issues including unemployment; and bullying and bereavement – all of which can be emotionally charged. In terms of motivation to learn, role-play can

provide an alternative learning style to more individual and conventional tasks. This is especially true for students whose reading

and writing skills are under-developed, who cannot function effectively on these tasks in the classroom and who may hide their inability behind disruptive behaviour. Whatever role-play activity you decide to use,

the multi-sensory element is sure to stimulate your students, and consequently encourage them to learn in a fun and inspirational way.

SecEd

• Donna Burton Wilcock is a former head of English and now CEO of Immersive Education, a educational software publisher that develops the role-playing program, Kar2ouche.

Independent thinking

Why is x better than y?

r role-play

and well thought out activity to gain maximum benefits for students.

Using role-play to address challenging issues

Role-play is a frequently used and potentially effective tool in helping students to explore challenging issues. However, to stand up and improvise in front of one’s peers takes courage and, all too often, the more sensitive and difficult topics covered in subjects such as PSHE and literature receive superficial treatment. Lack of depth in a response can be caused by self-

consciousness, an unwillingness to ask questions, lack of experience or confidence, poor understanding and/or finding certain vocabulary embarrassing. It is, therefore, important to establish a climate in

which students can express a point of view that may differ from those held either by staff or their peers. Ground rules need to include being able to listen

to and learn from the experiences of others, showing sensitivity to diversity of experience and lifestyle, respecting others’ rights and taking care not to put each other down. However, not surprisingly, achieving this ideal situation can be hard! One way to encourage students to deal with

situations and challenge assumptions in a less personally threatening way is through virtual role-play. Students can still work in groups but by using a

computer, can work much more anonymously. Powerful and liberating communication tools found in role-playing software can help minimise both frustration and anxiety. Once liberated by these tools, and having both

rehearsed and reflected on their responses, students can gain confidence and can deal with the issues more openly in a classroom situation.

SecEd • May 20 2010

Debriefing is possibly the most important stage of

role-play, and should not be forgotten. This is where the teacher makes sure that the lesson

intended is learned through comprehensive debriefing, where they can go over any issues the students may not have understood. They can also use this time to deal with any student concerns or questions.

The value of sensitively handled role-plays

Through my own teaching, I have recognised the value of sensitively handled role-plays in English, PSHE and citizenship. I came to see a strong significance in role- playing resources and interactive tools that facilitate contextual understanding, interpretation and creative expression. For example, students can create and animate their own visualised world putting themselves in control of the action – directing a play, discussing difficult issues or re-creating history on their desktops, as well as in the classroom and at home. Role-play can be effectively used to discuss complex

subjects such as bullying. Children learn well from performing in front of peers, discussing in groups and being imaginative around a subject. This creativity nurtures self-esteem, motivation

and achievement among students. Similarly, they have embraced technological tools, such as video- conferencing, email, digital media and software programs, in order to explore and highlight issues and to look for common solutions to break the “code of silence” which can seem to surround the topic. Role-play, either in action or on a computer, can

enable them to bring to the fore bullying and highlight it as a real and complex issue which requires direct action.

PARTNERSHIP, COMPROMISE in the interest of the greater good and commitment to working well together have dominated the political scene in the aftermath of the election. Such concepts are very familiar in the world of secondary schools and with less political interference, we might be even more successful in achieving them. I recently attended a meeting at which the

vice-chancellor of Newcastle University spoke. He rightly pointed out that we seem not to be able to engage in comparability without moving onto “ranking”. We find it hard to describe the qualities which x has and say that these make it better suited to me or my purpose than y which has different qualities. Rather we declare that x is “better” than y. Similarly, we acknowledge and encourage diversity, but diversity rapidly gets turned into hierarchy. Let us hope that this new government will move away from ranking and from establishing hierarchies from disparate provision. Travelling to and around Newcastle

offered me many opportunities to observe young people of all kinds. My train was delayed on the journey north because of children on the track who were placing bricks and other obstacles in the path of oncoming trains. What can such youngsters be thinking about, if they are thinking at all? In what sense could it ever be a good idea to attempt to cause a train to derail or crash? Meanwhile youth unemployment is at its highest since records began. More are starting university degree courses, but the “drop- out” rate has also increased significantly. It is hardly surprising that the students who drop out of their degree courses tend to be those who have the weakest qualifications and the least capacity to sustain high levels of debt. Why incur large debts in order to study a

course which you find too difficult and which may then only lead to unemployment? UK students all too often compare unfavourably with those from overseas. The almost non-stop mobile phone conversations of a young woman in our carriage

assaulted the ears of many fellow travellers on the train back to London, but to her credit, the various conversations were conducted equally fluently in English, French and Spanish. How many of today’s UK school-leavers would have that linguistic facility? Sir Alan Sugar is enjoying working with some feisty 16 and 17-year-old would-be entrepreneurs, but our society is no longer used to encouraging such youngsters to go straight into business or get involved in enterprise. Both India and China are

hailed as the countries where education is booming and which produce large numbers of highly skilled young graduates. Apparently, Indian lecturers and coaches are now much prized in China, as they

can teach thinking skills, problem- solving and risk-taking in a way which has previously been quite alien to the Chinese education system. They teach them through the medium of English! It is these skills which are at the heart of the so-called “knowledge economy”. Meanwhile, back in Britain many of our young people still aspire to be “celebrities”, pop stars, footballers and such like. Returning

to our hotel in Newcastle, on a freezing night, albeit in May, we passed several night clubs. The young people thronging around them were mostly dressed for high summer in the Mediterranean, especially the

girls, some of whom were clearly inspired by Lady Gaga. We often talk of lifelong learning or learning

for life and the younger generation today may well live till they are 100, almost as a matter of course. I suspect that many of them will find it difficult to occupy themselves in any meaningful way for all those years. We need to find a better way forward for them.

• Marion Gibbs is headmistress of the independent James Allen’s Girls’ School in London.

“The secret of success is to know something nobody else

knows.”

Aristotle Onassis

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but

rather a lack in will.”

Vince Lombardi

“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure – which is: try to

please everybody.”

Herbert Bayard Swope

“Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the

ignorant.”

Epictetus

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no use being a damn

fool about it.”

WC Fields

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