Enhancing School-aged Children’s Social Competence through Educational Drama | DaTEAsia Vol. 6

APA Citation

Tsiaras, A. (2016). Enhancing school-aged children’s social competence through educational drama. The Journal of Drama and Theatre Education in Asia, 6, 65-90.

In this paper, the role of educational drama was examined as a means of promoting primary school students’ social competence. A research study was conducted in 90 public primary school classrooms in Greece. The research data came from 1826 children aged 9 through 11 years (904 boys, 922 girls) in an experimental process of pre-testing and post-testing, using the sociometric nomination procedure of Coie and Dodge (1983). Statistical analysis of research data revealed that: (1) Drama activities have positive effects on students’ social competence and (2) the positive effect that educational drama has on students’ social competence is not related to the age of the children since the research expectations were finally confirmed in all experimental classrooms. Thus, more attention should be paid to a drama-based curriculum in primary school if the development of students’ social competence is to be facilitated.