ROLE PLAY:
AN ALTERNATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING
STRATEGY
Dr. Naaz Mustafa
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember I do and I understand.” Confucius
Role Play
This method of teaching is intended to;
Arouse feelings
Elicit emotional responses
Achieve behavioral objectives
Role playing is a method that teaches learners real life situations to develop understanding of other people.
Every teacher devises his or her good effective method for teaching.
The teacher in her method should appeal through sense perception to the understanding of the
student.
One of the methods used in teaching learning is
“role play”.
Definition
Role playing is an educational technique in which people spontaneously act out
problems of human relations and analyze the enactment with the help of the other players and observers.
When can Role Playing be used?
Teaching delegation skills to new nurses
Teaching assertiveness skills to new nurse
To enhance clinical understanding
To enhance communication skills
Purpose of Role Play
To convey information.
To develop specific skills.
To develop a situation for analysis.
To develop understanding of points of view of others.
To increase insight into typical way of dealing with a problem.
Provides an opportunity for social interaction among members.
Values of Role Playing
There is an emotional involvement as the actors try to feel the character he/she is portraying and puts himself in that person’s character.
It is enjoying by people who do it.
It does not need equipment.
It is a method to involve a group through participation.
It can bring out data of human behavior and
human relations which are not made available by other methods.
In role playing the student not only hears about a problem or tells about it, he lives through it by acting it out.
Individuals may develop new skills for dealing with problems in human relations.
Role playing can be tailored to fit the specific need and situation of particular group that is using it.
It is a way of presenting human relations, problems.
The student can experiment with behavior, make mistake and try new skills.
Principles of Role Playing
Role playing is flexible.
The role play should be stimulant to think and not escape from the discipline of learning.
There is no single best method of selecting the characters, the group may do the assigning.
Role play never be rehearsed.
Analysis and evaluation is essential to attain the maximum learning benefits.
Role play should be brief.
Setting up of Role Playing
Define the problem to be considered and the nursing situation in a meaning full manner to all students in the class.
Identify the characters in the situation and ask for volunteers to play these roles.
Ask the participants to try to place themselves in the position of the characters.
Caution the participants against the desire to express their own ideas and options.
Each class member selects some role and identifies himself/herself with it, listen and try to anticipate what the person in the situation might say or do.
Never rehearse for role playing.
At any point during a dramatization participants may hold a short conference to clarify the
problem understudy.
The length of role play will depend upon how long it takes to make the nursing situation clear and the student becomes aware of feelings and thoughts of these in the actual situations.
At the end of the activity time should be given for a discussion.
Phases or steps involved in Role Play
Following are some of the steps in any role play.
They are :
Warming up the group :- Concerned with the identification or introduction of the problem.
Selecting participants :- Concerned with the analysis of roles and selection of the students for playing the specific roles.
Set the stage :- Concerned with setting the line of action, restating roles etc.
Preparation of observers :- Concerned with the assignment of roles of observers to students who are not acting and assigning them observation tasks and starting what to look for.
Enactment :- Actual role playing process.
Discussion and evaluation :- Free discussion about quality of roles, major focus of play.
Re-enactment :- concerned with re-enactment of the role play in the light of modification made.
Re-discussion and Evaluation :- Review of roles leading to conclusions.
Deriving Generalizations :- relate problem and situation to real experience and current
problems.
Effect of Role Play
On the student
Role Playing helps the student to :
Develop real communication skills in leadership, interviewing and social
interacting. E.g. how to lead a communication etc.
Develop sensitivity to another’s feelings by having the opportunity to put oneself in
another’s place and develop emapthy and
understanding.
Develops skill in group problems solving. E.g.
the group works as a whole to develop the problem of concern to the group.
Develop the situations to identify issues and to come to some mutual agreement.
Develop ability to observe and analyze
situations. Practice selected behaviors in a real life situations without the stress of
making a mistake.
Role of a teacher in Role Play for Teaching
This provides the teachers with the opportunity to note individual student by observing and
analyzing her needs in a real life situation.
Encourage independent thinking and action by stepping a side on giving indirect guidance to emphasize them to themselves.
The teacher can correct the errors and use the role play for specific teaching on the subject.
Points to remember while doing Role Playing
There should never be one answer to a situation presented.
The time of the play should be brief.
Enough time should be allowed for discussion and analysis of the situation.
Evaluation concerns the teacher and
participants through discussion or follow-up as to specific individual behavior or group action.
Advantages of Role Play
It provides an opportunity to the students to learn about a subject from the inside.
It gives them a chance to feel the intensity of the situation by enacting it through role play.
Student derives useful real life experiences
through playing specific roles of the players or observers and in turn prepare themselves for the activities.
It increases the student’s interest , motivation and effects for the learning about a subject or phenomenon.
