Policy Paper - Drama Improves Lisbon Key Competences in Education

• The length of one theatre and drama session from a continuous activity varied from
45 minutes to 240 minutes:
• Number of students participating in one programme varied from 5 to 35, average
was 20:
20
Mean = 101,7
15
Mean = 19,88
Number of programmes
15
10
Number of programmes
10
5
R e s u l t s
5
0
0 50 100 150 200 250
Length of one session from continuous programmes (minutes)
Chart 7. Length of one session
from continuous programmes
0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Number of students participating in an educational theatre and drama activity
Chart 9. The number of
students participating per
educational theatre and
drama activity
R e s u l t s
Number of programmes
40
30
20
10
• Most of the continuous theatre and drama programmes were launched specially
for the research; others were already in existence and there were even a few
groups that had been working together for more than 10 years at the time of the
measurement:
0
Mean = 1,73
0,00 2,00 4,00 6,00 8,00 10,00 12,00
For how long has the group been working together? (in years)
Chart 8. Length of time that
the different groups had been
working
• In 20 cases theatre and drama was part of the compulsory curriculum; in 26 cases
it was optional, anyone who wanted to join the activity was welcome; in 34 cases
the entire class participated in the activity and the decision was made by the head
teacher or the school director; in 22 cases there was some form of selection for
participation (data missing in 9 cases).
• Theatre and drama is independent of the school curriculum in 64 cases, part of
the curriculum in 20 cases, and has some links to it in 21 cases (data missing in 6
cases).
• In those cases where the programme leader considers that theatre and drama has
links to other subjects as well, it is linked to language (28), literature (33), art (31),
history (19), social studies (28), even science (7) and numeracy (2).
• Summative, qualifying evaluation (e.g. marks) is given in only 17 cases, while
formative, encouraging or critical evaluation (no marks) is given in 107 cases. The
evaluation is most usually from the teacher to the students (105), but in the case of
educational theatre and drama it is very frequent among peers as well (92), even
from the students to the teacher (64). To sum up, educational theatre and drama’s
evaluation system is very different from the traditional qualifying grading system of
schools.
• 50 programmes were led by a qualified drama teacher, 8 by another teacher, 21 by
a theatre practitioner and 28 by a person with a different qualification, e.g. animator
or psychologist (data missing in 4 cases).
34
35