Policy Paper - Drama Improves Lisbon Key Competences in Education

R e s u l t s
of questions that can be asked. The only limit is what practitioners and policy-makers
are interested in. Hopefully the DICE database will be a valuable resource for answering
many questions like these in the near future, and we will have the opportunity to find out
as much as possible about how educational theatre and drama works, and to help in the
designing of even more effective educational theatre and drama programmes.
For the seriously curious, let us take a look at a very simplified example how the DICE
database could be used to understand more about how educational theatre and drama
works.
We have seen that the assessments of teachers increase on average for all five
competences, and this increase is always higher in the case of the research group than
in the control group. But what is behind this increase? Do teachers’ assessments of all
students increase, or this is just an average?
If we create clusters (groups that behave in a similar way) of students according to the
assessments of teachers, we find three very interesting subsets:
Average change in scores
Clusters 1 2 3
Learning to learn +0.65 +0.09 -0.34
Social competence +0.69 +0.09 -0.36
Cultural expression +0.92 +0.14 -0.49
Communication +0.73 +0.08 -0.47
Entrepreneurship +0.92 +0.14 -0.51
Table 16. Teacher
assessment clusters
The total average, when expressed as a single number (and when these differences are
masked), is slightly positive, as we have seen in chapter B.10.
But what is behind this? If we can understand those factors that put the students of
an educational theatre and drama programme into one of these subgroups, we can
understand much more about how an educational theatre and drama programme works
and what makes it more effective.
Looking at the statistical analysis, it seems that the most important factors (among many)
are:
Relationship Significance Interpretation:
...the more likely the programme will
achieve better results
The programme leader’s intention to create an p < 0.000 The higher score this goal gets...
artistic work
The programme leader’s intention to teach pupils
The higher score this goal gets...
p < 0.060
about theatre and drama
The programme leader’s intention to learn about a p < 0.002 The higher score this goal gets...
specific theme or topic through drama
The programme leader’s intention to develop
p < 0.003
The higher score this goal gets...
pupils’ creativity and thinking skills
The intention of the programme leader(s) to
offer voluntary participation, as observed by the
independent observers
The length of time the programme leader(s) have
been working
p < 0.000
p