Course Objectives

Subject and subject-didactic knowledge and skills

To practice drama students need to develop their skills in performance and movement and learn about dramatic design. Students will gain experience with drama activities and knowledge concerning the process of creating dramatic fiction.

Students will learn about

1. Using drama as a method in subject teaching and in an interdisciplinary context
2. Dramatic play and theatrical art’s basic elements, tools and forms of expression as seen in relation to each other
3. Various dramatic forms of expression

Pedagogical work with children and adolescents

The aesthetic dimension of the school’s various subjects will be highlighted through drama. Students will learn that drama may be used as a method of learning: through active identification using fictional roles and situations, pupils learn to explore and investigate topics and relationships between people. New insight and learning takes place through practical-aesthetic experience and reflection.

Students will learn about:

1. Drama in the 1997 National Curriculum (L97) and the most recent curriculum (L 2006)
2. Various dramatic forms of expression related to subjects and topics
3. Planning of aesthetic experiences through dramatic activities

Students will learn about

1. Drama in an interdisciplinary context, topic-organised teaching, and project work.
2. Planning, execution, and evaluation of drama-related pedagogical work in schools.

Drama is used as a method in subjects and topics in the school (L97 and L 2006/Basic skills). Students will therefore plan and execute a teaching plan for school subjects/topics, which includes drama methods in connection with their teaching practice during their first year of study.

Course Description

Students will primarily gain insight into how children’s play and theatrical arts may be combined in drama pedagogy.

Students will learn about children’s dramatic play activity seen in relation to drama and theatre. Students will also learn about children’s ways of creating drama and about the aesthetic dimension of children’s play.

Experience with play activities and understanding of the theoretical foundation for the use of drama as a method is emphasised, so that students may build their competence in the use of drama as a method in the main school subjects in accordance with the intentions in the “Curriculum for Primary and Lower Secondary Education”(L97) and L 2006.

Learning Methods

Drama as a Method is taught during the first and second semesters of the programme, and is organised in groups of varying sizes. Teaching is largely experience-based, so the practical work is mandatory. Learning methods include teacher-directed teaching and supervision. It is expected that students study some of the relevant theory through individual study.

Drama as a Method is taught in relation to the other subjects during the first year of the General Teacher Education programme. In interdisciplinary projects, Drama as a Method will be included in documentation work with a focus on methods of presentation and production.

The course’s 30 hours of lectures are obligatory. Students are responsible for keeping themselves informed of the consequences of absenteeism.

Assessment Methods

Requirements for achieving a passing mark for the course Drama as a Method:

• work with dramatic presentation: passing mark
• an internship-based assignment of 2-3 pages: passing mark
• participation in class

Each course unit must receive passing marks in order to achieve a passing mark for the main course.

Please refer to Telemark University College’s Examination Regulation.

Minor adjustments may occur during the academic year, subject to the decision of the Dean