Milli mála - 01.01.2010, Blaðsíða 158
In the past there have been different dichotomies and discussions
about ‘theatre’ and ‘drama’, ‘process-oriented approaches’ and ‘pro-
duct-oriented approaches’, and a distinction between ‘artistic form
of drama’ and ‘educational drama’. a process-oriented approach
could briefly be described as focusing on the dramatic medium
itself, and as rather informal and improvisational, whereas a pro-
duct-oriented approach tends to focus on the final staging of the
students’ performance. The primary learning experience in the lat-
ter seems to lie in the dramatic realisation in front of an audience.4
Fleming describes these dichotomies as false polarities and gives
reasons for the emergence of a consensus that incorporates both
approaches. The discussion has moved on, and we will not repeat
that discussion, but we would like to point out that in our own teach-
ing we neither strictly distinguish between process-oriented and
product-oriented approaches, nor distinguish between drama as an
arts discipline and drama that is being used as “general pedagogy”.5
We tend to use whichever techniques seem most helpful in any
particular situation. at the outset of this polarising debate, educa-
tional drama was criticised for watering down or betraying drama as
an art form by using drama as a device to facilitate learning.6
Fleming points out that according to his own experience, new teach -
ers often valued drama mainly as a replacement of real experience,
and did not necessarily see drama as a chance to explore situations
which would otherwise be denied to us in real life.7
We see drama as an arts discipline, and we like to involve it in our
teaching. We will not discuss the debate about product-oriented and
process-oriented approaches any further at this point as it has been
discussed in some detail by Fleming, Heathcote/Bolton, Hornbrook,
Moody, Shier8, and others. Instead we will concentrate on the
CrEaTIng SPaCE
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4 Douglas J. Moody, “undergoing a Process and achieving a Product: a Contradiction in
Educational Drama?”, Body and Language: Intercultural Learning through Drama, ed.
gerd Bräuer, London: ablex Publishing, 2002, pp. 135–136.
5 For the discussion about drama as an arts discipline and drama as a teaching method, see
also David Hornbrook, Education in Drama: Casting the Dramatic Curriculum, routledge,
1991, and Pamela Bowell and Brian S. Heap, Planning Process Drama, London: David
Fulton, 2001.
6 Fleming “Cultural awareness and Dramatic art Forms”, p. 148.
7 Ibid, pp. 148–149.
8 Michael Fleming, The Art of Drama Teaching, p. 1; Douglas J. Moody, “undergoing a
Process and achieving a Product: a Contradiction in Educational Drama?”, pp. 138–139;
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