Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

SUPPORT FOR REFLECTIVE PRACTICE (Dewey, 1910; Schön, 1983) as a way of reviewing, articulating and informing practice, is well-established within teacher education and research, though there is still much to learn from the individual experience of the practitioner who grapples with the reflective process. This paper highlights the deliberations of a teacher undertaking a process drama (Heathcote & Bolton, 1995) program with one group of four-to-five-year-old children. One story stemming from this program, entitled ‘The Possum Story’, is presented to illustrate the complex decision-making processes and teaching strategies evident in the work of the drama practitioner who was faced with several challenges, including how to determine engaging and relevant child-centred content, how to stimulate the interests of all children in the developing story and cater for their needs, and how to promote creative problem-solving through responsive questioning. This paper examines the teacher as a reflective practitioner and provides a useful reference for other early childhood practitioners grappling with the possibilities and challenges related to exploring drama with young children.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Brookfield

(1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Dewey

(1910). How we think. Boston: DC Heath & Co.

Donelan

(2002) Engaging with other: Drama and inter-cultural education. Melbourne Studies in Education Journal, 43(2), 26–38.

Dunn

(2003). Enhancing dramatic activities in the early childhood years. In Wright

(Ed.), The arts, young children, and learning (pp. 211–229). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Dunn

, & O'Toole

(2002). Pretending to learn. Sydney: Pearson Education.

Giorgi

(Ed). (1985). Phenomenology and psychological research. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.

Gore

J. M.

, & Zeichner

K. M.

(1991). Action research and reflective teaching in prospective teacher education: A case study from the United States. Teaching and Teacher Education, 7(2), 119–136.

Heathcote

, & Bolton

(1995). Drama for learning: Dorothy Heathcote's mantle of the expert approach to education. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Howard

(2003). Culturally relevant pedagogy: Ingredients for critical teacher refection. Theory into Practice, 42(3), 195–202.

10.

Johnston

(1994). Contrasts and similarities in case studies of teacher refection and change. Educational Researcher, 24(1), 9–26.

11.

Larrivee

(2000). Transforming teaching practice: Becoming the critically reflective teachers. Reflective Practice, 1(3), 293–307.

12.

Malaguzzi

(1994). History, ideas and basic philosophy. In Edwards

, Gandini

& Forman

(Eds.), The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education (pp. 41–90). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

13.

Munby

, & Russell

(1989). Educating the reflective teacher: An essay review of two books by Donald Schön. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 21(1), 71–80.

14.

Nolan

, Raban

, & Waniganayake

(2005). Evaluating a strategic approach to professional development through guided refection. Reflective Practice, 6(2), 221–229.

15.

O'Donoghue

, & Brooker

(1996). The rhetoric and the reality of the promotion of refection during practice teaching: An Australian case study. Journal of Teacher Education, 47(2), 99–109.

16.

O'Neill

(1994). Here comes everybody: Aspects of role in process drama. National Association for Drama in Education Journal, 18(2), 39–52.

17.

O'Toole

(2002). Drama: The productive pedagogy. Melbourne Studies in Education Journal, 43(2), 39–52.

18.

Patterson

, Fleet

, & Duffie

(Eds.) (1996) Learning from stories: Early childhood professional experiences. Sydney: Harcourt Brace.

19.

Patton

(1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

20.

Prosser

(1994). Some experiences of using phenomenographic research methodology in the context of research in teaching and learning. In Bowden

& Walsh

(Eds.), Phenomenographic research: Variations in method. The Warburton symposium (pp. 31–41). Melbourne: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

21.

Raban

, Waniganayake

, Nolan

, Brown

, Deans

, & Ure

(2007). Building capacity: Strategic professional development for early childhood practitioners. Melbourne: Thomson Social Science Press.

22.

Schirrmacher

(2002). Art and creative development for young children. Albany, NY: Delmar Thomson Learning.

23.

Schön

(1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.

24.

Stonehouse

(1992). Care and education—what's the difference? Curriculum Perspectives, 12(3), 53–56.

25.

Taylor

(1998). Redcoats and patriots: Reflective practice in drama and social studies. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

26.

Toye

, & Prendiville

(2000). Drama and traditional story for the early years. London: Routledge Falmer.

27.

Wagner

B. J.

(1979). Drama as a learning medium. London: Hutchinson and Co.

28.

Warren

(1999). Hooked on drama: The theory and practice of drama in early childhood. Sydney: Social Science Press.

29.

Winston

, & Tandy

(2001). Beginning drama 4–11 (2nd edn). London: David Fulton.

30.

Wright

(2003a). The arts, young children and learning. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

31.

Wright

(2003b). Children, meaning-making and the arts. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education.