Opinion article by Vânia Dias
Taking into account the curricular guidelines in the area of personal and social development, the aim is to encourage children to acquire a critical spirit and internalize spiritual, aesthetic, moral and civic values, taking into account their developmental stages. Based on the idea that it is through interaction with others that children learn, the family plays a key role in transmitting values. It is in the family and the social environment in which the child finds themselves in the first few years of life that they begin their personal and social development, and pre-school education is a broader educational context that will allow children to interact with other adults who may also have different values to their own, which they have internalized from their experiences in their home environment. By making it possible to interact with different values and perspectives, pre-school education is a favorable context for children to learn to become aware of themselves and others. In this way, pre-school education plays an important role in values education. 11 Studies suggest that pre-school children already express negative reactions towards pupils and ethnic groups (www.wook.pt).
In this way, the teacher can use books and stories that refer to or represent the ethnic and cultural diversity that exists in our society as a strategy. Lack of understanding is the primary cause of prejudice, racism and empathy can be worked on in the school context in many different ways, among which dramatic expression can play a fundamental role. The content and teaching methods should always aim, among other things, to create an understanding of and interest in different environments, societies, systems and cultures, as well as knowing how to put yourself in the other person’s shoes in a variety of everyday situations, stimulating empathy.
Since, according to Wallon, at this stage of the child’s life they are still ‘deeply embedded in the family environment’ where ‘their relationships with the family, their place among their brothers and sisters, are part of their own personal identity’ (Tran-Thong.1967.p.208).
For Piaget, theatre is classified as the symbolic game of excellence in pre-school. ‘Play can be defined, in general terms, as the set of activities to which the organism gives itself, mainly for the pleasure of the activity itself’. He goes on to say that ‘play is the construction of knowledge’. ‘The second pedagogical implication we draw from Piaget’s evolutionary and biological conception is that the child’s spontaneous play should be the first context in which educators encourage the use of intelligence and initiative. Play gives children an intrinsic reason to exercise their intelligence and curiosity.’ (Piaget.2003.p.p26,27,29) Herbert Read argues that art should be the basis of education. He sees the arts as the most effective method for education, proposing play, spontaneity, inspiration and creation as the immediate objectives of a playful-expressive-creative intervention that involves drama, dance, music, art, verbalisation and writing.
Dramatic expression is considered by Herbert Read to be one of the best educational methods, it is fundamental at all stages of education, it is one of the best activities.
‘Dramatic expression is the removal of masks, it is establishing a balance between the external world and the internal world of each man, in other words, it is harmonising social life and the essence ofman…’ (Sousa, 2003.p.20) Dramatic expression allows children to ’exercise themselves, talk about their anxieties, frustrations, repressions, desires and create empathy with the feelings and experiences of others. The exercises help them find themselves and others. ‘By finding myself, I find myself with others.’ (Sousa, 2003, p.21)
In dramatic expression, the child practices aspects of life, makes very important inner emotional structures work, and is developing in the field of linking imagination/action phenomena. Dramatic games provide children with the means to externalize their deep feelings and personal observations through movement and voice, and aim to increase and guide their desires and possibilities for expression. They are a playful activity that is natural to the child, arising spontaneously and through which they can freely express their feelings, give free rein to their creative imagination, develop their practical thinking, play the most diverse roles in make-believe and use their body through different movements. It is therefore an educational activity which at the same time provides the broadest stimulus for the development of the affective, cognitive, social and motor factors of the child’s personality.
Dramatic play is one of the best, if not the best, educational method aimed at the balanced development of
a person’s personality, in my opinion as an educator.
Baden-Powell realized their great educational value, encouraging, expanding and developing this type of play. According to him, ‘children are fabulous in imagination, they love fiction more than it suits them. Dramatic representations are one of the best ways for children to develop. They develop not only the faculty of imitation that they naturally possess, but also their spirit and their fantasy, and everything that contributes to the development of their character.
In terms of pupils’ learning, psychology says that we learn better by doing and experimenting than by listening, so I think it’s important to try to use dramatic play to provide opportunities for children to put into practice fictional situations of experimentation with a variety of realities, in order to reinforce their lessons aimed at learning concepts and values, improving their knowledge and the whole range of learning they can derive from this, as mentioned above: fostering curiosity, imagination, increasing vocabulary and expressiveness, creativity, becoming aware of ethical-moral and aesthetic values, while helping with social relationships, empathy, among many others.
For older children, Bade Powell suggests giving them the plot of a short, simple scene and distributing the roles, indicating to each one something they should say or do, then letting them play freely and find the necessary words for themselves. This develops their imagination and their ability to express themselves progressively better.
In terms of concluding my opinion report on this subject, I can say that through my personal experience with pupils and my constant and attentive observation, it is through dramatic expression that children best experience themselves, live out all their imagination, their dreams, fantasies and even their fears; proving to themselves their abilities to transform and imagine themselves in different situations; allowing them to freely expand their needs for expression and the creation of useful tools for their day-to-day lives in the course of
their social relationships. ‘Through dramatic expression, children can realise themselves, creating everything
they want in a world that is their own, imagining for themselves and where they are sovereign, being able to
play all the roles and do everything they want. For P. Slade, ‘such important aspects as self-confidence,
self-concept and independence are acquired through play and especially through children’s drama’ (…).
‘Because of its great value in terms of emotional involvement, its power to tell stories and events, social
communication, criticism, training and information, for some centuries both pedagogues and theatre people
have drawn attention to the valuable contribution that theatre could make to education’.
(Sousa,2003,p.p.37,40,81)
