Todays input saw the beginning of one curricular area and the completion of another.  Over the past 5 week myself and my cohort have been exploring drama within education.

Through the many activities we have completed, my eyes have been opened to the rich and affective experiences that come with drama for teachers and students alike. It allows us to create immense imaginary worlds, to explore the perspectives of our peers and to envision alternative possibilities and outcomes of the finished product. As Winston J states, not all quality drama has to involve acting out something that has already been decided, it can focus on discovering the unknown and living with ambiguity in order to explore new ideas and meanings(Winston, 1998). This is something I would like to embed within my classroom, to help the children understand that there is no correct answer in drama and that is okay to step outside their comfort zone and explore the endless possibilities that drama presents them with.

Allow I was hesitant at the beginning of this module, mainly due to my lack of experience with drama, I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every workshop and it has really helped to improve my confidence both within myself and as a classroom teacher.

With the end of our drama inputs, came the start of our music sessions. Music is not something I have explored through education and I feel these inputs will be extremely beneficial in terms of allowing me to gain the knowledge of how best to teach music within the classroom environment.

After todays lecture, I took the time to explore further the benefits of music within education. Here is a list of just few I found :

•  Music enhances fine motor skills – the parts of the brain which are linked to sensory and motor function are developed through music instruction. Forgeard found that musically trained children have better motor function than non-musically trained children. (Forgeard et al.., 2008)
•  Fosters superior working memory – Those trained in music are more likely to sustain mental control during memory and recall tasks, this is likely due to their longterm music training .            (Berti et al., 2006).
•  Cultivates better thinking skills – research has shown that children who take keyboard lessons have higher levels of abstract reasoning abilities than their peers.  (Rauscher, 2000).
•  Sharpens students attentiveness – the ability to pay attention is essential within the classroom. This ability begins to develop in early childhood and is continuously refined. Studies show that if a child is exposed to musical training in early childhood, their attention abilities are improved.  (Neville et al., 2008)

As a student teacher, I am committed to encouraging creativity and imagination within the classroom. I will look to seek out ways for children to explore the immense imaginary worlds that expressive arts create, to explore the perspectives of their peers and to envision alternative possibilities and outcomes of the finished product. I feel I am in a much better place to do so just 5 weeks into this module and I can feel myself regaining my creative confidence in the arts.

References 

• Berti, S., et al. (2006). Different Interference Effects in Musicians and a Control Group. Experimental Psychology, 53(2), 111-116.
• Forgeard, M., et al. (2008). Practicing a Musical Instrument in Childhood is Associated with Enhanced Verbal Ability and Nonverbal Reasoning. PLoS ONE 3(10): e3566.
• Neville, H., et al. (2008). Effects of Music Training on Brain and Cognitive Development in Under-privileged 3- to 5-year-old Children: Preliminary Results. In C. Asbury & B. Rich (Eds.), Learning, Arts, and the Brain: The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition (pp. 105-116). New York, NY: Dana Press.
• Rauscher, F. H., & Zupan M. A. (2000). Classroom Keyboard Instruction Improves Kindergarten Children’s Spatial-Temporal Performance: A Field Experiment. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 15(2), 215-228.
• Winston,J.(1998) Drama, Narrative and Moral Education. London:Falmer Press.