The relationship between teacher talk and children's possibility thinking in the Drama Game method in Cypriot primary education

Drawing on a socio-constructivist conceptual framework and connecting to current work in the area of creativity, drama and teacher talk, this study seeks to reveal features of children's possibility thinking (PT), types of teacher talk and the relationship between these two strands during the Drama Game (DG) method in Cypriot primary classrooms. This is the first empirical study in Cyprus concerning the DG method; drama is a new curriculum area in primary education (CMEC, 201Ib). Possibility thinking has been conceptualized as a process of thinking leading to creative development (Craft, 2000), although its relation with teacher talk has not been fully illuminated. The empirical study undertaken in this thesis involved two teachers and four classes of 8-9 year-old children in two urban public primary schools. Six lessons were naturalistically explored using the following qualitative data collection methods: video-recorded classroom observations, interviews with the teachers and group interviews with children using video-stimulated review. The analysis of the findings sought to combine deductive and inductive analytic methods. The aim was to test the evidence-based concept of PT and also identify emergent themes and relationships regarding children's PT and teacher talk. The study identified that children's PT, manifest through their talk and physical engagement, was in interplay with teacher's PT manifest through talk and body language. It revealed that the teacher's 'Possibility Broadening Communicative Style' (possibility broad questions, provocations, modelling, pauses, and affirmative feedback) framed the open, playful, immersive and collaborative context for nurturing children's PT. The children's PT in turn was manifest through a co-determined endeavour amongst the children and their teachers to find solutions to imagined problems in the world of DG.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

edd

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

The Open University

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Aristeidou, Vaso

Language dc:language

en