Rangbhumi integrates the power of education and art into the healing process. The learning process in classrooms can be more engaging and effective when we use drama tools. An example of a drama tool are drama patterns, playback theatre, and theatre of the persecuted. The applied drama in education and healing helps change the old concept of student-teacher hierarchy. There are action-reaction interplays that develop trust and the students come outside their comfort zone by expressing their inner self in the purest form. The applied drama concept in education uses several search methodologies as given below.
- A survey in the beginning
- To conduct interviews with applicants
- To pinpoint the thoughts of the applicants at the end of each session
- To review the conversations that occurred during the sessions
- To have an overview of the result of the work
- To evaluate the work by giving final presentations at the end of the program
About Rangbhumi Applied Theatre
Rangbhumi Applied Theatre is an Applied Theatre organization that is working with numrious ecosystems. The Rangbhumi covers the students from various schools including socially weaker students. The Rangbhumi works with organizations, educators, universities prisons, and even juvenile jails. The focus of Rangbhumi is on equality, mental health, and the integration of art with drama.
Background of Rangbhumi
In 2022, students joined us to teach deprived students of Bengaluru. Initially, the organization started teaching students from socially deprived communities and taught Social science and Science subjects. During that time, the observation is that the students from classes 9th and 10th are indulged in wrong activities like violence. The girls of the same class group are more serious about the household chores rather than focusing on their studies and careers.
Process
The initial process starts after the observation of the students. We prepare a survey to ask questions from the students in the first step. We made them ready to join the Applied Theatre sessions in the second step. Then, we observe the emotions of the students such as anger, self-doubt, and violence.
The third step is to start the image Theatre and other methods to take the emotions to come out from the students. During the play, the girls told their fears and all of the students started building a social bond. In the fourth step, we gave all the students a task to create their newspaper. Boys perform the activity of Kathak. Students told how they get healed by attending the sessions with Rangbhumi. The emotions suppressed inside us do not let us do our best.
Forum Theatre
The Forum started with the platy of Ramayana. When we were performing the play, we stopped in between and asked the audience about their thoughts, and many people suggested beautiful changes in the play. From there, the Rangbhumi encountered the importance of rehearsal for revolution. The concept of Applied Theatre tools designed an exploratory space for the applicants and students. The students start talking about their anxieties which they fear to tell to their parents and teachers.
An International Baccalaureate School in Mumbai: Grade 6 (2022)
The new concept comes out from all of the efforts of Rangbhumi: Drama-based pedagogy. The DBP actively engages the students during the study. Students enjoy learning through dialog-making concepts. Then we introduced the drama-based curriculum from class 1 to class 8th. The first lecture of drama-based study with a nice play. A teacher becomes a Kabuliwala and starts acting like the story given in the English literature book.
Teachers Workshop
A total of 50 educators were interested in knowing the concept that how drama can change the concept of learning in the curriculum. We focus on the value of arts in education during the workshop. The focus was on f arts-integrated pedagogy in the Indian education system. After that, in 2020, a new National Education Policy was out.
Conclusion
The drama-based pedagogy in the teaching has followed benefits.
- Engagement– The students are more engaged in the drama-based pedagogy and the students review that they feel connected throughout the drama-based teaching.
- Experience– The concept of drama in education makes students shift in behavior, the students learn in between the process. The students feel a deep presence throughout the lecture and do not feel disconnected as in conventional teaching methods. They feel heightened awareness.
and socio-emotional skills - Exploration– The students were encouraged to go beyond what they thought. Here a term comes from the zone of proximal development. It explains how the learning process of a student changes when he is an alone learner or when he has a guide.
Challenge
- In Indian schools mostly we see the student-teacher ratio as 40:01. To implement the drama-based teaching concept, one teacher must have 25 students.
- Another challenge is that usually people connect drama with entertainment but we are talking about learning through art.
Note: We are not associated with About Rangbhumi Applied Theatre. We are an independent platform, you can access us with the URL: https://rangbhumi.org/. The work of Rangbhumi is associated with the educational field of guiding students about new career opportunities such as new govt job openings, the admission process in colleges, how to apply for jobs, and similar topics.