Unravelling the Mystery: A Study of Reflection-in-Action in Process Drama Teaching

Abstract

Unravelling the Mystery is a qualitative case study that examines the teacher researcher's reflection-in-action as she teaches using process drama. The teacher-researcher taught a class of Year Seven students for a school year. She worked with the students using process drama from 2-5 hours per week. All sessions were recorded and transcribed as part of the reflective practice research. They were then examined to study how the teacher might use reflection-in-action. The data is written as a series of vignettes. The vignettes are used to illustrate reflection-in-action and as a basis for discussion and analysis. In the thesis the data from five of these sessions is presented as vignettes-these vignettes illustrating the teacher's reflection-in-action process. The analysis focuses on the reflection-in-action for the teacher. The vignettes and accompanying analysis for the basis for an illustrative model of the scope of the teacher' reflection-in-action as she works using process drama. The study addresses the following questions: · How might reflective practice inform my teaching? · How can I as a researcher describe and document my reflection-in-action when working as a teacher in process drama? · What is the scope of my reflection-in-action when working as the teacher in process drama? · How might an increased understanding of reflection-in-action be useful to teachers of process drama? These questions are considered in light of the analysis and literature review. The study concludes that reflective practice is valuable to enable teachers to develop their practice. It recommends that this type of research is beneficial to both develop models of practice and to improve the practice of individual practitioners.