EFFECTS OF ROLE PLAY AND ITS EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATION ON STUDENTS PERFORMANCE IN DRAMA IN SELECTED SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page – – – – – – – – – i
Declaration – – – – – – – – – ii
Approval Page – – – – – – – – – iii
Dedication – – – – – – – – – iv
Acknowledgement – – – – – – – v
Table of Contents – – – – – – – vi
Abstract – – – – – – – – – viii
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the Study – – – – – – – 1
1.2. Statement of the Problem – – – – – – – 5
1.3. Purpose of the Study- – – – – – – – 6
1.4. Research Questions- – – – – – – – 6
1.5. Significance of the Study – – – – – – – 7
1.6. Scope/Delimitation of the Study – – – – – – 7
1.7. Operational Definition of Terms – – – – – 8

CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 The Concepts of Literature and Drama – – – – – 9
2.3 Methods of Teaching Drama – – – – – – 12
2.4 Concept of Role play Method of Teaching Drama – – – 16
2.5 Characteristic Features of Role play Method – – – – 20
2.6 Aims and Benefits of Role play- – – – – – 20
2.7 Concept of Achievement – – – – – – – 22

CHAPTER THREE
METHOD AND PROCEDURE
3.1 Introduction- – – – – – – – – 26
3.2 Research Design- – – – – – – – – 26
3.3 Population of the Study- – – – – – – – 26
3.3.1 Population Sample – – – – – – – – 26
3.3.2 Sampling Technique- – – – – – – – 27
3.4 Instrument for Data Collection – – – – – – 27
3.4.1 Validity of the Instrument- – – – – – – 27
3.4.2 Description and Development of Instrument – – – – 28
3.5. Procedure for Data Collection- – – – – – – 28
3.6. Method of Data Analysis – – – – – – – 28

CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
4.0. Introduction- – – – – – – – – 30
4.1. Presentation of Students’ Results- – – – – – 30
4.2 Summary of the Tables- – – – – – – – 33
4.3 Discussion of Findings- – – – – – – – 35

CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES
5.0 Introduction – – – – – – – – – 37
5.1 Summary of Findings- – – – – – – – 37
5.2 Conclusion- – – – – – – – – 38
5.3 Recommendations- – – – – – – – 38
References – – – – – – – – – 40
Appendices – – – – – – – – 45

ABSTRACT
This project was carried out in order investigate into the Effects of Role Play and its Educational Implication on Students Performance in Drama in Selected Senior Secondary Schools in Mangu Local Government Area. The population of the study consisted of all the SS 2 students in the two selected senior secondary schools in the Local Government Area. The sample of the study was 120 S. S 2 students and the researchers separated them into experimental and control group. The experimental group was taught drama using role play method while the control group was taught using lecture method. After the teaching, the two groups were given an exercise. The instrument used for the collection of data was achievement test. The simple mean score was used for data presentation and analysis. The findings of the research indicated that students are who were taught drama using role play method performed better than students who were taught with lecture method with a mean score of 10.25 and 4.50 respectively. In the light of the findings, the following recommendations are made among others: The use of role play method should be made an integral part of teacher education programme in the teacher training college and colleges of education, literature teachers should adopt the role play method in teaching and learning of drama, curriculum planners should fashion curriculum to incorporate role play method in the senior secondary school curriculum.

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the Study
The tradition of drama has an ancient lineage. Indigenous cultures worldwide have complex and diverse oral traditions that are essentially performative (Marshall, 2004). Within Indigenous populations, drama-based activities were used to teach living skills that were not always associated with aesthetic, personal or spiritual expression.
The teaching of drama, as well as other genres of literature (prose and poetry) has been based on different techniques, methods or approaches. In the absence of formal, separate programmes of study for drama, schools have the opportunity to devise their own schemes of work in the subject. Such autonomy represents a tremendous game opportunity to construct a curriculum that is innovative, draws on the teachers’ areas of expertise and reflects the needs of any particular cohort of students. Such freedom, however, also carries the weighty responsibility of ensuring that breadth and balance are achieved and that a number of externally imposed requirements are met within the scheme.
Dealing with these pressures needs not to divert the teacher from the task of helping students’ progress in their knowledge, understanding and skill in tragedy, comedy and tragic comedy which are the three dimensions of drama. What the teacher has to do is to map out proposed content of the drama curriculum against both formal requirements and what they perceive as the students need at any particular point.
According to Aremu(2003), drama appears as a separate heading with the attainment of the target for speaking and listening while in both reading and writing, it is clear that students should also engage in and be taught about drama in its written form. The range of drama activities and skills delineated in the Nigerian curriculum corresponds closely to the literacy strategy framework for teaching. For many reasons, it will doubtless remain the case that students arriving at the secondary school drama room for the first time in year seven will have had a wide variety of experiences in the subject. However, it is becoming increasingly untenable for students entering secondary education to have no knowledge or understanding of the subject at all, as the research should demonstrate.
The requirement needed by the teacher to make effective teaching is resourcefulness. Aguekobuo (2004) is of the view that ways to do this is for the teacher to engage in human capacity building which will involve the use of varieties of strategies, methods and techniques in his teaching. Most importantly are the aids and techniques being used by the teacher to communicate and encourage interactions with his students, the students’ reactions and subsequent outcome of the whole teaching and learning process.
Teaching method as noted by Agwu (2005) refers to the overall plan for the orderly presentation of content of learning materials. Usually a method is driven by a philosophy or an assumption about how students learn in school. Teaching method is therefore, a general process the teacher adopts in presenting his lesson to the students, such that students learn such as assigning roles to individual students in the classroom. The important index in the teaching and learning process is that the students learn at the end of teaching (Aguokogbuo, 2005). Hence, the use of good teaching method in teaching of drama plays an important role in harmonizing classroom instruction.
Nevertheless, it has been noted with dismay that even a subject as important as literature is taught using the traditional lecture method (talk and chalk) (Asogwa & Echemazu, 2011). This old method, conventional as it is, appears to have reduced students’ interest and enrollment in the subject each year for both WAEC and NECO. For instance, Abdulhamid (2010) found that lecture method used by teachers have made many student lost their interest in classroom of learning and consequently may reduce students enrollment in some subject areas like literature. He added that the use of lecture method set the teacher as the only active participant in the class while the students are complete observers or admirers through the lesson. The theory of constructivism sees learning as the active participation in various activities within and outside the classroom. Therefore, inability of teachers to use methods that encourages students’ active participation could lead students to laziness, route memorization which even actually kills students’ interest and attitudes towards the learning of drama. The theory of multiple intelligences holds the view that human beings have fine separate intelligences (visual/spatial, verbal and logical, body/kinetic, musical, inter-personal intelligences). Therefore, if educators teach their students using methods that utilize these intelligences in learning, it would promote students’ interest in learning process. Asogwa and Echemazu (2011) opines that most teachers rely on lecture method because of their experiences as most of them still regard the way they were taught in their own days as the best way to teach in this modern times. However, as research continues, it is in the view of the researchers that role play will enhance the teachin and learning of drama in senior secondary schools in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State.
Role-play method is a dramatic and innovative training technique which helps students to develop both cognitive and affective components of perception and helps in knowing how people behave and why people behave in different ways (Charturvedi, 2009). Oberle (2004) maintained that role-playing activities introduce students to “real world” situations. He added that feelings as well as avenue for expressing personal and sometimes unpopular attitudes and opinions. This indicates that role-playing is highly motivating as the majority of students enjoys these types of activities and become more inspired learners. Morris (2003) found that the role playing helped the students engage in activities at multiple times and places which help them to retain information in their brain always. In role-playing, the teacher first of all gives students roles to play in a classroom and he directs them on what to do. At the end of students’ participation, he/she summarizes the activities in order for students to understand it clearly. In the context of this study, role play method could be referred to activities engaged by teachers and students in the classroom in order to enhance desirable change in behaviour of learner and maximize their interest and academic achievement in drama in secondary schools.
In the light of the above discussions, this research investigates the effects of role play and its implication on senior secondary school students’ performance in drama in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
The importance of literature in the present social, political and religious crisis in Nigeria cannot be over emphasized. Nevertheless, the trend of poor academic achievement among students’ over the years seems to be on the increase. It may be due to teachers’ use of lecture method of teaching which has been the prevalent mode of lesson presentation in secondary schools in Nigeria This method is teacher-centered and does not inspire and motivate students’ interest towards the learning of the subject in senior secondary schools. The students may end up therefore having low interest which could lead to poor achievement in drama as a genre of literature. There appears, to be no available empirical study on the effect of role play method and its implication on students in drama in Senior Secondary Schools in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau state, Nigeria, hence this research work.
1.3. Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of role play and its educational implication on senior secondary schools in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State.
Other specific objectives of the study are:
1. To determine the mean scores of students taught drama using role play method.
2. To find out the mean score performance of students taught drama using conventional method like lecture method.
3. To compare the performance of students taught drama with role play method and those taught with lecture method.
1.4. Research Questions
In order for the research to have a sense of direction, the researchers have formulated the following research questions which will be answered at the end of the research work:
1. What is the total mean score of students taught drama using role play method?
2. What is the total mean score performance of students taught drama using conventional method like lecture method?
3. What is the difference in the performance of students taught drama with role play method and those taught with lecture method?
1.5. Significance of the Study
The significance of this study cannot be overemphasized as it will be of benefit to many education stakeholders which include teachers, government, curriculum planners and students.
The study will be of benefit teachers of literature as they will come to know the importance of using role play method to teach drama as a genre of literature.
Curriculum planners will advocate for the use of role play method in teaching are learning of drama, especially in areas that need to be taught with drama activities.
The government on their part will benefit from this study because after being sensitize with the importance of using role play method in teaching drama, they will sponsor workshops for teachers to encourage them to use this method to enhance the teaching and learning of drama.
The students who are at the centre of this research have a lot to benefit. The recommendations of work, if properly utilized by the government, curriculum planners and teachers, will go a long way in motivating them to learn drama therefore, their academic performance will be enhanced as well.
Finally, the research will also be a source of reference material for future researchers who wish to carry out research in similar field.
1.6. Scope/Delimitation of the Study
The study covers the effects of role play method and its implication on senior secondary school students in drama. It is restricted to two selected senior secondary schools in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State. These schools are:
1. Government Secondary School, Mangu and
2. Nakam Memorial College, Panyam
However, it is important to note that despite the fact that the study is limited to the selected secondary schools and local government area, its findings can be generalized to other parts of the state and country at large.