ROLE PLAY

ASHLEIGH TAYLOR, ELLIE WOTHERSPOON, LOUISE MCKENZIE & TOM COE

WHAT IS ROLE PLAY?

•Take a gallery walk to find out what

role-play means to you and your peers.
FEATURES OF ROLE PLAY

• Most important feature is an unrehearsed dramatization where students

improvise behaviours that show how they think their character would act
• Class is given general information on the situation and each ‘actor’ is given
specific information on their character
• Given time to talk about roles, then act out their roles in accordance with
the interpretation of the character
FEATURES OF ROLE-PLAY

• Provides an opportunity for students to become more deeply involved in thinking about
how they would react in real world situations
• Can be designed to help learners understand feelings and perspectives of others
• Help students develop specific skills
• Teach students about occupations
• Must be a learning experience
• Role plays are not simulations, as they give students the opportunity to have freedom
over their choices as they would in real life
WHY USE ROLE PLAY?

• Crown: Student and the world around them

• Stem: Student’s growth
• Roots: Diverse learning through education
WHY USE ROLE PLAY?

• Learning should involve:

1. Cultivation of academic knowledge,
2. Development of the person
3. Development of interpersonal skills and understanding to enable
relevant, respectful and real connections with community, culture and
the world.

• Role play can be used as a teaching tool to develop personal,

academic and interpersonal skills and knowledge.
ROLE PLAY AS AN ACADEMIC TEACHING STRATEGY:
THE ROOTS OF THE SCSA LOGO
• Engages students in activities that bring realism to their learning to make it
relevant transforming content from information into experience
• Encourages participation vs learning by absorption
• Can help EALD students understand important concepts that are difficult for
them to understand through verbal explanations
• Supported by theories of social constructivism: Effective learning takes place
when teachers challenge students with problems that are beyond their existing
level of experience and facilitate the process of finding the solution to such
problems.
ROLE PLAY AS A ‘PERSONAL’ TEACHING STRATEGY:
THE STEM OF THE SCSA LOGO
• Develop student’s self-confidence, self-esteem and self-image and a range of
communication and social interaction skills
• Provides an opportunity to deal with complex social, moral, ethical and
emotional issues in concrete ways in a safe environment
• Students can experiment, take risks and think critically and creatively
• Provides students with opportunities to explore values and issues relevant to
their needs and culture, in their own language, and with stimulation and instant
feedback from their peers
ROLE PLAY AS A UNIVERSAL TEACHING STRATEGY:
THE CROWN OF THE SCSA LOGO
• Can help students understand the feeling and attitudes of others by experiencing
situations rather than just hearing about them
• Learners can look at issues from new perspectives and appreciate the complexity of real
world problems
• Enables students to explore historical or contemporary situations in which there are
conflicting ideologies caused by differences in race, age, gender, religion, nationality or
ethnic background
• Students can become aware of the differences in POV
• Citizenship skill can be developed through the solution of intergroup and interpersonal
problems
TO FACILITATE EFFECTIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCES,
A ROLE-PLAYING GAME MAY HAVE:

1. Purposeful structure and narrative for learning

2. Meaningful problems to solve
3. Immediate motivation for pursuing the
knowledge required
ROLE-PLAY AND ICT

• The effective outcomes of role play can also be achieved with the integration of ICT.
• There are numerous role playing games available for computers, mobile devices and
gaming consoles.
• Some are suitable for developing students thinking and decision making skills
• For the integration of role play and ICT to become a beneficial learning experience, the
game needs to be designed explicitly to achieve identified learning goals
• To facilitate effective learning experiences, a role-playing game may have: a purposeful
structure and narrative for learning, meaningful problems to solve and an immediate
motivation for pursuing the knowledge required
 8 STEPS TO PREPARING FOR AND USING ROLE-PLAY

1)Develop the resource 5)Select participants

2)Review your role play 6)Clarify expectations

3)Develop confidence 7)Conduct the role play

4)Brief your students 8)Debrief the experience

ISSUES TO CONSIDER

• Roleplay is not considered an efficient teaching strategy for all

areas of teaching.
• It can be very time consuming for the teacher.
• It takes a lot of in-class learning time.
• Students may be reluctant to participate, especially if the
teacher is not enthusiastic about the task.
SUGGESTIONS FOR USING ROLE PLAY

• Teaching relationship skills

• Teaching languages
• Role-play as assessment
• Foster a trusting and confident classroom
REFLECTING ON ROLE-PLAY

•Understanding •Differences
•Comfort/distress •Outcomes
•Authenticity •Improvements
ROLE-PLAY RESOURCES:
VISIT OUR WEEBLY FOR MORE INFORMATION
• https://teachingroleplay.weebly.com/