Description
Effective communication is a pivotal step towards creating a positive learning environment at school, as it can help teachers in the creation of a safe and inclusive classroom, where conflicts are resolved through creativity and collaboration.
On top of this, it allows educators to better motivate their students and make them aware of the importance of a subject.
This course will show how different forms of performance art, such as theatre, storytelling, and role-play, can promote effective communication, therefore increasing creativity and helping in the prevention, management, and resolution of conflicts.
Course participants will learn how to communicate effectively within the classroom, through performance art techniques and active listening. Participants will also explore how to employ different forms of performance art to foster empathy and emotional intelligence.
By the end of the course, the participants will have discovered all the ways in which performance art can encourage effective communication, and they will have learned how to exploit it in order to foster creativity and mediate conflict. They will have also gained several tools to create a positive learning environment that motivates students to collaborate.
Learning outcomes
The course will help the participants to:
- Model the behavior of their students through a narrative-based inquiry approach;
- Use storytelling as an expressive tool for a student-centered approach;
- Understand the relation between empathy and performance art;
- Use body language as a communicative and expressive tool;
- Foster emotional intelligence among students;
- Resolve conflicts through active listening;
- Design and deliver activities in which performance art supports conflict resolution.
Tentative schedule
Day 1 – Introduction to the course, art, and communication
- Introduction to the course, the school, and the external week activities;
- Icebreaker activities;
- Presentations of the participants’ schools;
- The role of art as a communicative tool.
Day 2 – Art as therapy
- The keys to creating a positive learning environment: empathy, active listening, and reformulation;
- Developing emotional intelligence with the Hero’s Journey;
- Storytelling for understanding the other: writing a story.
Day 3 – Performance art in conflict resolution
- Active listening: the process of translation;
- Theatre as a therapy;
- Practical activities and role-play for conflict resolution and improving communication.
Day 4 – Storytelling and video
- Preparing a storyboard;
- Video making for increasing creativity and collaboration;
- Using a green screen to create new scenarios.
Day 5 – Oral communication
- Using radio and podcasts in the classroom;
- The role of interviews: a powerful tool to increase mutual understanding;
- Art-making activity: implementing performances in the classroom.
Day 6 – Course closure and cultural activities
- Course evaluation: round-up of acquired competences, feedback, and discussion;
- Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance;
- Excursion and other external cultural activities.