This is an abstract from a recent piece of research:

‘Fiction, whether in the form of storytelling or plays, has a particular attraction for us: we repeatedly return to it and are willing to invest money and time in doing so. Why this is so is an evolutionary enigma that has been surprisingly underexplored. We hypothesize that emotionally arousing drama, in particular, triggers the same neurobiological mechanism (the endorphin system, reflected in increased pain thresholds) that underpins anthropoid primate and human social bonding. We show that, compared to subjects who watch an emotionally neutral film, subjects who watch an emotionally arousing film have increased pain thresholds and an increased sense of group bonding.’

(Dunbar et al., 2016)

Essentially, this research shows that stories, storytelling and watching drama on the stage or in a movie can engage our emotions and have a physical effect on our bodies. It is a positive effect – endorphins are released. These are the chemicals that make us feel joy and feel connected to other humans. Having plenty of these endorphins helps us to feel happy and to tolerate pain.

It follows then, that creating space in our crowded curriculum, not only to read and discuss the stories we read in our class books but to act out those stories and experience the emotions within them can be good for the mental health of our students.

Jules often provides twilight sessions on Storytelling Schools’ method. She describes the following:

‘Imagine delivering training to teachers between the hours of 3.30pm and 5.30pm. Teachers are tired, overstimulated, hungry, frustrated and often needing to get on with tasks that have a deadline looming. What cuts through that to get their attention?

Firstly, I listen to their needs and frustrations and make sure I’m adapting what I deliver so that it meets their varied needs. I want to make sure I’m not wasting anyone’s time.

Next, I tell them a story and engage their emotions. This when the room gets still and people are clearly responding. Their faces might not show much of a response or much joy but they’re not on their phones or doodling on a notepad. They are in the story.

Then, I get them playing drama games. We start with ‘Tell me more’ (make this a link) and then we move on to playing those low-stakes talk games in-role. That’s when the joy starts to leak out. It starts with a suppressed giggle – as if it is naughty to giggle in a training session… and I stay well away from the front of the room until the laughter has built into something truly joyous. 

Of course, the joy was what I was hoping for.’

Joy is good for everyone.

However, there is more research to show that engaging the emotions (joy being the nicest of these) also wakes up certain parts of our brain – the parts involved with:

• Perception

• Attention

• Learning

• Memory

• Reasoning

• Problem solving

(Robert Sylwester, cited in Tyng et al., 2017)

These are all the things we want to wake up in the classroom to maximise learning.

So, whilst the children often think that they are not ‘working’ – they are ‘having fun’ when they are learning through drama, there is a lot to suggest that learning through drama-based activities is likely to be incredibly effective learning in terms of their brains paying more attention.

So, Let’s Do Drama just for the sheer joy of it, because those positive emotions and endorphins will be doing more than just improving our well-being – they’ll be actively helping the children to focus on learning.

 

Post Script – you may have noticed that when Jules described the training sessions with adults, she warmed them up to the drama slowly – she didn’t expect them to be ready for the big scene in Wuthering Heights straight after an hour of Y2 ICT with dodgy chromebooks. And you will need to warm your children up gently to find the joy in teaching through drama. You might want to start by watching our webinar on warm-ups.

 

References: 

Dunbar, R.I., Teasdale, B., Thompson, J., Budelmann, F., Duncan, S., van Emde Boas, E. and Maguire, L., (2016) Emotional arousal when watching drama increases pain threshold and social bonding. Royal Society Open Science, 3(9), p.160288. doi: 10.1098/rsos.160288.

Tyng, C.M., Amin, H.U., Saad, M.N.M. and Malik, A.S., (2017) The influences of emotion on learning and memory. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, p.1454.