I find role play to be a good instructional tool in the classrooom. wh
I find role play to be a good tool in the class room what is your experience?
Peter,
I use role playing and case studies a lot in my classes. Each yields a different outcome but both provide opportunities for students to make applications of the content and see the relevance of what they are learning. They are both win win learning activities.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Hello Peter,
I also find role playing a good instructional tool. Especially when we are trying to motivate and allow that person to see different sides from all angles. There should be a scenario played out at times to allow for the students to be creative.
How would you allow for creativity from your students?
I am a first time teacher and plan to use role playing in a medical emergency class. Do you have any ideas on how to keep all students engaged? I am fearful of the same students participating and other just watching? I do believe however that role playing does instill knowledge.
Janice,
Your first role play you can ask for volunteers just to get started and after that for other role plays you can assign students. This way you can rotate through the class and every student knows he/she will be a part of the role playing exercise. When I use role play I have the non-participating students serve as the audience and I stop the exercise at different times and ask the audience (students) questions about what they have just seen and heard. This way everyone is involved even if not directly in the role play. To do the stop, I say "Step Out" and everyone drops their role (actors and audience) and we have our discussion. Hope this information will help you with your role playing effort.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I have used role play for many years in the medical office setting and I love the real life experience it provides my students. I would however like examples of how to incorporate it into my current class of computer information systems. Any ideas?
Billie Jo,
I would take the same idea in terms of real life experiences and put them into the form of case studies. Then I would put the students into work groups of 3-4 individuals and have them work through the possible solutions to the cases. This is not the same a role playing but it is close because the students will be putting themselves in the situations outlined in the case studies and this gives them problem solving experience.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I am a new instructor. I need to find different methods to keep my nursing students engaged. I have never used role play before but I intend to incorporate it into this next term.
Thank you for the tips on how to keep all students involved. This method might be best utilized in the lab setting.
Michelle,
I think you will like the results you get from having your students role play different situations. My students really get into the roles they are assigned and we have some great post role playing discussions.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
