This study presents a discussion about what approaches and directions were needed for play education based on the recognition of the importance of conflicts in a play.
In a play, the protagonist has a desire related to his or her goal and takes speci...
This study presents a discussion about what approaches and directions were needed for play education based on the recognition of the importance of conflicts in a play.
In a play, the protagonist has a desire related to his or her goal and takes specific actions to implement the desire. In the process, there appear a force trying to stop the protagonist from achieving the desire and eventually a confrontation between them. And the confrontation is called a conflict. Based on those theoretic backgrounds, the study examined the aspects of conflicts according to the causes of conflicts and the resulting actions of the characters.
In an attempt to analyze the aspects of conflicts in the literary works of the current curriculum, the investigator reviewed all the plays in the 18 literature textbooks, classified them according to the types of conflicts, and selected the ones that seemed proper to teach about conflicts with.
In 「Towards the Sun」, the conflicts were interpreted around value differences between the generations. The concerned textbook only focused on the results of the conflicts without concrete suggestions or instructions about the conflicts.
In 「The Cattle」, conflicts around the cattle between the social classes were interpreted. The textbook, however, introduced the part that's not related to the conflicts, which made it difficult to do the learning activities. One of the learning activities asked the students to find the hidden meanings of the conflicts after presenting the contents of the conflicts. But the students must have difficulties doing that activity since there were no activities of looking for or understanding the conflicts. It's also pointed out that the conflict interpretation suggested in the textbook left a huge room for questioning.
And in 「A Ship Full of Fish」, conflicts were caused by absurd contracts between those who had and those who didn't. The textbook, however, demonstrated its limitations by focusing on the conflicts between Gomchi and Gupodaek.
Based on those problems examined, the following directions were suggested for conflict instruction in play education; first, the main conflict should be reconsidered. The right interpretation of conflicts deserves the most attention since it's the very basic premise of conflict instruction. Second, the scope of the part introduced in the textbook needs a consideration, as well. Most of the textbooks introduce only a part of the entire play, which is not a good practice to read conflicts and to grasp the overall story. And finally, a systematic approach should be made to conflicts by the learning activities taking into account the causes, the specific actions, the resulting conflicts, and the consequences.
The study searched for directions in teaching conflicts based on the importance of conflicts in a play but failed to provide detailed instructions not being able to predict various variables on the field of education and neglected other conflicts besides the main ones. But it does claim its significance in that it recognized a need for conflict instruction and suggested some directions for it. Finally, it's maintained that plays should be reconsidered in the field of literature education and that more research efforts should be invested into play education.