The education on essay writing has focused on lectures led by teachers. It has been a crash course in which leaners have been taught including interpretation of the existing asked questions and summary of background knowledge. This is a method of educ...
The education on essay writing has focused on lectures led by teachers. It has been a crash course in which leaners have been taught including interpretation of the existing asked questions and summary of background knowledge. This is a method of education neither for satisfying learners as users of education nor for fulfilling the purposes of essay writing education. According to the directions of Korean language subject in the curriculum in 2007 newly revised by the 7th National Education Curriculum, the teaching methods are centered on learners and production & acceptance capability based on discourse and writing is concentrated. This indicates essay writing is a necessary course in the revised education curriculum and it is significant that forum theater is utilized through the guide. However in actual education, methods of learning are still teacher-centered. Considering that constructivist classes in which learners construct knowledge subjectively rather than classes in which knowledge is delivered to students unilaterally may contribute to the realization of abundant educational values, the author in this study researched a guide in which panel forum theater is used in essay writing education.
First, the author performed instructions by using of lectures, discussion activity, and panel forum theater for groups, and the capability of essay writing of the students were verified through the scores of essay writing tests before and after the program. The scores of the group underwent panel forum theater in 'understanding & analysis,' 'reasoning,' 'creativity,' and 'expression' as the sub-factors of essay writing capability evaluated before and after the program rose most. Reasoning, in particular, increased most, which indicates that role transfer in the panel forum theater positively affects the logicality and ability of understanding circumstances of the students.
Second, the author asked the students to answer questionnaire on 'the attitude of watching television' after the class in order to identify the results of the study on the ability of understanding themes of the students according to the methods of teaching. After essay writing was taught about the theme of 'television is an idiot box,' whether the students judged and accepted television or media on their subjective position was researched. The results showed that the group performed of forum theater was highest in the score. This indicates that students performed of essay writing class through forum theater were developed of their ability of understanding themes and life adaptability on their subjective position.
Third, the responses of the students on forum theater were verified through questionnaire survey. Out of the subjects, 74% were satisfied with the forum theater, and most students were positive in the interest, positiveness, understanding, recommendation, cooperation, favorableness, and self-confidence for the forum theater. The results showed that the forum theater was effective in learner-centered essay writing education.
Panel forum theater was sufficiently effective for learners to have an interest in and actively to participate in the class. In particular, it is effective method in that learners as the subject of the class expressed their thoughts freely, that they resolved problems by themselves by active interaction with other learners, and that the purposes of essay writing education were attained on the basis of practical experience.
However, this study has limitations as follows. Given the fact that the subjects of this study were students of seven classes in co-ed junior-high schools located in Seoul, the results might be different according to regions or conditions of schools. Also, the quality of the class may be differentiated according to the knowledge and experience of instructors on forum theater. Therefore, it is expected that further studies on forum theater contribute to significant essay writing education in schools.