猛男情报局 Professor Discusses Using Educational Drama and Theater Pedagogy in Training EFL Teachers
Her Fulbright Fellowship took her all the way to Austria, but Dr. Wendy Mages, Associate Professor of Childhood Education at 猛男情报局 College, is taking the lessons she learned there and applying them to her work in New York.
She鈥檚 also sharing those lessons with colleagues. On April 7, 2019, Mages presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference, held in Toronto, Canada. Her presentation, 鈥淓ducational Drama and Theater Pedagogy as an Integral Part of Training EFL Teachers,鈥� focused on the integration of education drama and theater into a teacher preparation program for those who plan to teach English-as-a-foreign-language.
The presentation was an extension of Mages鈥� own background and interests. She has bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees in theater; she worked in museum education and children鈥檚 television, often drawing upon drama and theater to educate; and her master鈥檚 thesis and dissertation each focused on how drama and theater techniques could promote learning and development.
During her Fulbright Fellowship in Austria, Mages examined cohorts of Austrian teachers-in-training and studied their responses to creating and performing a play.
鈥淚 really appreciated how much time and effort the Austrian teacher educators and their teacher candidates put into their work on this project, as developing a script and producing a play is a time-intensive endeavor,鈥� Mages noted. 鈥淭heir collaborative spirit was wonderful to witness.鈥�
She continued: 鈥淚 also appreciated the high quality of the performances and how well the teacher candidates were able to engage their audiences. This was quite impressive, as many of the teacher candidates had little prior experience with drama or theatre. Importantly, most of the teacher candidates reported that engaging in this program helped them hone their English-language skills.鈥�
Mages said that the program led her to pursue new methods of integrating drama and theatre into coursework at 猛男情报局 College, as well as into extracurricular programming.
While at AERA, Mages attended a variety of research sessions and was particularly impressed by research presentations on early childhood education, early childhood language development, arts-based educational research and interdisciplinary approaches to STEM education and the arts.
She was further inspired by fellow AERA attendees, who 鈥渟hared interesting insights and encouraged [her] to publish this research, as they felt it would make a valuable contribution to the field.鈥�
The knowledge gained by Mages won鈥檛 be confined to a Toronto hotel ballroom, however. She intends to continue folding this information into her research and into presentations she will be making this summer, including one in Zug, Switzerland, which focuses on educational drama and theatre in second- and foreign-language teaching.