Reactions: Role-Play Activity

In place of having the typical lecture during our weekly group seminar for Educational Psychology last Monday evening, we instead partook in an instructive and interesting role-play activity. This activity forced me and my classmates to take on a specific point of view and then defend that view, whether we truly supported it or not. Additionally, the role-play also served as an example of a potentially effective teaching method for future use in our classrooms.

The role-play activity involved an imaginary proposal for a Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP): a district-wide strategy to employ new methods for gathering data via standardized tests, to set higher standards for students and teachers in accordance with No Child Left Behind legislation, and to implement punitive measures for those who failed to meet expectations. In small groups, we were to take on a role and prepare to defend our position for or against the plan at the upcoming school board meeting. My small group chose to assume the role of parents of low-achieving students and oppose the plan. We chose this position because it was so far removed from any of our previous experiences; as motivated learners from middle class families, our parents typically viewed themselves as parents of high-achieving students. In all likelihood, plans like the proposed CSIP would have gained the support of my mother and father, who have always wanted challenges and opportunities for me and my siblings.

Despite the fact that our role was rather unfamiliar, I did not find it unusually difficult to formulate an argument against the proposal from this perspective. In fact, when listening to other groups present their statements for or against the plan, I found myself being particularly critical of their arguments and rationales because I was already so entrenched in my opinion, even though it really wasn’t my own. It seemed the situation - the crowded room, the zealous claims of my classmates, the provocative questions of our professors, etc. – somehow affected me and, like most of the other students, I found myself wanting to be heard. Certainly, the activity allowed me, on the surface at least, to begin to appreciate the difficulties surrounding such issues as grade-level standards, testing, No Child Left Behind, and the politics of education. After our school board meeting, I recognize how complicated it must be to reach a fair, agreed-upon, and morally-acceptable decision regarding school improvement.

On another level, this activity also proved to me that role-play can be utilized as a valuable teaching tool. My classmates and I took the activity seriously, and I feel I learned more from our school board meeting than I might have if someone had merely stood in front of me and lectured on the complexities and problems that arise when dealing with politics in education.