Transition Year

Curriculum Support Service

Supporting
Active
Teaching
and
Learning

Role Play
 Supporting Active Teaching and Learning
Role Play
Pilot Material for Transition Year
Developed by the Transition Year Curriculum Support Service:
Patsy Sweeney, Lynda O’Toole, Geraldine Simmie,
Denise Kelly, Michael O’Leary, Gerry Jeffers.
June 2000

The team wishes to acknowledge all the materials developed by various TY colleagues
which proved invaluable in compiling this resource

Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

Blackrock Education Centre, Kill Avenue, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin
Tel 01-2301671, Fax 01-2301612
E-mail ty@blackrock-edu.ie
Secretary to the Service: Phil Halpin
 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service 1

Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

Supporting active teaching and learning

Introduction
A key feature of Transition Year should be the use of a wide range of teaching/learning methodologies
and situations. The Guidelines for Schools1 issued by the Department of Education and Science are
very clear on this point.

Inspectors’ evaluations of the Transition Year Programme reinforce this emphasis on varied teaching
and learning. For example:

Most schools were providing pupils with as wide a range of stimulating

activities and learning experiences as possible. In this regard, activity based
learning projects were very much in evidence1

In the document Writing the Transition Year Programme, produced last year by the Support Service
and the Inspectorate, a range of examples of approaches are provided:

• negotiated learning • classroom discussion • formal input by teacher

• research • debates • pair work
• practical work • demonstrations • group work
• role-play • interviews • simulations
• project work • use of audio tapes • use of video tapes
• visiting speakers • visualisation • study visits
• computer-based learning • field trips • oral presentations
• drama in education exercises

From a teacher’s point of view, no matter what the subject or module being taught, a critical question
is to decide on the best combination of strategies which will facilitate valid and worthwhile learning
experiences for all the students in a Transition Year class. The greater the teacher’s repertoire of skills,
the more likely is she or he to vary the learning opportunities on offer to students.

This series of guides aims to assist teachers in extending their professional competences. The ideas
and suggestions in the following pages have been derived primarily from experiences within Transition
Year classes. Ideally they should be explored within an in-career development workshop.

It is the wish of the team working on the support service that this guide will encourage more teachers
to use role-play in appropriate situations with their Transition Year students so that students’ learning
is enriched. We wish you well in that challenge.

1. Department of Education (1996): Transition Year Programme 1994-1995. An Evaluation by the Inspectorate of the Department of Education. Page 20.
2 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

ROLE-PLAY

Definition The use of role-play as an educational technique is part of the wider

set of techniques that have collectively become known as gaming and
simulation. Role-play is a learning device used to explore issues,
situations, themes, or texts where diverse opinions need to be
exposed and ideas require fleshing out. Through this method, young
people have opportunities to express their feelings, explore their
ideas of reality and be confronted with the consequences of their
actions. They may also be asked to explore more complex social
situations and inter-relationships.

Relationship to z ‘A key feature of Transition Year should be the use of a wide range
Transition Year of teaching/learning methodologies’
Guidelines z Transition Year aims to educate ‘for maturity with the emphasis on
personal development including social awareness and increased
social competence’

z ‘The Transition Year should help facilitate personal growth and

social development as a central concern of the school through
active participation in a programme where the approach process is
as important as the content.’

Benefits to students Role-play ... trains you to pick your spot on the stage of life and stand on
it with dignity.

Role-play
z is student-centred

z is active. Participants do not merely discuss theoretical problems

of behaviour and alternative ways of acting, they observe and
practise the new ways of behaving
z adds life and immediacy to academic descriptive material (History,
Geography, English, Economics)
z helps facilitate the development of interpersonal and
communication skills
z builds confidence
 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service 3

z provides educational opportunities to practise making

forays into the unknown in supported non-damaging
situations
z facilitates an empathy with and a deeper understanding
of the motives of the character/ type of person being
played
z takes ‘old knowledge’ and through classroom
experiences adds to this so that the result is ‘new
knowledge’
z can offer the learner an alternative angle from which to
view a piece of text, a social issue, etc.

z enables the student to express hidden feelings

z motivates students for future learning.

Learning Through taking part in role-play, students should be able to:

outcomes z listen to the instructions given by the teacher and to
others involved in the role-play as it progresses

z communicate more effectively

z demonstrate skills of observation and active listening to

other students

z demonstrate skills of negotiation, dealing with customers,

chairing meetings, etc.

z analyse, reflect on and evaluate their own interpretation

of the role and the interpretation of others

z discuss with a deeper understanding the

character/concept/issue under examination

z identify the advantages of the technique as an active

learning methodology

z devise appropriate role-play situations for the purpose of

working out future issues or exploring other texts,
themes, characters, etc.
4 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

Benefits to teacher Role-play

z gives back to students some responsibility for the
direction of learning

z motivates students

z offers teacher opportunities to see other qualities in

students

z enables teacher to become a facilitator of learning rather

than a disseminator of knowledge

z provides an alternative method of teaching

z helps students retain the understanding which has been

developed through active learning

z allows teacher to play a role too!

General Like other teaching tools role-play is one which requires a lot of
considerations care and skill. Techniques are needed to ensure that the role-
play which takes place is safe and educationally worthwhile.
Role-play makes demands on the teacher’s sensibilities and
receptivity since there must be a constant interplay between
student and teacher. Hence creating the right environment is
critical.

Most people have a reasonable capacity for interacting with

others and reacting to the needs of a situation; with the right
training most teachers can run role-plays very successfully. The
competence which is required can be broken down into three
aspects:

1. A thorough knowledge of the methodology

 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service 5

2. Sensitivity to individual and group behaviour - the teacher

needs to be aware of the potential for bullying,
inappropriate personal disclosure, or over-emotional
involvement

3. Self-knowledge - if, for example, the teacher is under

stress, facilitation of role-play which deals with sensitive
issues may not be a good idea. It is essential that the
teacher is capable of supporting the students without
demanding anything in return.

The single greatest challenge for the teacher in using this

approach lies in creating an atmosphere which encourages
students to take the exercise seriously and not just view it as
‘a game’ (affected accents, for example, unless they have a
valid place in the role-play should be discouraged). A
development from simple role-play occurs when students
are able to shake off their own personae and wholeheartedly
take on the personality of the character they are playing. By
the same token, it is very important that debriefing and de-
roling takes place after the activity, to allow students to make
a conscious shift from the role to who they really are.

Uses of Role-Play The most obvious uses of role-play are in those areas which
deal primarily with aspects of communication. Role-play is a
highly verbalised procedure. It is therefore very well suited
to those subjects which deal with linguistic ability, namely
languages, literacy and social skills training. It can also be a
very effective methodology for building confidence and
communication skills in less articulate young people.

There are a number of ways in which role-play can be fitted into

the curriculum:
z As an introduction to the subject, e.g. Two neighbours
discuss a pollution problem in their housing
development; this can lead into environmental studies
topic in the Geography classroom
6 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

z As a natural follow-up to a point being explored, e.g. In

the CSPE classroom where the role of the local politician
is being explored the students may be placed in a situation
where they ‘meet a local politician’ and have an
opportunity to lobby him/her about an issue which is of
relevance to their school.

z As a central feature of the subject course; role-play as a

learning methodology is explored in the Drama classroom.

z As a warm-up/break/interlude from more routine forms of

learning, e.g. While reading the text of The Field the
students may be invited to get into role and explore how
it might feel to have something you worked hard for all
your life, taken away from you.

z As revision. Students might be asked to play interviewer

and interviewee in order to revise the different reactions
to the 1916 Rising.

z As assessment. Language skills might be put into practice

‘in the cinema’, ‘in the train station’, or ‘in the hospital’.

Basic Categories Role-play can be divided into two main categories:

of Role-Play 1. The practice of skills and techniques, e.g. students may be
asked to practise their public speaking skills in a simulated
Town Council Meeting.
2. Changes in understanding, feelings and attitudes, e.g.
students may be asked to explore how it might feel to
belong to a minority group.
The conduct of the lesson must be adapted to the type of
role-play used. If the role-play is planned for the practice of
skills and techniques, the teacher will have to ensure that the
skills needed to speak in public have been
 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service 7

taught/demonstrated. The environment and role instructions

will be carefully chosen to simulate as closely as possible the
constraints and problems likely to be encountered in a real-
life situation. The student is likely to be given certain criteria
that are deemed essential elements of public speech (clarity
of diction, eye-contact, pace, etc.) and so these would form
the basis of the de-briefing afterwards.
The conduct of the second type of role-play, intended to
explore feelings and attitudes, is quite different. The initial
introduction will be more concerned with describing the
problem than offering a solution. The framework for the
role-play itself will be less tightly constrained so as to allow
the students more scope to involve themselves and use their
own personalities and experience. During the running of the
role-play different methods such as shadowing, ‘alter ego’
and group consultancy can be used to draw out special
aspects. The role-play may become emotional as students
are drawn into exploring their own and others’ feelings.
After the role-play has finished the teacher will spend some
time probing the reasons for certain responses and will
conduct a carefully structured debriefing to ensure that all
students are brought back to reality and have no remaining
worries about the exercise.
There are different ways to classify role-play (see Shaw 1980
and Wohlking 1980). One useful way is to subdivide the two
categories above into five functions which a role-play can
fulfil:
1. Describe
2. Demonstrate
3. Practise
4. Reflect
5. Sensitise

1. Describe Here, role-play is used to describe a situation by means of

dramatisation rather than by pure verbal description. Two
teenagers may want to show their peers how they see the
problem of parental control in a typical situation. This
category is very close to that of drama. Indeed it overlaps
8 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

with improvised ‘street theatre’ or ‘educational drama’. The

difference lies in the purpose of role-play in the classroom
compared to that of drama.
Teachers using Drama in education ... ‘must understand about the
differences in the experience of, on the one hand, dramatising for
others and on the other, making drama serve the needs of those
who create it whilst they are creating it’. (Dorothy Heathcote)
In the classroom, entertainment of an audience is not important
and the intent is to start a discussion and/or other educational
activities. The students will need to have an understanding of the
situation and the briefing, if any, will concentrate on the facts of the
situation (e.g. in the example of the exploration of parental control,
issues such as the legal age for drinking, and other legal
responsibilities of parents, might be discussed).
The first stages of debriefing will be restricted to correcting any
factual errors before going into a discussion or other follow-up
activity using the subject presented.

2. Demonstrate This is similar to the previous category but the intention here is to
give the student a demonstration to be copied, i.e. a role model.
Here again the emotional involvement is minimal. The emphasis is
on the technique or skill being demonstrated. Likewise, the
debriefing should not be problematic in that the students should be
capable of discriminating between the critical actions of the model,
e.g. laboratory experiments, the skill of rebuttal in debating, or
telephoning for a work experience placement.

3. Practise The previous two types of role-play tend not to be found in their
pure form but as part of other types of role-play. This third kind is
much more common. Typical situations might include students
trying out their language skills in a practical situation, dealing with
aggression in the playground, practising interview or other social
skills. Preparation for this type of role-play should be detailed. The
student should be clear about the task to be performed. There
must be a list of dos and don’ts, some guidance on how to carry out
the task. This will also provide the framework for follow-up
discussion and evaluation at the end.
 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service 9

It is very likely that the student will need a second person to

act in role with him/her as the bully/customer/interviewer,
etc. The student will benefit through the observation of
peers or the use of videotape, but of course an element of
emotional risk-taking is part of such an exercise. Also it is
possible that the person ‘playing’ opposite may ‘suffer’ to
some extent. This depends on the degree of realism with
which the role-play is staged.
The level of emotion engendered by the role-play can be
controlled to a great extent by the teacher. For example,
answering questions of a member of the Garda Síochána at a
routine road block is not in itself an emotional experience
but if the person playing the part of the garda is told that he
dislikes the protagonist’s race then a certain amount of
emotion will be generated. Conversely, breaking the news of
a death will normally be a traumatic experience but by taking
the learner through a series of graded exercises and then
giving him/her a detailed method of approach, the event
might become less traumatic.
The student should be given the opportunity to ‘have
another go’ after having heard the constructive criticisms of
teacher and observers.

4. Reflect In this situation the purpose of the role-play is to encourage

the students to concentrate on motivation and reasons for
actions. The emphasis is on observation and reflection. The
class might be designed, for example, to explore the whole
issue of behaviour in groups and to encourage students to
look at ‘the gang mentality’. So if a scenario is described and
students are asked to role-play the situation as it develops,
they will engage in thinking as well as action. There will be a
continual analysis of what is going on and its effects on others.
In this case the feedback is continuous and the teacher’s
function is to ensure that the students are able to look at
themselves as they perform the task.
This activity works well where characters from a text are to
be explored. The teacher might place the characters at a
party and ask them to interact in-role. The emphasis would
be on why character X says what she does to character Y, or
10 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

what motivates character A to treat character B in this way, etc.

This exercise encourages students to gain a deeper insight into
the motivations of the characters they have been reading about.

5. Sensitise This is probably the most risky type of role-play in that it

involves a greater element of emotion. The teacher in this case
plays the role of facilitator rather than teacher, creating an
environment which allows emotions to be brought to the
surface and then analysed afterwards. This enables students to
recollect the emotion, sensitise themselves to its appearance,
and remember it on future occasions.
The scenario for this type of session varies from the relatively
unthreatening role-play undertaken to sensitise oneself to the
feelings of another person, to the highly charged and potentially
threatening activities used in therapeutic groups. The dividing
line is a thin one. The teacher who instructs students to expand
and examine their emotions must be aware of straying into
potentially dangerous territory. Disclosure in front of a whole
class can be a threatening experience for young people and so
this area must be treated very sensitively.
The key factor here is the extent to which the pre-play
instructions and post-play discussion dwell on the actual
personality and being of the student. If the purpose of the role-
play is clearly to become aware of the problems and points of
view of others, whether by trying to take on their
characteristics or by putting oneself (as oneself) in their
environment, then any emotional feelings can be ‘distanced’ by
the fact that we are discussing the emotions created within the
role of the character.
If, on the other hand, the emphasis is on the real idiosyncratic
personality of the student, and the emotional consequences of
this in the role-play situation, then one is dealing with a
therapeutic situation in which the intent is to change some
aspect of the personality of the student.
 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service 11

The implications are obvious. If the teacher wants to keep

the role-play restricted to a normal educational milieu then
he/she must limit the amount of probing which is allowed in
the post-play discussion.
For example, if the role play is about a student being unjustly
accused of wrong-doing by a teacher the post-play discussion
might go like this:
Teacher: How did you feel when you entered his office to
face the accusation?
Student: I felt frightened.
Teacher: Why did you feel frightened?
Student: Because the expression on his face said he
already had decided I was guilty and he is so much bigger
than me when he’s standing up.
Up until this point the discussion has not been
threatening because the focus is on the student in role.
Teacher: Have you ever felt like that in real life?
Now we are getting on more sensitive ground.
Student: Yes.
At this point the teacher has a choice of probing into the
student’s personal life and emotional problems, or using the
experience as a base from which to draw general lessons and
follow-up points. Either:
Teacher: Tell us more about the times when you had
these feelings of fear when faced by authority. What is it
that makes you feel that way?
or.....
Teacher: Why do you think that people have feelings of
fear when faced by authority?
For the teacher, the question to keep in mind is, ‘What is the
purpose of the role-play? Am I trying to explore the hidden
psyche of the student or the problem situation that we are
studying?’ The questions will then automatically tune
themselves to probe either the person or the role character
and situation.
12 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

Key Stages 1. Create a safe environment

in Role-Play 2. Negotiate ground rules

3. Lead into role-play

4. Design the role-play

5. Define the roles

6. Write the role descriptions

7. Run the role-play

8. Use teacher in-role

9. Debrief

10. Assess and evaluate

1. Create a Safe It is vital that a ‘safe’ environment is created in the

Environment classroom, i.e. one in which the student can feel free to
express himself/herself through role-play without the risk of
being laughed at or judged. Role-play exposes attitudes and
feelings in a way which is positive, because they are
acknowledged as a legitimate area for discussion and analysis,
and also in a way which is safe because the student’s own
behaviour is not at issue - it is the student-in-role which is
being discussed.
However narrow a margin there is between the two, it is
always within the power of the teacher, by the way he/she
conducts the session, to ensure that the student is protected
against appearing foolish, or being judged for his/her
attitudes. Thus in the debriefing afterwards questions might
be phrased like this: ‘Why did the garda (or you as the garda)
interrogate the black youth more than he/she did the white?’
rather than ‘Why did you interrogate the ...’
 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service 13

2. Negotiate Ground It is important to have rules in the role-play classroom. No

Rules one should feel judged personally for his/her actions. Equally,
listening and paying attention is not just courteous behaviour
but essential if learning is to take place. In effect each player
provides the social environment of the other players. There
is a real opportunity here for negotiation between teacher
and students as rules are devised together, rules which
everyone is expected to adhere to.

3. Lead into Preparing for role-play will depend on

Role-Play z whether or not students have already engaged in the
activity

z whether the session comes at the beginning of a course,

the middle, or the end, as a way of bringing together
what has been learned in other classes

z the confidence and competence of the teacher in using

the technique

z how successfully the teacher manages to get the students

to take the idea of role-play seriously.

The graduated lead-in

The key to this approach is not to force the role-play on the
students, but to let it arise naturally out of discussion of the
subject matter in hand. The teacher might say, ‘O.K. that’s
what you think they might say to each other in this situation.
Let’s try that out. You can be X and someone else will play
the part of Y. You’re sitting outside the courtroom, reading
the paper and ...’ and before they know it the students are
caught up in the role-play. Note that giving them an
imaginary activity such as reading the paper, having breakfast,
checking out groceries in a store helps to fill the initial
silences and gives the players something to engage in.
Another variation on this is to set the scene, give each pair
or groups of players their first sentence and ask them to
continue from there. For example:
14 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

Teacher: (To two students) You are playing the parts of

customer and shop assistant. You (the customer) have been
waiting to be served for fifteen minutes. A long queue has
formed and just as it is your turn to be served the assistant
serves someone else. Your first line is: ‘Excuse me, I was
next’ and yours (to assistant) is ‘Ohhh! ... who got out of bed
on the wrong side this morning?’ Continue from here.

Other stimuli which can be used to ‘trigger’ role-play situations

include the following:

z Photographs - e.g. of a child in Bosnia holding a machine gun

... imagine you are the person in this photograph

z Anecdotes - e.g. teacher tells a story of an incident from

childhood which he/she remembers differently to his/her
siblings. Students are invited in small groups to share similar
experiences and then choose one incident from each group
which will be played out to illustrate the different
perspectives.

z Teacher ‘in role’ - e.g. as an Alien who has just arrived on

planet Earth and would like to know more about the human
species

z Case studies - e g. looking at the case study of an

unsuccessful venture in Business Studies and then inviting
members of the class to become board of directors,
managers, workers and investors; they come together at a
meeting to discuss what went wrong

z Story - e.g. set at the time of the Second World War; ask
students to play parts

z Games - The Gamester’s Handbook by Donna Brandes and

Howard Philips is an excellent text for teachers, with lots of
useful games.
 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service 15

Warm-up games
Sometimes students know too little about the subject to use
the graduated lead-in. Sometimes too, a relaxed atmosphere
must be created in order for the role-play to be effective.
On other occasions students need help to move into a
particular frame of mind, increase their observation skills,
build trust with other class members. If chosen carefully,
games can achieve these objectives.

Walkabout
This is a physical warm-up exercise. It helps students to
concentrate and focuses them on the signal that should be
responded to immediately. Students are asked to find a space
in the room. At the clap of the teacher’s hands they must
walk in any and all directions, always filling the floor space -
no gaps allowed and no bumping into anyone. On
subsequent claps of the hands they are to freeze immediately
and then either: change direction; silently greet everyone
they meet; adopt a business person’s walk, the walk of an
harassed parent leaving a child to school, etc.

Stand and Stare

An excellent ice-breaker; forces students to make eye-
contact and to concentrate. It sounds easy but many find it
difficult to co-ordinate standing, staring, and moving in the
right order! Students are asked to form a circle. Person A
stares at person B until B says A’s name. A moves over to
take up position in B’s place. B repeats the exercise by
staring at any other person C until C says B’s name. B will
move on, hearing his/her name, and so the game goes on.

Multi-Purpose
This is a challenging ice-breaker which develops confidence
in the students to do something in front of their peers and
demands the use of imagination. Students are asked to
arrange themselves in a circle. An object such as a floor
brush, a bin, a window pole, is taken by the teacher into the
middle of the circle and without the use of words the
teacher illustrates a use for this (a clothes line for example).
16 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

When someone guesses correctly another person from the circle

must come into the middle and illustrate another use (a fishing rod)
and so on until everyone has had a go. It becomes more difficult as
you move around the circle but students should be encouraged to be
as imaginative and creative as possible.

4. Design the There are various stages involved in planning a role-play.

Role-Play
z Decide on the function of the role-play. Is it to: introduce a topic?
illustrate a point? explore an issue? allow opportunities to
demonstrate skill acquisition? or summarise what has been
learned? From this, Aims and Objectives may be drawn up.

z Determine the experience and background of the students. Are

they accustomed to this learning methodology? Are they likely to
be extremely self-conscious? What are their expectations of role-
play likely to be?

z Identify ‘the scenario’ at least in a general way.

z Choose a setting for the role-play: an office; a family meal table; a

French Tourist Board office.
 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service 17

5. Define the Roles There are different ways of examining types of role-play. One
which is described by Van Ments (1994) is that of defining roles. A
role can be defined in a number of ways:

z Function, authority, power

Roles are given to people in such a way as to suggest their position
within the structure of the role-play (chairperson, parent,
headmaster) or in more subtle ways (female, foreign national,
traveller); these have an implicit position in the structure of some
societies.

z Objectives, motives, targets

In this case roles are defined in terms of the objectives which have
been set for the role players. Thus, ‘Your role is to persuade the
committee to permit ...’ or ‘Success depends on the extent to
which you can ...’

z Background, context
Sometimes it is sufficient to give a general backdrop for the role-
play. Thus, ‘You are at a football match, a party, a parent/teacher
meeting ...’ The conventions and assumptions made in these
circumstances can provide material for the role-play without a lot
more detail.

z Skills or abilities
The part played by each role-player may be defined in terms of
their particular knowledge, ability or skill. Thus ‘You are an expert
on baby noises ...’ ‘You will be able to tell the architects how to ...’
‘You understand the culture of the ...’ It is essential to assist the
player with the necessary documentation. Alternatively, the abilities
of players may be indicated by descriptions of their age,
background or experience and it is then up to the students to give
information from their imagination or experience.

z Personality traits
This method has been around for a long time. It involves the
teacher giving quite a detailed description of the character’s
likes/dislikes/quirks/beliefs. This method can offer literary freedom
to the author but imposes certain restrictions on the role-player.
18 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

6. Write the Role It is a good idea to write the role descriptions for key roles,
Descriptions support roles and spare roles. This helps the teacher to remain
focused on the objective/s and it is helpful in highlighting possible
obstacles and/or opportunities that are likely to arise during the
actual role-play.
It is important that everyone has a role to play. Sometimes
students may take the role of observers who are given set
questions to answer at the end, or are directed as to the type of
feedback the teacher would like. On occasions the observers
might be asked to record the behaviour of those in role so they
are asked to concentrate on content and process, rather than on
personalities (See Appendix 1 for questions for observers and for a
table of descriptions of behavioural categories.)
As the roles are being designed a number of considerations should
be kept in mind:

z Knowledge. How much knowledge will the characters have?

From where will they get it? e.g. teacher might provide
authentic documentation from a period in history/ plans of a
locally proposed road/ newspaper articles/ a TV documentary.
Alternatively the students may be required to invent their own
knowledge.

z Skills. What skills will you write into the role for the characters?
(You are an expert in ... or you have spent three years in
Romania as a medical consultant ...)

z Motivation and beliefs. Rather than saying to the student, ‘You

don’t believe Spanish students should be allowed to spend their
summers in Dublin,’ the teacher might say, ‘Every time you go
shopping in Dublin there seems to be greater numbers of
Spanish students congregating in Grafton Street. You have
heard that they attend summer school here but it seems to you
as if they never have class ...’

z Constraints and pressures. Constraints may include everything

from prejudices to age, sex, health, intelligence and likewise
restraints may be physical, organisational or social.
 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service 19

z Who should the characters meet? In what circumstances?

With what purpose?
z How much autonomy will the characters be allowed?
z How will the roles be allocated - randomly? by type
casting? deliberately choosing players with characteristics
opposite to those of the role? or by allowing students to
choose?

7. Run the The teacher’s role is to:

Role-Play z provide information
z facilitate
z control time
z engender enthusiasm
z correct problems
z monitor noise levels for the world outside the role-play!
z intervene if necessary.

Role-rotation
As its name suggests this approach allows various or all
students to take turns in playing the role of the main
characters. The advantage is that students are encouraged to
use their imagination in order to look at one situation from
different angles or demonstrate different approaches to a
problem. If each person critiques someone else’s role-
playing, the cynical ‘I could have done that better’ can be
avoided. There obviously is the danger of highlighting the fact
that one person is clearly the weakest at handling the
problem so the teacher should be prepared for this.

Role-reversal
This is where the characters playing opposite each other
have the opportunity to exchange roles. Alternatively the
students may be asked to take roles outside of their normal
range of experience, e.g. the situation of a white person
playing a black person or a sighted person playing a blind
person. In this situation there is the potential danger of
teasing or inappropriate, affected behaviour and accents. It is
important for the role-players to remember that they must
20 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

really try to get into the role and act as they would do in the
situation, given the constraints of that situation.

Alter ego
Sometimes it is instructive to create an opportunity for people to
hear what players are really feeling; what their motivations are
or what their intentions may be. If a character is played by two
people then the public and private personae are simultaneously
revealed. This technique is one that requires skill to be most
effective in that the alter ego should complement the public
persona and should avoid undermining the confidence of the
player who is being shadowed. Usually the alter ego stands
behind the player and speaks in the first person (e.g. ‘I really
don’t understand why you are talking to me like this ... You
sound so angry and I can’t work out why ...’)

Supporter
On occasions, speech can dry up when ideas run out! The
players may find themselves with nothing left to say in the role-
play even though there are still avenues to be explored and
other possible directions to move in. This is where a supporter,
from the ranks of the ‘audience’, may come forward and, like the
alter ego, stand behind a player and speak for him/her. Having
made his/her contribution the student returns to his/her place in
the audience and the original players continue, now perhaps in a
different vein. The advantage of this is that it breathes new life
into a role-play where the enthusiasm appears to be flagging.

Consultant group
This is an effective technique to encourage group decision-
making and collaborative learning. Special support groups can be
set up to act as consultants to the main players. Before the role-
play begins the groups meet with the players, discuss the role-
play and how it should proceed. During the role-play either
natural opportunities will arise for further consultation or they
can be designed as part of the process to ensure that they take
place. This technique would be a suitable one for use in the role-
play exercises associated with ‘Plan Newtown’ (see References).
 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service 21

Trouble-shooting: Problems and Solutions

Problem Suggested Solution

Student departs from role Stop & discuss / Rotate roles to relieve anxiety

Burlesquing (student appears More work needed to create atmosphere of ‘work’

to go ‘over the top’) / Stop the action & discuss

Role Play begins to wane Use role-rotation or the ‘supporter’ approach /

Teacher enters the role-play

Lack of understanding or Use role-reversal to increase sensitivity between

insight players

Boredom or repetition Change the format or direction of the role-play /

Stop the role-play

Emotional escalation Monitor closely – if necessary defuse, re-brief

(not always a problem) players or stop the role-play

8. Use Teacher In-Role The teacher can have a number of roles in role-play:
z Shadow role: the use of teacher in-role where teacher
slides in and out of role until the class is comfortable
enough with the drama to participate

z Absentee role: teacher in role as absentee who has to be

updated on a ‘situation’ when he/she arrives or joins the
group late for any reason

z Information giver

z Information seeker

z Devil’s advocate

z Narrative role

z Confrontational role.
22 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

9. Debrief This is a very important part of the role-play process. It is here that
the group, guided by the teacher, decides whether or not the original
objectives were met. The students also discuss what they learned
from the exercise. However, the debriefing session also has the
potential to perform many other functions and so it is necessary for
the teacher to leave adequate time for a full and worthwhile
debriefing rather than look upon it as a short informal chat about
‘how the role-play went’.

The purpose of debriefing

1. Bring players out of role.

2. Clarify what happened (on factual level).

3. Correct misunderstandings and mistakes.

4. Dissipate tension/anxiety.

5. Bring out assumptions, feelings and changes that occurred.

6. Give players opportunity to engage in self and/or peer

observation.

7. Develop observational skills.

8. Relate outcome to original aims.

9. Analyse why things happened that way.

10. Draw conclusions about behaviour.

11. Reinforce or correct learning.

12. Deduce ways of improving behaviour.

13. Apply to other situations.

14. Link with previous learning.

15. Relate to future learning - what next? (a piece of writing, a follow-

up enactment, a school campaign organised by the students, a
research activity, a visiting speaker to address issues raised ...)
(Adapted from The Effective Use of Role-Play, 1994)
 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service 23

The debriefing session is most effective when carried out

immediately or soon after the role-play when the recall of
events, feelings and attitudes will be fresh. It is not possible
to be rigid about how much time to spend on debriefing
because sometimes the most surprising issues may emerge
that will take quite a lot of time to work through. However,
as a guideline, the debriefing session should not be
inordinately long relative to the time spent on the actual
role-play (e.g. one-and-a-half hours of debriefing for a half-
hour role-play is adequate).
When the students are discussing what went on during the
role-play they need to be as objective as possible and
‘distance’ themselves from the characters they were playing.
This is not possible unless they have very deliberately come
out of role and ‘become the student’ again.

Tips for debriefing

1. Allow sufficient time.
2. Ensure a deliberate and absolute de-roling has taken
place.
3. Do not allow judgmental statements of real personalities
(as opposed to those of characters) or of attitudes.
4. Try to clear up all misunderstandings.
5. Use open-ended questions. How? Why? What? as well as
closed.
6. Emphasise what was done rather than what could have
been done.
7. Probe answers. Why not? What if?
8. Explore other possibilities - are there any?
9. Give views of outside experts.
10. Link to future learning.
11. Ensure that each role-player has had an opportunity to
speak.
24 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

10. Assess Role-play is an exercise which might seem very difficult to assess
but if the students don’t see that their participation is going to be
valued in a tangible way, they may quickly decide it does not
have any real worth, given the emphasis on grades and marks in
our Education system.
Different types of role-play require different methods of
assessment. Role-play that is designed to teach a skill will have as
some of the assessment criteria key characteristics of that skill,
whereas in another type of role-play the capacity to respond
sensitively to others might be a key criterion.
The following is a list of possible criteria that in various
combinations might be used to assess students who have been
engaged in role-play.

z Willingness to work towards agreed aims

z Ability to seriously engage with the issues

z Degree of participation

z Capacity to interpret the role

z Effort not to depart from role

z Capacity to act in ‘support’ role

z Sensitivity to others

z Creativity

z Ability to improvise

z Demonstration of skills learned

z Degree of improvement since previous session.

 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service 25

11. Evaluate As with any learning activity, the use of role-play in the
classroom should be evaluated. This is somewhat different to
the debriefing, which is in effect analysing and discussing
what went on during the process. The evaluation
concentrates on how effective the role-play was as a method
of learning and teaching. It is as important for the teacher to
learn from the evaluation as it is for the students. If well
planned, the debriefing might incorporate some evaluation of
the role-play in this way. Alternatively, as a separate activity,
the teacher might devise a questionnaire for students, asking
questions such as the following:

z Did you enjoy this exercise? Why? Why not? (or use a
rating scale)

z What role did you play?

z What difficulties did you encounter in playing that role?

z How did you overcome those difficulties?

z How would you assess yourself in terms of participation?

(perhaps use a rating scale)

z What skills did you develop as a result of this exercise?

z Where do you think you might use the lessons learned/

skills developed?

z Is there anything you would do differently if you were to

rerun the role-play? Why?
26 Role Play – Transition Year Curriculum Support Service

Resources

Text References Transition Year Programmes, Guidelines for Schools,

Department of Education, 1993.

Transition Year Programme 1994-1995, An Evaluation by the Inspectorate of

the Department of Education, Department of Education, 1996.

Writing the Transition Year Programme,

Transition Year Curriculum Support Service, 2000.

Exploring Contemporary Issues by Barbara Gill and Catherine Loughman

(LCA publication in partnership with NCDE, Combat Poverty Agency,
Dept. of Education and Science).

Gamesters’ Handbook by Donna Brandes and Howard Phillips,

Published by Hutchinson, ISBN 0 09 136421 3.

In Search of Europe – A cross-curricular resource for Transition Year Available

from TYCSS, Blackrock Education Centre, Kill Avenue, Dun Laoghaire,
Co. Dublin.

Issue and Arguments by Elsy Edwards, Published by Macmillan,

ISBN 0 333 503031.

Plan Newtown: A simulation, designed for Transition Year students to learn about
decision-making.
Available from TYCSS, Blackrock Education Centre, Kill Avenue,
Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.

Shaw, ME; Corsini; RJ; Blake; R; Mounton, JS (1980) Role-playing:

A Practical Manual for Group Facilitators, University Associates,
La Jolla, California/Mansfield, Notts.

Speak Up! – a handbook for the Concern Debates, Published by Concern.

Van Ments, M (1994) The Effective Use of Role-Play –

A handbook for Teachers and Trainers.

Wohlking, W and Gill PJ (1980) Role-playing The Instructional Design Library,

Vol 32. Educational Technology Publications, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.