ROLE PLAYING OR SIMULATION What Is It and Why Is It Useful?
? Role-playing, or "learning through acting", is a technique that requires participants to perform a task in a realistic situation simulating "real life". This type of exercise is an effective means to take in and absorb the content and substance of new ideas. It facilitates an active understanding of the information and gives participants the opportunity to apply new skills and abilities. The simulation serves as a rehearsal on how to conduct future activities. By recreating models of real situations, which "play out" a problematic scenario, the participants are given the opportunity to see the situation from perspectives other than those they might be taking in reality. Both the participants and the facilitators have an opportunity to see "hidden obstacles" that may arise in dealing with the problem and can then explore alternative ways of addressing them. The participants not only rehearse their own behavior in a particular situation, but also have the opportunity as a group to evaluate how effective the staged resolution of the problem actually was. Role-playing is one of the effective methods to learn and gain experience. An individual is likely to remember their personal feelings more intensely and for a longer period of time. The role game helps to analyze how people behave in a certain situation, how to evaluate and predict their reactions. Therefore, to gain the maximum effect from the role game, proposed situations should be as close to reality as possible. How to Conduct a Role-Playing Exercise There are three stages to a standard role-play exercise: (1) the set-up, (2) the play, (3) the follow up. 1. Setting up: In the set up stage, the training team describes the scenario and assigns roles to the participants. If the participant plays a particular role in reality, it would be more effective to assign a different role to that participant during the role-play exercise. Another option is to put together a single page description of the scenario to be worked out by the role-play participants. Alternatively, it may be useful to write one-paragraph descriptions of the key role players. A description can include the main objectives and concerns of the person in that role, perhaps can include some key dialogues or a statement to be read by the person playing the role. 2. The Play Stage: During the play stage, the participants act out their roles and the play is carried out. If the role-play becomes too long, then the facilitators can give the participants a time warning of one or two minutes, and then end the play after that. 3. The Follow Up: It is important for all the participants to discuss what happened during the role-play. They may question individual role-players to ask why they took a particular position, made a certain statement, or undertook an action. The explanation and the resulting discussion is important for the participants to obtain a greater understanding of the social dynamics related to a particular "real life" situation. Sometimes a role-play session may generate strong emotions (anger, dismay, disagreement), especially if some role-players take the play too seriously, and take extreme positions. The follow-up discussions offer the facilitators an opening to explain that these reactions were caused by the structure of the situation, not by the stubbornness of the individuals playing the roles. It is not necessary to avoid strong
emotions; rather, it is an opportunity to reveal the nature of some "real-life" situations, and to encourage participants to be sensitive to the different assumptions, values, goals and positions that may be taken by different persons actually in "real life". See the Tips for Facilitators page for more information on when to use role playing. The model session from the addressing the problem block also exemplifies the use of the role play technique. Adapted fromRole Playing and Simulation Games: A Training Technique, by Phil Bartle, PhD.
