The Effective Use of Role-Play [antikvár]

Foreword One of the most fruitful ways of generating new matter is by a cross-fertilization of subject areas. This book came from a realization that role-play was being used in a variety of ways by people who rarely came across each other to exchange experiences. It was clear that although industrial trainers, school teachers, college lecturers and youth leaders were dealing with very different students and for very different reasons, their techniques had a great deal in common and they could each benefit from a disdllation of the best practices in all fields. The other objective of this book is to set forth the full range of role-play methods available, together with an indication of the advantages and limitations inherent in them. All too often one sticks closely to the well-worn tracks that have proved so comforting in the past without realizing that there are other and sometimes better ways which may be more suited to the particular teaching task in hand. Teaching is an integrated experience and the intended end of a lesson governs the way it begins as much as the beginning governs the end. Except in the highly controlled environment of programmed learning every part of a session relates backwards and forwards to the other parts. It is therefore artificial to pretend that the course of running a role-play is entirely a linear process. For convenience in wridng, however, this book follows a logic which is desirable if not always attainable. After a discussion in Chapters 1 and 2 of the concept of role and an outline of role-play as a technique to be used within the larger framework of teaching, Chapter 3 argues the need for a systematic approach. The following chapter stresses the importance of identifying the type of role-play which is being used so that appropriate methods may be used with it. Chapters 5 to 8 form the core of practical advice: they go through the process of writing, running and debriefing a role-play. The remaining chapters deal with particular aspects of role-play and the way in which it is used. Those who want to get quickly into the pracdcalities of running role-plays should therefore first read Chapter 3 and then go straight on to Chapters 5 to 8. Otherwise the book is designed to be read in a