Joy Of Theatre Teachers Handbook

FOREWORD

The National Curriculum Framework-2005 (NCF-2005) recommended that children’s life at school must be linked to their life outside the school. This theory was supposed to mark a departure from the legacy of bookish learning, which causes a gap between the school, home, community and acquisition of skills. It was also an attempt to discourage rote-learning and break boundaries between different subject areas to gauge the concept of interdisciplinary approach. The syllabi and textbooks developed on the basis of NCF-2005 were endeavours to improve upon the prevalent pedagogy and take us significantly further in the direction of a child-centred system of education outlined in the National Policy of Education (1986). The above was applicable to every subject area and each area was treated with the right kind of methodology to conform to the needs of the subject area.

Arts Education also got a similar status with the recommendations suggested in the National Focus Groups – Position Papers on Arts, Music, Dance and Theatre (1.7) and NCF-2005. All disciplines in Arts Education made efforts to upscale arts in education. As textbooks in Arts Education have not been recommended for students of the upper primary stage in order to promote creativity among them, other types of material needed to be developed, like DVDs on different subjects of Art, e-content, handbooks for teachers to guide them, or teacher training packages. These materials will facilitate the implementation of arts as a curricular area in school education. This Handbook in theatre is developed with a similar aim. It is meant for any teacher who is creative and wishes to improve on pedagogy, as most schools do not provide theatre teachers. The success of this effort depends on the steps that teachers will take to encourage children to pursue imaginative activities. We must recognise that given space, time and freedom, children generate new knowledge by engaging in experimental learning with the information passed on to them by adults. Inculcating creativity and initiative is possible if we perceive and treat children as participants in learning, not as receivers of a fixed body of knowledge.