ROLEPLAY

INTRODUCTION
Essentially every teacher creates his own teaching method. In terms of his personality
and experience purpose and subject matter of instruction. He judges suitable choosing and
adapting various techniques examining many be stimulated and guided in many different ways.
Role playing is a dramatization based on particular theme. This helps the students to experience
the situation emotionally and to develop insight. It also encourages thinking and creativity.
Role play is based on an assumption that many values in a situation can not be expressed in
words and the communication can be effective if the situation is dramatized. Role playing is
played under a director but the other dramas the actor have no scripts no rehearsal but adjust
according to the situations. The group members who take part in role playing enact their roles.
DEFINITION
“ Role playing is a forms of drama in which learners spontaneously act out roles in an interaction
involving problems or challenges in human relations for subsequent discussion by the whole
class” (B. Sankaranarayanan)
“ Role playing is relatively a new educational technique in which people spontaneously act out
problems of human relation and analyze the enactment with the help of other role players and
observers.
Role playing, Sociodrama, psychodrama are closely related and the terms role playing and
sociodrama are frequently interchangeable.” (BT Basavanthappa)
“Role playing is a dramatization along with verbalization” (Clement)
PURPOSES
 To prepare for meeting future situation
Role play mainly focuses on future situation
 To convey information
Role play aims to convey information to the audience
and they can clearly understand what they mean
 To involve every body to work co operatively for a common goal
The actors are work together to meet for a common goal which means to convey the
message to the audience
 To develop communication skill for successful interpretation

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 The role play helps to develop communication skill for the successful interpretation
 To try the new behavior in the presence of co learners
The role play help to new behaviors by the help of co learners.
 To experience the situation emotionally and to develop insight to the problem.
If mainly develop the insight and also experience the situations emotionally.
 To encourage thinking and creativity
Persons who develop specific skills such as thinking and creativity and also which help to
convey the message to audience
 To develop understating of point of view of Others
Role play helps to develop the point of view of others
 To prevent alternative course of action
 To create the motivation and involvement necessary to learning to occur
 It helps the participants to get inside the character and enact the meaning of the character.
 To develop skills in dealing with problems
PRINCIPLES
1. As a teaching techniques, role playing is based on the philosophy that meaning are in
people not in words or symbols. If that philosophy is accurate, we must first of all share
the meaning then clarify our understanding of each other’s meanings and finally if
necessary changes our meaning
2. It should be based on realistic and life related problems situation rather than through
hearing about such situation from others.
3. The role play should be based on realistic and the life related problem that can be easily
understand or convey message to other
4. Creating a teaching situation which can lead to the change of self concepts requires a
distinct organizational pattern
a. Role play mainly focus to change the self concept and it requires distinct
organizational pattern
5. Role playing flexible: Role play should be flexible method of teaching that which easily
and communicative to other
6. Role play should be brief: The role play should be brief and the description should be
content in it

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 7. There is no single method of selecting the character. The group may do the assigning
8. Role play should be stimulant to thinking and should not be escape from discipline of
learning.
9. Analysis and evaluation are essential to attain the maximum learning benefits.
10. The role play should analyze and evaluate for maximum learning benefits.
11. Role should be rehearsed to produce effective outcome and on the audience to help
players interpret their roles
12. The role should be rehearsed for the effective outcome its helps to interpret their roles
easily.
VALUES OF ROLE PLAY
The Actor really tries to feel the part of the character he is portraying and plus
himself in that persons situation. The audience by bing assigned actors to watch get
some kind of emotional involvement.
1. It is enjoyed by people who do it
2. It does not need equipment
3. It is method to involve a group through participation
4. It can be used to arouse interest in a problem, Make a problem seem real to a group
and thus the solutions seem attainable.
5. It can be used to illustrate casual and the dynamic factors in group process that
frequently ignored
6. The individual may develop new skill for dealing with problems in human relations
7. It can bring out data about human behavior and human relation which are not made
available by more traditional methods.
TYPES
1. Sociodrama
It deals with the interactions of people with other individual or groups ex: Mother, Nurse,
leader etc. It always involves situation of more than one person and deals with problems that a
majority of the group face in executing their roles.

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 2. Psychodrama
Practiced in a group setting, mainly concerned with the unique needs and problems of a
particular individual. It should not be attempted except under the guidance of a trained
therapist. Audience identification with the roles in role playing or critical observation brought
about much greater learning than passive watching Thirty minutes is long enough for the actual
role playing and the discussion
STEPS

1. Selection of the problem

The problem must be selected with group consent . It should be clear and related to
human relations situations that serves a useful purpose within the context of the subject being
studied. Pick a situation that learners might experience in day to day life for example
consequence of Obesity
2. Construction of the role playing situation
The purpose of the role playing session serves as the guide for preparing content to
stimulate reality problem situations can be planned by the total group or by a subcommittee
or by the teacher
3. Casting the Players
Students as players should always be selected among those willing to act in order to
avoid misinterpretation of the role and to preserve their self esteem. Explain to learners
before hand that role play will be one of the activities that will be performed and will require
them to practice. Discuss the advantage of role play with students and explain how and why
it is helpful for them to learn. Tell them how they can deal with mistakes. Explain that it
could be enjoyable and even fun
4. Briefing
Introduce the basic functions this stage will normally be conduced as whole group
work. Decide on the number and type of roles and allocate
5. Role playing actions
Decide on the tasks exercise and prompts that will be used to get learners in to their
roles. These might includes cue or prompt cards, reading exercise, individual research,
briefing sheets or information gap exercise, make sure to pick the right kind of prompt for

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 each person, the scene is played as simple and concisely as possible. The time to be limited
to not more than 15 minutes.
6. Discussion and analysis of action
Discussion should not resolve around the acting abilities ofthe students. The focus of
discussion should be on the contributions made towards the understanding of the taken up
issues or problems area
7. Evaluation
The teacher should conclude evaluate and summarize at the end. Assess whether the
purpose has been achieved or not participants response can be obtained through discussion or
on the checklist or questionnaire
ROLE OF TEACHER
 This provides the teacher with the oppoutunity to note individual students and analyzing
her needs and real life situation
 Assist the students in meeting her own needs by either giving her or encouraging group
members to give her on the spot suggestion
 Encourage independent thinking and actions by stepping aside on giving en direct
guidance to emphasize them to themselves
 The teacher can correct the errors and the role play for specific teaching on the subject
ADVANTAGES
 Role play encourages hand on training
Role play is necessary for encouraging the training
 Role play adds variety, reality and specificity to the learning experience
 It enables to enhance feeling of tolerance and empathy in students
 It helps to problem solving and verbal expressions of skills in students
 It enables brainstorming and team building
 Role play provide practice to build skills before real world application and when real
experience are not readily available.
 It can provide an entirely new perspective of a situation and develop insight about
feelings and relationship

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  It enables learners to experiment in a safe environment with behaviors which strikes them
as potentially useful and to identify behaviours which are not
DISADVANTAGES
 Role laying is a means not an end
 Limited to small group
 It can be time consuming. The role play need lots of time for the rehearsal
 It requires expert guidance and leadership. The role play need- directions and that can
established with the help of expert guidance
 Effective only when learners have adequate knowledge and skill to perform what is
required can lead to choose when students are not sure of expectation.
 Some time participants may feel threatened
 Can be a tendency by some participants to overly exaggerated their assigned roles.
 Can be embarrassing for the student who lack spontaneity and acting skills
 Limited only by the teachers
CONCLUSION
The group conference method lends itself for modification in the use of role
playing. Role playing involving the acting out of roles related to problems involving
human relations. The total group is involved in the analysis of behavior portrayed in
the role playing situation for the purpose of increasing their insights into similar
problems and understanding ways of dealing with them. When groups members are
provided with opportunities to “live through” problem situation, they gain increased
understanding of themselves and learn how to establish relationships. Use of this tool
in a group centered class room environment affords students opportunities. To try out
new approaches to establishing interpersonal relationship to make mistakes and to
work with a particular problem until it is satisfactory resolved without the stress of
performing in a patient situation.