While it has been proved that the application of theatre methods for the teaching of the school curriculum can have exceptional results in the improvement of the class environment and the development of the basic skills of the children (especially in STEAM ) as well as in the inclusion of immigrant and refugee children that do not have the necessary language skills and need more non-linguistic stimula, the use of theatre is not widespread in schools, the teacher training in the issue is scarce and the available resources are very fragmented. This project is aiming to mainstream the use of theatre techniques in secondary school education through the development of the appropriate tools and networks. In this way it is aiming to contribute to the increase of the attractiveness of the STEAM , to improve the attractiveness and the school performance of the children in basic skills and to improve the school performance of students that need more non-linguistic stimula. In order to achieve these objectives, the project is going to develop a methodology related with the application of theatre in the secondary school classroom that will be practice-oriented and will cover all the STEAM curriculum of the secondary school with scenarios, examples, best practices etc in cooperation with other STEAM methods. On the basis of this methodology, it is going to organise teacher training workshops and also e-learning courses in order to train teachers on how they can implement the methodology. At least 250 teachers are going to be trained on the methodology (200 through training workshops and 50 through the use of e-learning) not only in the partner countries but all over Europe. After the end of the training, in order to be able to receive their certificate from the seminars, the trained teachers will have to apply in a pilot way the method in a classroom of at least 15 children, fact which means that at least 3.750 students will experience the methodology in the framework of the project. As part of the training, the project is going to train the teachers on how to develop their own resources related with the implementation of theatre in education. In order to be able to promote the sharing of these resources and the exchange of experiences and resources between teachers all over Europe, the project is going to develop a collection of videos which can be produced either by professional artists or by teachers and educational staff. The impact of the project will be the significant increase of the use of theatremethods in education, the improvement of the teacher training and the availability of quality resources on this issue. This will increase the attractiveness of the class lessons, will facilitate the acquisition of basic skills for the students who are more willing to participate in interactive activities than in traditional classes and will develop the networks and international contacts of the teachers facilitating the emergence of a European community of teachers on the field.
The general objective of this project was to enhance the knowledge and skills of teachers in the use of theatre and drama in the secondary education as part of a STEAM approach. It also aimed to develop open educational resources (videos) in order to facilitate the teachers. To achieve the general objective, the specific objectives of the project were the following: - to develop a methodology related with the use of theatre techniques as part of an integrated approach in order to teach science, technology, engineering and mathematics in the secondary school. - to develop high quality digital material addressed to teachers, trainers and educational managers seeking to introduce the theater in their educational institutes for improving the quality of the education - to build the capacity of teachers to use these techniques and to test the effectiveness of the methods to the students.
There is a need to promote the connection between STEM and theatre in the schools. The association between theatre and science, technology, mathematics and engineering is very important. Beyond the innate value of the arts, in order for students to be successful in these fields it’s important to recognize that the key differentiators of success in these careers are creativity, imagination, and innovation—all fundamentals skills that theatre nurtures. The promotion of STEAM is a declared priority for many educational systems that see a relatively low interest from the part of the students. Theatre is also able to facilitate the understanding and involvement in STEAM of students that have particular difficulties, linguistic or educational. However, despite of all these obvious benefits, theatre is not widely used as part of STEAM in secondary schools and teachers do not have the skills to implement it. Most of the schools use the traditional top-down approach to learning which limits the active participation of students in education. When theatre techniques are used, it is usually in the framework of language courses and not in the framework of science or maths.