Why do I learn theatre? Why do I learn theatre? Drama students’ motivations to learn Why do I learn theatre? Drama students’ motivations to learn
Drama students’ motivations to learn
Pedro Taborda (Faculty of Psychology - University of Lisbon - Portugal) -
[email protected] António M. Duarte (Faculty of Psychology - University of Lisbon - Portugal) -
[email protected]
ABSTRACT
Figure - Descriptive map of drama students’ motives for learning theatre
This study aimed to map drama students’ motivational orientations to learning theater. Based on a semi-structured interview script 16 higher
Identification
education theater students were interviewed regarding a diversity of dimensions that characterize motivational orientations for learning theater (i.e. intention for learning, perception of the learning task and the time involved in learning, satisfaction with learning, preferred learning con-
Enjoyment
text and investment in learning). On the collected data an intermediate content analysis was applied. Regarding the dimension that addresses intention or motives for learning theatre (the one where this poster focuses), results show a variety of internal motives (originating in the stu-
Family Interest
dent) and external motives (originating in others) for learning drama.
KEYWORDS
Background
Role-taking
Approaches to Learning,, Motivation, Motivational Guidance, Psychology of Theatre. Physical self-regulation
Emotional self-regulation
Self-analysis Internal Motives
INTENTION
(motives for learning theatre)
External Motives
Modeling
Self-regulation
INTRODUCTION One of many perspectives of educational psychology that has been addressing student learning - "Student's Approach to Learning (SAL)" theo-
General Impact
ry – conceptualizes the learning process as a combination of motivation and learning strategy (e.g. Biggs, 1987). Within this framework several
Incentive
Personal Development
studies have been showing the existence of three main approaches to learning: surface, deep and achieving (Marton & Säljö, 2005). Surface approach to learning combines instrumental motivation (doing the minimum to avoid failure) with surface strategy (rote memorizing); deep ap-
Induce Simulation
Impact
Instruction
Relationships
proach integrates intrinsic motivation (investing due to the pleasure) with deep strategy (comprehending); achieving approach combines achieving motivation (investing for good grades) with organizing strategy (organizing). Research has been revealing that approaches to leaning significantly relate with learning products, with the surface approach leading to poorer results and the deep-achieving approaches to richer ones (Duarte, 2002).
Intervention
Despite a vast amount of studies on approaches to learning, these seldom considered learning in the arts and we are unaware of any study that had addressed learning theater. Being theatre “(…) an art concerned almost exclusively with live performances in which the action is precisely planned to create a coherent and significant sense of drama.” (Encyclopeaedia Brittanica, 2016), it becomes understandable that learning theater mostly involves mastering techniques for regulating emotional expression, as faithful as possible to real situations that culminate with the construction of a character with
Tables — Illustrative excerpts of answers of drama students’ regarding their motives for learning theatre
its own history, dilemmas and concerns often without any relation to the actor (Rocha & Kastrup, 2008) .
GOALS
Category
Illustrative excerpt
Category
Illustrative excerpt
1. Identification
“I think it's a very intimate thing . It takes you follow this and not something else. It is a way of seeing life.“
8.1. General impact
"Is a lot more than being an actress , much as like being an actress I want to act out and to work with the community. I really want this kind of work to make a play and get from city to city and move with the public is something that interests me a lot."
2. Enjoyment
“I liked to express myself and I think it was for a different reason from what is now. This is because when I was younger l liked to do those little shows and felt really well. I felt very well when I did it, it seemed that the time was suspended. Could be anything: playing with my brother and it was something that was constant and was constant throughout my life.“
8.2. Induce Simulation
"It was important for me to create this world for other people and will create … "
8.3. Instruction
" ( ... ) And then I was ready! I went to study and the aim of my work was to continue making theater, enjoying myself, making others enjoy it and learn from it. I can enjoy myself and instruct the other person and myself”
On the basis of the research question of what drives theatre students to learn, this study aimed to know their: intention or reason to learning; learning investment ; perception of learning tasks and time spent in learning; satisfaction with learning; and preferred context for learning.
3. Interest "I wanted to know , to understand what is this side of the world. Of course , with great motivation " if this work then it is exactly what I want "”.
METHOD PARTICIPANTS
4. Role-taking
" ( ... ) The possibility of not being me . Being able to ... experience being with the skin of other people, characters , I'm not me , I’m someone who comes from different places , have different reactions , reactions that I could or not be like them. And it's exploring a little what it is to be someone else. See what they live, see what kind of reactions they have. "
8.4. Intervention
" Because, honestly, I think that society does not respect itself in a lot of ways! And theater, not only makes you respect others but do see what is wrong and call for intervention on society."
5. Self-Analysis
" ( ... ) I do here a little analysis to see what I would do in that situation. "
9. Relationships
"I felt a huge difference since I started doing theater , even in connecting with others. "
6.1. Physical Self-Regulation “I think everybody should have some theatrical experience , because the theater, your body...it’s like you can better understand your own body ( ... )."
10. Family Background
" And I think there are reasons of strictly personal factors, that have something to do with a family that is connected to the arts. "
6.2. Emotional SelfRegulation
"How do I manage myself; how do I turn my emotions; how do I manage myself. This is very important not only because in the theater you learn , of course, because it is...it’s essential to manage your own emotions , because it's a lot isn’t it?!"
11. Modeling
" And regarding theater was also due to some figures I met, due to a stroke of good luck , by the way . They were authentic teachers and made me feel motivated to continue ( ... )"
7. Personal Development
" I realized that it was , in addition to work for theater was much more a work for ourselves, to grow. So I knew that theater would not only be studying theater, it would mean to grow."
12. Incentive
" And so I think he wanted to get to the bottom , I wanted to try it , also because I had everybody supporting me , telling me that he could go far in theater and...i wanted to go all the way.”
In this study participated 16 students of theater from three different higher education institutions in Portugal. Among the total number of these students six (38%) are male and 10 (63%) female. The average age standed at 21.69 years, with standard deviation of 4.44 years. The level of studies varied from a bachelor degree (from the 1st to 2nd year - 14 participants) and master's (1st year - 2 participants). Participants were explained about the study goals and procedures. Ensuring compliance with ethical standards of research it was explained to participants that their answers (and correspondent transcripts) would be confidential. The sample was selected by convenience with categories’ saturation as the criteria for determining it’s size. DATA GATHERING Data was gathered by semi-structured interviews, based on a pre-structured interview guide for the collection of data relating to the learning of art (Duarte, 2012a). The adaptation of that interview guide involved considering only it’s section on motivation for learning art. Motivational orientations for learning theatre were explored on the basis of targeted questions that address six dimensions of motivation to learn theater: i) motives for learning theatre (Intention); ii) investment in theater learning tasks (Investment); iii) perception of theater learning tasks (Task); iv) perception of time invested in learning theater (Time); v) satisfaction with theater learning (Satisfaction); and vi) preferred contexts for theater learning (Context). The interviews took place in locations chosen by the participants, most of them coincided with areas of their educational institutions. The interviews were transcribed, and later processed trough content analysis (see Data Analysis) using Nvivo 10 software.
DISCUSSION DATA ANALYSIS The process of qualitative data analysis involved a “intermediate" content analysis (i.e. halfway between the deductive type of analysis and the inductive type) which followed three stages, namely: 1) deductive segmentation of interviews’ in thematic units to categorize (segmentation criteria were the six dimensions of motivation for learning theater set out in the interview script — see Data Gathering); 2) inductive categorization of thematic units, involving developing and recursively applying a category system; and, finally, 3) validation of the system, by comparing the analysis of two independent analysts (13.84% of segmented units) and the analysis of one analyst in two different moments (11.93% of segmented units). The degree of agreement among the two analysts was 82.14% and of one analyst with himself of 83.82%.
Considering the results for what propels students for the learning of theatre, the dichotomy between Internal Motives (originating from itself) and External Motives (originating from others) is similar to what its described in the literature to a dichotomy between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Anastácio 2013; Duarte, 2002, 2007; Ruiz, 2003). Like it happens for academic motivation in general, motivation for learning theatre seems to have a basis both on the student and on others around him. In particular, we hypothesize that learning theatre, while diverging more than academic learning, needs to be based either on the inside forces of the student and in his sensed support network. Within intrinsic motivation, specifically regarding the fact that motivation for learning theatre can be related with the opportunity it offers to take the role of another person, this might possibly be explained by it’s functionality in decentralizing and diversifying personal experience.
CONCLUSION RESULTS This poster reports only results that address motivation’s dimension of Intention (i.e. theatre students’ reasons to learn drama). The analysis of categories associated with this dimension organized them in two meta-categories, that divide the personal reasons for theatre learning in Internal Motives (originating in the student) and External Motives (originating in others). Included in Internal Motives (originating in the student) to learn theatre are the categories Identification, Enjoyment, Interest, Role-taking, Selfanalysis, Self-regulation, Development, Impact and Relationship. Identification corresponds to the perception that theatre learning is motivated by identification with theatre. Enjoyment corresponds to the no-
Regarding this study limitations, the sample is small (compared to the population of Portuguese students who opt for higher education in theatre) so findings can’t be generalized to the population and only to theory. Furthermore, most of the participants are female, which cannot guarantee the blurring of differences between male and female students, regarding their motivational orientations. In addition, it should be noted that being the process of data collection through interviews, social desirability can’t be overridden as a potential threat to validity. Despite these limitations, the inter and intra analyst coefficients of agreement testify for confidence in the results. In addition to contributing to the understanding of motivational orientations in the learning of the arts, it is hoped that this study results can assist students in this area to have a better knowledge of themselves and teachers to better understand their drama pupils. More studies of this kind can be a useful source of knowledge for the work of teachers and educational psychologists who develop interventions with this population.
tion that the personal reasons for learning theatre are related to pleasure with performance. Interest corresponds to theatre learning as motivated by the interest in this art. Role-taking means that one of the internal reasons to learn theatre attaches to the possibility of taking the role of another person. Self-analysis is related to theatre learning being motivated by the possibility of the personal self-analysis it allows. Selfregulation category is subdivided into two subcategories: Personal Self-regulation (theatre learning is motivated by the possibility it allow of self-regulating the body) and Emotional Self-regulation (theatre learning is motivated by the emotional self-regulation it allows). Development refers to theatre learning motivated by personal development it enables. Impact unfolds in the subcategories General Impact (learning theatre
REFERENCES
is motivated by the possibility to have an impact in an audience), Induce Simulation (learning theatre is motivated by the possibility of induc-
Anastácio, S. (2013). Orientações motivacionais para a aprendizagem em estudantes de música. Dissertação de Mestrado não publicada. Faculdade de Psicologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa.
ing the audience to "simulate" the experience of another reality), Education (learning theatre is motivated by the possibility of instructing an
Biggs, J. (1987). Student A pproaches to Learning and Studying. Melbourne: ACER.
audience) and Intervention (learning theatre is motivated by the possibility of social intervention). Finally Relationship refers to learning thea-
Duarte, A. M. (2002). A prendizagem, ensino e aconselhamento educacional: Uma perspectiva cognitivo-motivacional. Porto: Porto Editora.
tre as motivated by its impact on interpersonal relationship competences. External Motives to learn theatre (originating in others), in turn, bring together the Family Background categories (learning theatre is motivated by the familiar artistic background), Modelling (theatre learning is motivated by contact with significant models) and Incentive (learning thea-
Duarte, A. M. (2007). Conceptions of learning and approaches to learning in Portuguese students. Higher Education, 54, 781-794. DOI: 10.1007/s10734-006-9023-7 Duarte, A. M. (2012). Guião de entrevista da abordagem à aprendizagem da arte (documento interno). Lisboa: Faculdade de Psicologia da Universidade de Lisboa.
tre is motivated by external social incentive).
Encyclopeaedia Brittanica (2016). Theatre. Dowloaded 3-3-2016 from http://www.britannica.com/art/theatre-art
The following Figure summarizes de previous categories in the form of a descriptive map and the following Tables present examples of answer
Marton, F., & Säljö, R. (2005). Approaches to Learning. In F. Marton, D. Hounsell, & N. Entwistle (Eds.) The Experience of Learning (pp. 39–58). Edinburgh: The Scottish Academic Press
excerpts that illustrate each of the categories.
Rocha, T. G. Da, & Kastrup, V. (2008). Partilha do sensível na comunidade: interseções entre psicologia e teatro. Estudos de Psicologia (Natal), 13 (2), 97–105. DOI:10.1590/S1413-294X2008000200001 Ruiz, V. M. (2003). Motivação na Universidade, Uma, 20 (19),15–24.
