Master of Education (Drama)

Full-time

Minimum

1 year

Maximum

2 years

Part-time

Minimum

2 years

Maximum

4 years

Course Descriptors

MDR901 Theatre Making: Theory, Practice, Pedagogy (4 AUs)
This course addresses the growing interest in the use of drama as a pedagogical tool in schools. It addresses the processes of theatre-making, as well as the theories that accompany them, as creative and engaged participants. It will consequently focus on the understanding of theoretical frames, their translation and applicability to the practice of theatre-making, and the use of such practice in the creative classroom. The course is thus suited for educators who want to develop alternative learning spaces that draw on theatre as a creative and dynamic medium. It requires students to have comprehensive knowledge of the theories introduced and to experiment with theatre as a collaborative art form, as well as participate in dialogical processes of developing a vision for theatre in relation to context and culture.

The course will be conducted as a lecture/seminar/practical workshop that involves students in critical reading and analysis, theatre improvisations, group discussions and individual reflection. These are done as both non face-to-face and face-to-face activities.

MDR902 Drama Education, Curriculum and Assessment (4 AUs)
This is a new course for the M.Ed. (Drama) programme and will be a required specialization course. It is a pedagogical methods course and is an integration of 2 old modules  Contextualizing Drama Education, and Drama Curriculum as creative Practice. The module covers the basics principles of drama education, drama in the curriculum and assessment in drama.

MDR903 The Teacher as Facili-Actor (4 AUs)
This course examines the role of the teacher as a reflective and reflexive practitioner, who is both facilitator and actor/performer in her capacity as a collaborative and dialogical educator. It attends to how interactive and participatory learning require teachers to be adaptable to varied styles of learning, and self-aware in relation to multiple cultural dynamics. This entails an ability to improvise and perform multiple roles in order to meet the needs of varied teacher-student dynamics in the 21st century context.

The teacher as performer is interrogated in relation to cultural and social practices that inform how teachers are expected to articulate themselves and execute particular duties. Students will engage with performance theory, facilitation techniques and practical tasks that apply notions of performativity to the work of education through drama-based activities and frameworks. They will learn and develop teaching processes that draw from performance strategies and skills.

This course responds to the ongoing changes in the education landscape that require teachers to become more engaged in active learning processes that exceed conventional book learning approaches, and embrace holistic, multi-dimensional and inter-disciplinary frames. The arts, particularly drama, is an ideal platform through which to do this, as it is inherently open to change and integrative of multiple knowledges. The teacher as facili-actor can then embody and enact these critical pedagogies and practices.

MDR904 Arts-based Research (4 AUs)
This is a new course that investigates forms of arts-based research and is structured for students doing CI route. It is also an option for those wishing to take a dissertation and explore possible arts-based research methodologies.

MDR922 Theatre in the Community (4 AUs)
This course deals with how theatre is an important part of community, as it provides an important platform for dialogue and participation in relation to social and cultural issues in society. The work of theatre in the community is educational in several ways, from nurturing ties across boundaries of difference to raising awareness about relevant concerns. The course explores how this process needs to be understood, planned and executed with insight and rigour, developing socio-emotional and aesthetic spaces for reflection and interaction.

The course engages with theories of applied theatre and community-based education that equip students with frameworks and principles for developing theatre projects and programmes for a range of social contexts such as schools, homes for the elderly, social organisations, etc. The course will also examine pedagogical approaches to using theatre as a means of interrogating everyday norms to explore how the performance of social and cultural practices contributes to community development through embodied and enacted processes.

MED900 Educational Inquiry (4 AUs)
This course introduces participants to the fundamental processes involved in conducting research such as formulating research questions, writing a review of the literature by synthesizing empirical studies, understanding various methodological approaches, collecting and interpreting research data. Participants in this course will have opportunities to develop the skills, knowledge and strategies needed to read, interpret, and evaluate the quality of research reports. In addition, participants will gain a critical understanding of quantitative, qualitative, and combined research approaches.

MED901 Academic Writing for Postgraduate Students (4 AUs)
This course will guide postgraduate students in studying the discourse and linguistic conventions of academic writing in their own discipline so that they can better manage the writing of their thesis/research paper. In addition to studying the discourse practices of academic writing, students will also examine the thinking processes underlying the production of those practices.

MED902 Integrative Project (2 AUs)
This capstone course requires participants to identify an education issue which forms the focus of inquiry, locate and read the most relevant literature to generate suggested potential solution to address the problem. The solution should show evidence that they are able to take the available information and restructure it in an appropriate way to deal with the issue.