Investigation of Learning in Creative Drama-based Classrooms through Community of Practice

In creative drama-based classrooms, the learners attain opportunities of working collaboratively in performing drama and determining their roles in their learning process through their performance. Also, there exist the opportunities of communication, learning various views, thinking creativity, thinking independently and forming mutual outcomes with the help of their previous knowledge and experience. The purpose of the current study was to examine the processes and the ways of formation of communities of practice in creative drama-based classrooms for preservice teachers enrolled in the departments of early childhood and elementary mathematics education through their learning process. Moreover, the roles of instructors and participants in different drama classrooms and programs in these different communities were investigated. The participants of the present study were composed of 55 sophomore preservice teachers at a university in northern part of Turkey. Data collection process lasted four weeks and included video recordings of the classes and audio-recordings of the interviews made with some of the participants. The qualitative data were analyzed by using community of  practice framework. These communities were examined based on three dimensions of communities of practice (CoP), joint enterprise, mutual engagement and shared repertoire by focusing on their learning of these different communities. The findings showed that Wenger’s CoP dimensions manifested themselves in the classrooms. Also, this framework utilized the understanding of similarities and differences among these different communities for their learning processes.