Music and drama in the development of social skills: A systematic review of theses in Türkiye

Abstract

This study aims to systematically examine postgraduate theses addressing the impact of creative drama and/or music methods on social skill development in Türkiye between the years 2000-2025. In this study, conducted as a systematic review, out of 116 theses identified through a search in the CoHE National Thesis Center (YÖK) using the keywords "music and social skill," "drama and social skill," and "music, drama and social skill," 70 theses meeting the established inclusion criteria were descriptively examined. Among these theses, seven theses conducted exclusively with a middle school (ages 10-14) sample, possessing an experimental or quasi-experimental design, and available in full text were analyzed in detail in terms of application characteristics and results. Findings show that social skill development in the national thesis literature is predominantly addressed through the creative drama method; 68.6% of the theses used drama, 30% used music, and only 1.4% used drama and music together. It was observed that the majority of the studies were conducted at the preschool, primary school, and middle school levels, while high school, undergraduate, and adult samples remained limited. Findings obtained from the seven theses in the analysis group show that creative drama and music applications provided significant development in social skill areas such as communication, peer relationships, cooperation, self-control, assertiveness, and social adjustment; in some studies, these effects also persisted in follow-up tests. Consequently, it was determined that music and drama are effective tools in social skill education; however, holistic models in which the two methods are used together remain quite limited in the national literature. Accordingly, it is recommended to increase interdisciplinary applications and to multiply experimental research at the middle school level.

Keywords

• Creative drama
• Drama
• Music
• Music education
• Social skills
• Systematic review

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