Role Play

Introduction

This learning resource about "role plays" is considered in the context of learning activities in Wikiversity and should support teachers in using "Role Plays" as a learning tool which support learners to engage in a specific simulated scenarios:

Collaborative problem solving^[1] with different views on a topic (sustainable energy supply, use of small power plant to compensate green energy production, fossil energy, economic costs of climate change, ...
Acting out a scenario of a job interviewer and an applicant for the job,
Playing a historical figure (e.g. Albert Einstein, Christopher Columbus) or
Playing a fictional character in literature or a movie (e.g. protagonists in Goethe's Faust).
Engaging in a debate or discussion, taking on different perspectives (e.g. freedom of speech and human rights) and taking on different roles and perspectives to develop essential skills, build empathy, and foster critical thinking.

Learning Environment

In a learning environment^[2], role plays need to prepare with scientific resources to validate views and negotiate in discussion. The learner should take some notes about the different views of other learners for a reflection of the discussion later. Video recordings with a consent of all participants can be used to analyze the role play afterwards.

Objective of Role Plays

Role play should promote a deeper understanding of various perspectives of stakeholder and encouraging them to combine different views into acceptable solution for the participants. Discuss also worst-case scenarios in which a single participant or stakeholder is violating the respectful discussion of stakeholders.

Definition of role play

A role play is a simulated activity where learners take on specific roles of stakeholders, protagonists in literature. The roles have a specification that is defined in the learning environment e.g.

by a script for each role or stakeholder individually without the knowledge about the objectives of other roles,
complete description of the scenario, that is visible for all learners and the learners need to identify properties and activities of the role by themselves and practice their role before running the role play with other participants.

In general the learning outcome is intended to develop skills in a safe and controlled environment with the possibility of an reflection^[3].

Learning Tasks

(Language Courses) Read literature of choice and identify the protagonist roles and place the protagonists in a new situation, that was not part of the content of literature. Let the learners specify independently of other learner how their fictional character would react in the new situation.
(Fake News - Human Rights) Take the role of someone publishes Fakes News and a role of people that are affected by the Fake News and e.g. human rights are violated. This role play is basic example for developing empathy by taking on different roles, learners can gain insight into the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of others, fostering empathy and understanding.
(Scenario Development) Create a societal scenario of your choices that causes problems e.g. democratic and collaborative problem solving. Write a role description for different stakeholders.
(VR and AR) How can Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality to incorporate a role or scenario (e.g. scenario in the Roman Empire)

Benefits of Role Plays in Learning Environments

Communication Skills: Role plays is intended to support learners in practicing effective communication for their role objectives and aims and at the same should enable active listening to be able to find a solution in a collaborative way and learn how to deal with conflict resolution if participant seem to have only their own benefit in mind or in health care situation in which life threatening results had to be communicated to the patient or family members^[4]. Discuss in general the role of role plays in Risk Management^[5].
Critical Thinking: Problem solving is in general complex with multiple criteria that are pointing to different and contrary options for solutions. Learners must analyze situations, identify simplifications by leaving out other perspectives and identify the reason for the simplifications of the problem. Finally the learner should be able make informed decisions with validated resources.
Creativity: Exposing learners to different views they had not though of before could result in the promotion of creativity to enhance to simplified solution towards a more advanced one that incorporates more perspectives and encourage learners to think outside the box. The exploration of new ideas and perspective can trigger and develop innovative ideas and solutions that widen the perspective on problem solving options.
(Active Learning) By taking up the role of someone in role play and being exposed to emotions of empathy or missing empathy for another perspective the learners are directly exposed to situation and a specific behavior is performed in role to encouraging active learning. Learners are engaged and motivated to interact as part of the scenarios in contrast to a learning environment in which they get information about a scenario in third persons view.

References

↑ Sterman, J., Fiddaman, T., Franck, T. R., Jones, A., McCauley, S., Rice, P., ... & Siegel, L. (2012). Climate interactive: the C-ROADS climate policy model.
↑ Moreno-Guerrero, A. J., Rodríguez-Jiménez, C., Gómez-García, G., & Ramos Navas-Parejo, M. (2020). Educational innovation in higher education: Use of role playing and educational video in future teachers’ training. Sustainability, 12(6), 2558.
↑ Kilgour, P., Reynaud, D., Northcote, M. T., & Shields, M. (2015). Role-playing as a tool to facilitate learning, self-reflection and social awareness in teacher education. International Journal of Innovative Interdisciplinary Research, 2(4), 8-20. KILGOUR, Peter, et al. Role-playing as a tool to facilit
↑ Baile, W. F., & Blatner, A. (2014). Teaching communication skills: using action methods to enhance role-play in problem-based learning. Simulation in Healthcare, 9(4), 220-227.
↑ McEwen, L., Stokes, A., Crowley, K., & Roberts, C. (2014). Using role-play for expert science communication with professional stakeholders in flood risk management. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 38(2), 277-300.