The Effect of Creative Drama Method in In-Service Trainings

Problem Statement: In modern world, reasonable thinking people are needed. The memory based education system is not sufficient to educate that kind of people for business area. Business life needs employees who are creative, problem solver, initiative taker, observer and fast decision makers. In-service trainings have been applied to supply that need. However, in-service trainings should be served in the right time, to the right target market and in effective way. Creative drama method can be very effective as a teaching methodology. It is a practical oriented method from the real life situations rather than memorising. Participants can have enjoyable time and they get ready for the real situations. And moreover, it is fun. Purpose of the Study: Purpose of the study is to compare and analyze the effectiveness of the in-service training with two different methods given to two different groups. The methods are classical teaching method and creative drama method. Method: The research has two data gathering methods which are quantitative and qualitative. Two different groups have been created as control and experiment. Quantitative method contains pre-test and post-test control group experimental pattern. Qualitative method contains some open ended questions after trainings. Experiment and control groups have been compared eachother according to pre-test and post-test of HİE, İBDG, GİG questionnaires results. Since the results show normality distribution and variences are homogeneous, co-variation analysis and t test techniques has been used for the dependent and independent groups. Results and Recommendations: Positive effect has been detected on the employees who have involved in an in-service training with the creative drama method. Therefore, during the education activities creative drama method should be applied both in private and public sector. Body and body language related activities need some time in order to be observed its effectiveness on participants. The result of the questions show that participants enjoyed body related activities but they just could not sense the effect of it in the short time. Control group participants explain that the classical teaching method could not give them any chance to apply what they have learnt and so that they could not have any idea of how effective body language using techniques were for them. The confidence, friendship and harmony of participants of experiment group has been shown more development compared to the control group. As a result, it can be clearly seen that in this research creative drama method is very effective in the in-service training process.