H
ong Kong students strive to achieve academic
success, and the pressure to continually improve
their performance is ever-present. So it’s easy to
see why the academic programmes of local and
international schools focus on traditional disciplines such
as mathematics, science and reading in classroom-based
teaching environments, rather than having to justify taking
students out of classrooms on field trips.
However, a recent University of Arkansas study
suggests there are major benefits for students who augment
traditional academic learning with field trips to live theatre.
Deeper comprehension
As part of the study, students watched a live performance
of either
Hamlet
or
A Christmas Carol
. Researchers examined
the impact on students attending these productions and
found field trips to live theatre led to enhanced knowledge,
increased vocabulary, greater tolerance and improved
ability to read the emotions of others: all skills in high
demand by employers.
“What sets our study apart from all others is our
As parents, we want to equip our children with the right tools to succeed in life.
Exposing them to live theatre is one of the best things we can do, writes
Scott Williamson.
research design,” said Collin Hitt, co-author and doctoral
academy fellow in the Department of Education Reform.
“We used gold-standard methods. By lottery, some groups
were selected to attend live performances on a field trip;
others were simply given a coupon to attend a performance
after the study was over. So, by chance, some students had
seen a live performance and some hadn’t at the time of our
study. This random assignment design is the most rigorous
way to study any programme, and this is the first time it
has been used to study live theatre programmes.”
Students who saw live productions improved their
knowledge of the plays by a significant margin. For example,
83 per cent of the students who attended the play could
identify Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as Hamlet’s friends,
while only 45 per cent of the group who didn’t attend the
production correctly identified the two characters.
“Beyond simple knowledge of the plot and dialogue,
students attending the play showed greater tolerance for
people holding opposing and controversial views,” said
Hitt. “They showed improved ability to read the emotions
and thoughts of others.”
Dramatic
results
