Carmen Chan, a fellow student in PIDP 3250 Instructional Strategies has prepared a video scribe on a Student Engagement Technique referenced as “Role Play.” This particular technique is meant to create a fun and engaging classroom experience for students. Role Play is especially important for learning in fields such as healthcare, aviation, and hospitality industries to name a few. It enables the instructor to provide students with real-life learning opportunities and offers hands-on simulation training. As mentioned by Carmen in the video below, it promotes problem-solving and critical thinking by encouraging creativity and “on-the-spot” thinking. Role play can be used to deliver curriculum with both basic academic and clinical components. Carmen offers some clear guidelines in how to utilize this strategy in her video scribe below:
I particularly like this strategy as I often utilize Role Play with students in our healthcare programs. The benefits are numerous:
- increased verbal communication skills
- stimulates student intellectually and socially
- raises interest in the topic under study
- provides student opportunities to apply their knowledge
- enables learners to view scenarios from divergent perspectives
There are some cons to this strategy, as mentioned by Carmen. For example, students may feel they are “put-on-the-spot” and shy students may be timid in Role Play environments. It can also be challenging to implement Role Play in larger classroom settings. However, the benefits outweigh the negatives. Students entering careers such as healthcare will need to learn the skill of assertive communication and role play scenarios will serve to strengthen this aspect. One way Carmen suggests to get around this is to strategically align students so that timid students are paired with not-so-timid students. It is also important to establish a role play scenario that is as close as possible to real-life situations thus maximizing student learning.
Karen Deol 