Hosted by OSOS , contributed by ssiouli on 25 April 2020
Bullying has attracted worldwide research interest mainly due to its negative effects on the children involved. In this study elementary students were motivated by their teachers to look seriously at this social issue and co-create three plays by selecting the theme, researching the topic from a variety of perspectives and by choosing characters. Students participated in creating and performing their own theatre pieces in order to produce three short video films about body shaming, racial discrimination and cyberbullying. The purpose of this anti-bullying project is to explore gender differences in bullying and victimization among a sample of Greek early adolescents, identify possible changes in bullying and victimization behaviour after the film co-creating process and adapted strategies for addressing bullying. This project explored the hypothesis that children who were actively involved in this play-creating process and these hypothetical scenarios, would report less bullying and victimization behaviour. Participants consisted of 20 preadolescent 6th-grade students of the Experimental School of the University of Thessaloniki. Anti-bullying programs may alter students’ behaviour and should be taken into account by education professionals, researchers and policymakers.
Στυλιανή Σιούλη
Πειραματικό Σχολείο του Πανεπιστημίου Θεσσαλονίκης
ssiouli@yahoo.gr
Осетити
Bullying has been recognized as an evidence problem in schools for several decades in many countries around the world. It is mainly acknowledged as an aggressive behaviour studied for over forty years and defined as an intentional, repeated, long-term and unjustified aggression that infringes on morals, demonstrate a socially dominant position and unbalance as a way to exert social control and establish a certain hierarchy among pears. Bullying, as a coexistence issue among others at school, has raised much alertness within the educational framework.
Τhe aim of this anti-bullying project was the inclusion of students as an integral part of the dramatic process by co-creating and performing three short video films about body shaming, racial discrimination and cyberbullying. Thus, students were given the opportunity to become active creators of content rather than passive consumers consistent with a constructivist teaching and learning philosophy. We should take into account the positive effect drama in education can have on child’s cognitive and affective development and on potential modifications of student behaviour and limits aggression, in combination with raising the awareness and understanding of the bullying phenomenon.
Замислити
At the beginning of the project, students were motivated by their teachers to look through bullying deeper, discuss different types of bullying—for example physical, verbal, sexual, racial, telephone, cyber and exclusion, revile their own stories as victims or bullies and recognize how serious this social issue is. Teachers used reflective practice to invoke students’ personal believes and experiences through group sessions at the beginning of each class. Students were encouraged to reflect on bullying and express their personal insights. After this emotional and intellectual stimulation and reflection students were encouraged to team up to co-create three short videos by selecting the theme, writing the scripts and scenes, choosing characters and making practical choices of their own.
Students were encouraged to make three silent short films accompanied by the music of their choice. They could also add text of five key-words that appeared as subtitles in English, Greek and Portuguese language. The duration of each film was set to be two and a half minutes. All scenarios under consideration had to involve direct and indirect bullying, as well as a successful solution to the story problem. Students interactively participated by expressing their opinions and views and sharing their imaginations. They were becoming an integral part of the dramatic process by creating their own theatre pieces.
They finally decided to produce three short video films about body shaming, racial discrimination and cyberbullying. Students became actors and technicians and made choices by themselves. On the other hand, teachers tried to establish an environment which promoted freedom and acted as facilitators giving the students power over their own work. They determined the thresholds, boundaries and structure of productive work in their class and they were always backstage during production to help, provide comfort and confidence to avoid potential chaos.
Students’ emotional involvement and connection with their work was apparent because their heroes were actually themselves. The characters were created from a projection of their inner-selves. Engagement was retained across the entire process. Students had to take responsibility for all aspects of the three plays. They had to become directors by taking part in most structural decisions, designers by designing scenes and costumes, producers by making suggestions on acting and perform the roles. For example, roles which give the opportunity to exercise power, like “bullies” and on the other hand submissive roles with no power at all, like “victims”. Besides these two character roles, the “follower” character was also created. This character acted like someone who was being involved without really wanting to be involved. Students had to articulate in their minds this power imbalance in order to create the scenarios about body shaming, racial discrimination and cyberbullying. Although the intense amount of responsibility and work overload, students demonstrated motivation, investment and engagement in both process and final rehearsals in order to bring the scripts to the screen.
Креирај
The deployment of drama in education as a pedagogical tool enhances students’ level of engagement and also supports them in building more explicit and deeper insights about bullying. In particular, the emotional and intellectual stimulation and reflection of students regarding bullying and their role as an integral part of the dramatic process by creating their own theatre pieces are also emphasized. This project is a different approach to bullying and victimization among Greek early adolescents and aims to a possible change in bullying and victimization behaviour after co-creating and film participating. Students participated in co-creating and performing their own theatre pieces in order to produce three short video films about body shaming, racial discrimination and cyberbullying.
Filmmaking by its nature is a collaborative effort and requires that students be competent as creators as well as technicians. It took a multitude of students to bring those three films into being. The production required the collaboration of both students and teachers to create the final products. Making films is a highly specialized craft and not all students are equally competent technically. For this reason, students were randomly divided into three groups supervised by a teacher. For teachers, the challenge was to find ways to encourage each student’s unique creativity while at the same time evaluating the film creation process. Students were all willing to learn and take instructions for working the scenes. Movie scenes were all shot in natural light at the premises of the Experimental School by using a portable mobile device.
The free DaVinci Resolve 16 software tool was used for the production of the three silent short films accompanied by the music of students’ choice. This specific tool combines professional 8K editing colour correction and non-linear video editing application for Windows. It is a professional editing and color grading system that is suitable for independent users working on SD, HD and Ultra HD projects. DaVinci Resolve 16 combines professional offline and online editing, color correction, audio post-production and visual effects all in one software tool. DaVinci Resolve 16 made it easy for teachers and students to collaborate and explore different toolsets and produce short films. Music was carefully selected by students to heighten emotion and create a mood in order to make the film story more impactful and memorable. Sound affects mood by simulating reality and creating a dramatic atmosphere.