Use of Drama Techniques among Teachers and Pupils' Satisfaction with Extracurricular Activities in Croatia

Abstract

1. IntroductionSuccessful teachers' role in satisfying educational goals implies, among other things, positive emotional environment. "The most important predictors of students' satisfaction with school are students' feelings that they are treated fairly, that they feel safe and that they believe that teachers are supportive." Samdal et all. (1996). Assuming that teacher who feels competent would be a better motivator and supporter was my motive for the first research. "The function of drama teacher is to challenge, arouse interest, make anxious, give confidence, coordinate achievement, and encourage reflection. In any one lesson, he may operate in these varieties of other ways. No more than the maths or history teacher can he abdicate from his responsibility to assist and support his pupils in their learning." O'Neill, Lambert, Linnell, Warr-Wood (1976). In this article, drama education is not considered as a tool for learning theatre-skills or interested in production. The accent was on diffusion of drama techniques in teaching and extracurricular activities and sense of competence in teaching this field of education. Drama education, as considered in this article,"...it is a set of methods that can be used in learning process using dramatic expression to grow and mature as a person through the ability to perceive , to understand the behavior of people and relationships." Krusic (2008). It is focused on learning process and critical thinking. "Drama creates dramatic situations to be explored by the participants, inviting them to find out more about the process of how the situation comes into being, to shiftperspectives in the here and now, identify and sometimes solve problems and deepen our understanding of them." DICE (2008). Drama education is part of the modern educational paradigm that fosters learning through game and a holistic approach in education. Drama, especially actualized in extracurricular activities, provide the possibility for creative work and learning in a new way through experience. Pupils should satisfy their needs, deepen their interests and abilities to improve self-esteem and confidence. Drama Education has a wide application in education, either as a separate subject or as teaching methods within other subjects. Extracurricular activities are a part of school practice with no numerical rating; it is the area of free and independent choice. Their wealth of content and suitability to the needs and desires of specific school facilities provide an opportunity for individual development of each child, Martincevic (2010).Drama education as extracurricular activity is the part of the Croatian educational system that are ideal to bring together all of it because of the freer structure than in others subjects. The first idea, one that today bears the significance of a viewpoint, from which one should commence both in discussion and in the construction of immediate pedagogical practice, is the idea that extracurricular activities are not lessons, but a special form of a school's pedagogical work. Puzevski (1988, 26). The extracurricular curriculum is to be carried out through all school year in regular groups or during the holiday breaks or other festivities. Children are involved in different activities with a goal to get knowledge, habits and abilities to spend an active vacation Milisa (2000). Extracurricular activities, as we know them today, become a structurally significant part of the school system after 1953. when they were officially introduced in our school. Previsic (1985). It is different from country to country how much one invests in the development of extracurricular activities. According to Rajic et all. (2007). from 2003. the USA government invest 3, 6 billion (milliards) dollars in extracurricular projects to improve and allow their children to develop their interest and academically improve status, and their personal and social success. Puzevski (1988, 24) uses the term extracurricular activities to indicate "all the forms of activities, work and life that students of a school take part in and which are organized outside regular lessons (student groups, societies, organizations and communities). …