RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

THE USES OF ROLE-PLAYING 453
of position occupants. Role-playing provides a
means of exploring such stereotypes and developing
a deeper understanding of the point of
view and feelings of someone who finds herself
in a particular role.
Experiencing the pressures which create roles:
role-playing provides study material for group
members on the ways in which roles are created
in, for example, a committee. It enables
subjects to explore the interactions of formal
structure and individual personalities in
role-taking.
Testing out for oneself possible modes of behaviour:
in effect, this is the rehearsal syndrome: the trying
out in one’s mind in advance of some new
situation that one has to face. Role-playing can
be used for a wide variety of situations where
the subject, for one reason or another, needs to
learn to cope with the rituals and conventions
of social intercourse and to practise them so
that they can be repeated under stress.
Simulating a situation for others (and possibly oneself)
to learn from: here, the role-player provides
materials for others to use and work upon.
In the simplest situation, there is just one
role-player acting out a specific role. In more
complex situations such as the Stanford Prison
study discussed in Box 21.2, role-playing is
used to provide an environment structured on
the interactions of numerous role incumbents.
Teachers wishing to use role-play in classroom
settings might find the sequence from Van
Ments (1983) useful. He suggests commencing
with setting objectives and deciding how to integrate
role-play into the teaching programme,
then determining any external constraints on
the situation, followed by listing critical factors
in the problem to be explored. After this
decisions are taken on the type and structure
of the role-play, and then writing the briefs or
the materials. Following this the session is run,
with a subsequent debriefing and follow-up.
what exactly their intentions are in teaching by
means of role-play. Is it, for example, to teach facts,
or concepts, or skills, or awareness, or sensitivity
Depending on the specific nature of the teacher’s
objective, role-play can be fitted into the timetable
in several ways. Van Ments (1983) identifies the
following:
as an introduction to the subject
as a means of supplementing or following on
from a point that is being explored
as the focal point of a course or a unit of work
as a break from the routine of the classroom or
the workshop
as a way of summarizing or integrating diverse
subject matter
as a way of reviewing or revising a topic
as a means of assessing work.
Determining external constraints
Role-play can be extremely time-consuming. It
is vital therefore that from the outset, teachers
should be aware of the following factors that may
inhibit or even preclude the running of a role-play
(see Van Ments 1978):
suitable room or space (size, layout, furniture,
etc.)
sufficient time for warm-up, running the actual
role-play and debriefing
availability of assistance to help run the session.
Critical factors
The teacher, Van Ments (1983) advises, must look
at the critical issues involved in the problem area
encompassed by the role-play and decide who has
the power to influence those issues as well as who
is affected by the decisions to be taken. By way of
example, Box 21.3 identifies some of the principal
protagonists in a role-play session to do with young
people smoking.
Chapter 21
Setting objectives
The first observation made by Van Ments (1983)
is that teachers must begin by asking themselves
Choosing or writing the role-play
The choice lies with teachers either to
buy or to borrow a ready-made role-play or