Participatory Learning and Student Empowerment in the Classroom

Abstract

The debate on teaching methodology has served as a useful point to various experiments in the classroom and the testing of various learning approaches in search of teaching idiom that would empower and transform the student learner. This has opened a powerful opportunity for reflection in living classroom environment, exploring the extent it can be harnessed for the transformative development of the learner. The quest for shifts in pedagogical techniques from those which emphasized students as receptacle for knowledge to those which require active participation of both teacher and students, correspond to the necessities for reinvention of alternative classroom interaction. By participating in the process of knowledge construction through collaboration, students develop skills and attitudes such as creativity, problem-solving, decision-making, delegation and leadership considered key to the development of individuals. The focus of this paper is look at how participatory drama activities can empower the learner.