The effect of creative drama practices during vocational studies (seminar period) on the communication skills of theachers in primary schools

Education is a lifelong process. Depending on the improvements and changes during this process, in addition to traditional teaching methods (techniques), teachers have to be individuals who can use alternative teaching techniques and convey (transfer) them to their students. Moreover, they have to be innovative and open to communication in the light of contemporary education. The fact that professional knowledge wears out so quickly due to the developments, it is obviously essential to give emphasis on professional studies and follow the innovations due to the increasing importance of interpersonal communication.The aim of the present survey was to compare the effectiveness of ?creative drama? and ?traditional techniques? used at ?Kartal M.E. V. Primary School? during vocational seminars. 50 teachers from ?Kartal M.E. V. Primary School? participated in the present study. There were two groups in this survey, namely experimental and control groups. In order to collect the data, ?communicative skills inventory? which was developed by Ersan and Balcı was used. This inventory was applied to the ?experimental? group and to the ?control? group as the pretest before our program. After the assessment of the pretest, the experimental group took an educational program of communicative skills through creative drama techniques for 12 hours, whereas the control group took the same course through traditional techniques. After these applications, the same means of assessment was given once again to both groups of teachers. The analysis related to the data was evaluated by ?windows/SPSS 13.0 program.To be able to see the impact and understand the difference between ?Creative Drama?, and ?traditional techniques?, which are used to improve the communicative skills during the training sessions, ?Mann Whitney U? and ?Wilcoxon Marked Desks Test? were used. The analyses revealed that traditional techniques were only effective in terms of mental conditions, whereas creative drama could affect not only the mental conditions, but their emotions and behavioral patterns as well.Key words: Vocational Studies (Seminar Period), Communication Skills, Interpersonal Communication, Creative Drama, Lecturing.