The States of Using Creative Drama as a Method in the Lessons of the Special Education Teachers

The aim of this study is to examine the use of creative drama in the lessons of the mentally disabled teachers working in Special Education and Rehabilitation Centers. The participants of the study were reached through snowball sampling, which is one of the sampling methods. In this context, the participants consist of 29 mentally disabled teachers working in Special Education and Rehabilitation Centers in Rize Province and Its districts. Phenomenology design was preferred in the study, which is among the qualitative research methods. The data of the study were collected with the help of the semi-structured "Drama Use Cases Interview Form", which was developed by the researcher and the validity studies were completed. Although the interviews were planned to be held face-to-face, the participants filled out the interview form in writing, because the interviews did not take place due to the Covid-19 outbreak, and the participants were not willing to make recorded video online. The data collected in the study were analyzed with content analysis method, which is among the qualitative data analysis techniques. As a result of the research, it was revealed that most of the teachers of the mentally disabled used creative drama as a method in their lessons. In addition, it was concluded that teachers used creative drama to provide academic, social and cognitive development and that this method provides advantages in terms of interaction, knowledge and skill development. Based on these results, in the present study, it is recommended that teachers of the mentally disabled should increase the frequency of using the creative drama method and design and use drama activities within the scope of all special education modules.