Supporting adolescents' life skills through creative drama: An example of communication skills

The aim of this study is to determine the level of communication skills, as one of the life skills of adolescents attending middle school with the idea of importance o these skills in the early stages of life. Based on this view, another aim of the study is to support the development of "communication skills" as one of the life skills by enabling adolescents to use their cognitive and social skills through protective, preventive and attitude-enhancing activities against negative life situations that they will encounter in school life. In the study, creative drama will expected to affect students' communication skills positively. For this purpose, activities using creative drama were organized and a program was deveoped fothe purposive of the research and the effect was examined. As a method in the study, paired groups in terms of pre-test scores were formed and quasi-experimental design was applied. Two randomly formed groups (experimental and control groups) were included in the model. Data were collected before and after the creative drama program. Follow-up tests for the experimental group were conducted two months after the post-test was administered. In the findings, the communication skills of the control group and the experimental group was examined by using Life Skills Education Scale and Communication Skills Inventory including mental, emotional, behavioral and relational dimensions. Result of the study revealed that the creative drama program was effective in terms of students' communication skills. The effect of creative drama program was found significantly high in experimental group two months later as the follow up measure. The use of such programs are suggested for life skills trainings.