Observed changes in social-emotional and moral development following creative drama activities in primary school children

Social emotional skills and moral development are fundamental skills that significantly influence a child’s process of becoming a healthy adult. The development of these skills from an early age contributes to personality growth and the formation of a healthy and happy individual. In addition to academic achievements, children’s social-emotional development, moral understanding, and acquisition of values are also important in their individualisation process. Creative drama, as a widely used method in multidimensional learning, can be an effective tool to support the development of these skills. Drama activities that provide experiential learning contribute to social skills, emotion regulation, moral development, and may enhance children’s awareness while engaging them in enjoyable learning experiences. In this study, the research question was: “Do the creative drama trainings received by children have an effect on their social-emotional and moral development?” A one-group pretest-posttest experimental design was used. Within the scope of the research, 20 hours of drama practice were carried out with 15 volunteer children aged 8-11 years. Pre-test and post-test data were collected and analyzed using SPSS 23. The analyses examined changes in social emotional and moral development following the intervention. Results indicate that creative drama education was associated with increases in children’s emotional awareness, empathy skills, and moral reasoning. Creative drama participation was linked to statistically significant improvements in social-emotional and moral development scores. The programme appeared to improve students’ performance, and participants reported increased awareness as a result of the activities.