The effect of creative drama and creative writing activities on creative writing achievement

Abstract

Since all sense organs are effectively used in the creative drama method, children's communication skills such as attention, perception, listening, speaking and using body language develop. This method gives children the opportunity to express themselves, their problems and imaginary world. Individuals are not passive during the activities, but active. In addition to enabling personal and social development, creative drama also helps skills of creativity and thinking differently emerge. Similar to creative drama, creative writing enables individuals to express their thoughts freely and productively. In the writing process, students should use their knowledge as well as their skill. Therefore, the development of writing skill requires long-term and effective practices. It is possible to make writing that is usually perceived as a boring activity by students interesting by using a set of activities and practices. The creative writing process makes the writing activities appealing to students. Using creative drama and creative writing activities together can increase students' motivation to write. The aim of this study is to identify the effect of creative drama and creative writing activities on creative writing achievement. Mixed method design was employed by combining qualitative and quantitative research methods. Embedded design was preferred among mixed method designs. In the study, the quantitative data were thoroughly discussed, and the qualitative data were used to support the findings. Pretest-posttest control group design was used in the quantitative part. The study was conducted with 60 4th graders (female=33; male=27) in Denizli city centre during the 2013-2014 school year. The activities were implemented at a school with medium socio-economic level in 14 weeks. At the end of this period, the students' views on the creative writing activities were identified. In the data gathering process, Creative Writing Works Assessment Scale (CWWAS) developed by Beydemir (2010) and a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher were used. In addition, open-ended questions were prepared to be presented to the students in the creative writing activities which were used as pretest and posttest. With regard to creative writing achievement, a significant difference was determined between the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group, but no significant differences were found in the control group. The analysis of the students' views revealed codes such as relief, expressing feelings and thoughts, finding writing interesting and being motivated to write. Most of the students asserted that they had fun, felt relieved and freer, and became more motivated to write during the creative writing activities they participated after creative drama. The students stated positive views related to the creative writing activities. The qualitative results obtained in the study supported the quantitative results.