The effect of creative drama activities on immigrant students' life satisfaction

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the views of immigrant middle school students who moved from outside of Turkey due to various reasons on the effect of drama activities on their daily life. "Experimental research method" was employed since creative drama would be implemented to ensure students' adaptation to the environment and school. "Single group pretest-posttest design" was preferred in accordance with the experimental method. The participants were 23 students including Turkish (11 students) and immigrant (12 students) middle school students from a neighbourhood with middle socio-economic status in Denizli. Immigrant students were originally from Iran, and had migrated to Turkey due to various reasons. The experimental procedure that started in the Fall semester of the 2015-2016 school year continued for the next three semesters. "Multidimensional Student Life Satisfaction Scale" (MSLSS) developed by Huebner to measure adolescents' life satisfaction in different areas (friends, school, living environment, family and self) was adapted to Turkish by Civitci, and used to gather data. Additionally, students' views were obtained through supplementary interviews. A significant difference was found between the pretest and posttest scores of immigrant and Turkish students regarding their life satisfaction. They stated that drama activities positively affected many of their skills, they spent better time with friends at school and outside of school, and expressed themselves better in their communication with neighbours. Implementing creative drama activities to support immigrant children's adaptation to their environment and school can be effective in facilitating their living conditions.