THE EFFECT OF DRAMATIZED LEARNING MATERIALS ON RULE LEARNING IN PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

The purpose of the present experiment was to assess the effect of “dramatized learning materials” on rule learning, in pre-school children. In this experiment, the learning materials consisted of stories in which the facts and rules to be learned were presented. A priori it is believed that the material was dramatised when the facts and rules were presented in the story and they influenced the discovery and conclusion of the story. It was supposed that such learning materials could attract children and facilitate their rule learning.
The experiment consisted of three sessions; a pre-test, an experimental education session, and a post-test. In the experimental education session, we tried to teach children the rule of conservation of weights. 48 pre-school children (5:7-6:9) were divided into 2 equal groups (24 Ss each) on the basis of the pre-test score. In order to teach the rule, we invented dramatized learning material (DT) and non-dramatized learning material (ND) and used them. In both materials, facts and rules of conservation of weights were presented in story form. In the DT material, the facts and rules influenced the discovery and conclusion of the story; but in the ND material, they didn't. Both learning materials contained the same kind and amount of information concerning the facts and rules. In the experimental education session, the DT material was presented to one group (dt-group), and the ND material was presented to the other (nd-group).
The main hypothesis was as follows; the dt-group could show higher score than the nd-group in the post-test. The results supported this hypothesis and also indicated that the DT material was effective for those subjects receiving bad marks in the pre-test.
We may now infer that dramatized learning materials can help learners to make cognitive-frame-works in which facts and rules to be learned can be subsumed.