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Page last updated on: April 15, 2011		 Role-play is learning how to best handle a situation by practicing interactions and trying out different approaches. Students may act out situations, problems, and issues in a safe setting and develop skills that promote sexual health. While role-play is a very effective instructional method proven to impact student behaviour, it requires careful preparation to ensure a structure emphasizing healthy sexuality through practicing basic learning's such as abstinence negotiation.

 

advantages of role-play

  • Provides opportunity for students to assume roles of others, therefore appreciating another person's point of view.
  • Allows for a safe exploration of solutions and an opportunity to practice sexual health skills.
  • Tends to motivate students to learn.
  • Promotes and develops critical and creative thinking, attitudes, values, and interpersonal and social skills.

Procedure

 1.   Prepare class for role-play

  • Present an artificial problem, situation or event that represents some aspect of reality.
  • Define the problem, situation and roles clearly.

 2.   Give clear instructions

  • Determine whether role-plays will be carried out using student volunteers in front of the class (the teacher may or may not play a role), in partnerships/small groups with every student playing a role, or in small groups with role-players and observers.
  • Divide students into groups, if appropriate. Using Small Group Activities
  • Model the skill with a scripted role-play.

 3.   Act out role-plays

  • Students follow the procedure outlined by the teacher to act out role-plays.
  • Unless the teacher is playing a role, it is helpful to walk around the room and observe how students are experiencing the role-play and offer coaching to students who are stuck.

 4.   Discussion (small group and whole class)

  • Begin by allowing players to communicate feelings experienced during the role-play.
  • Have students identify sexual health skills that were demonstrated during the role-play.
  • Determine actions that strengthen or weaken these skills (i.e. body language).
  • Discuss how this role-play is or isn’t similar to real life. 
  • Identify ways of using identified sexual health skills in real life situations. 

ALTERNATIVES TO TRADITIONAL PROCEDURE

  • Have students write role-plays as scripts.
  • Have students write down responses and then role-play in front of the class.
  • Have students generate a list of challenging “lines”, then have a student read the lines to the class and have each student give a response.
  • Have students develop and act out plays. 

TIPS FOR USING ROLE-PLAY

  • Begin with fairly easy situations and work up to more challenging ones.
  • Be aware that some students may feel threatened or self-conscious. Using humor can help dispel embarrassment. Using role-plays that exaggerate weak responses might break the ice.
  • Reduce the level of abstraction or complexity so that the students may become directly involved with underlying concepts.
  • If students find it difficult to determine skills which model sexual health, they could observe successful role models or ask experts to suggest approaches. 

 

REFERENCES:

  1. Sexuality:  An Education Resource Book.  Judith Campbell, Jill Golick; Globe Modern Curriculum Press, 1988.
  2. Instructional Methods Information.  Dr. R. Kizlik;  ADPRIMA, http://www.adprima.com/teachmeth.htm
  3. Instructional Approaches: A Framework for Professional Practice.  Regina, SK; Saskatchewan Education.
  4. Reducing the Risk.  ETR Associates,
  5. Safer Choices.  ETR Associates,