Role play exercises give students the opportunity to assume the role of a person or act out a given situation. These roles can be performed by individual students, in pairs, or in groups which can play out a more complex scenario. Using a set of guidelines can be helpful in planning role playing exercise.
Harbour and Connick offer the following:. Students can gain additional and alternative meaning from the context of role playing than from non-context specific book learning and lectures.
By means of guidance from clearly developed objectives and instructions, role plays can help students gain knowledge and skills from a variety of learning situations:. Role plays provide students with the opportunity to take part in activities which mirror career-related scenarios. To help students understand the use of role playing sessions, role plays should be content-focused, match learning objectives, and be relevant to real-world situations.
Role playing exercises encourage students to think more critically about complex and controversial subjects and to see situations from a different perspective. When properly employed, role plays can motivate students in a fun and engaging way. Bonwell, C. Active learning: Creating excitement in the classroom. Harbour, E. Role playing games and activities rules and tips.
Lebaron, J. The potential of jigsaw role playing to promote the social construction of knowledge in an online graduate education course. Role playing. In Instructional guide for university faculty and teaching assistants. Phone: Email: citl niu.
