Grooming Teachers in Training for the Practice of Children’s Theatre in a Digital Age

Theatre Arts is one of the many fields of study that have maintained relevance to life and living by finding relevance in other fields such as engineering, technology, psychology, sociology, medicine (therapy) education, and others. The purpose of this study is to prepare Theatre Arts student teachers-in-training, in Colleges and Universities of Education to approaches that will equip them to engage the practice of Children’s Theatre in schools. Therefore, this paper accounts for a Children’s Theatre field trip experience involving researchers and NCE Theatre Arts students in Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Oto/Ijanikin.

This was done by using technologically based digital gadgets as teaching methodologies for the practice of Children’s Theatre in primary schools. It adopted qualitative methods involving visits to select primary schools within Badagry Local Government Area where pupils were engaged in creative engagements and educative entertainment (Edutainment) of learners which were interactive during this period. Findings revealed that significant changes were noticed in the participatory level of learners at the end of the experiment compared to their attitude at the beginning of the study. It also pointed to the fact that digitalizing approaches to Children’s Theatre are synonymous not only with learners but also with teachers to have a paradigm shift by exploring digitalization in the classroom, especially with young learners.

The study concludes that it is high time theatre arts teachers in training diversify, embrace, and provide special creative visuals that will deliver lessons to learners in distinct ways through digital technologies.

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