Abstract:

Shakespeare’s epithet, “all the world’s a stage” is one of the most significant and universally understood metaphor’s for the living of life. Theatre theories are concerned with and applied to theatre and audiences. Performance Theory on the other hand draws on anthropology, sociology, literary theory, and legal studies. Richard Schechner advocates that drama is not just something that occurs on stage, but something that happens in everyday life, full of meaning, and on many different levels.(Schechner, 2003) Drama theory is one of the problem structuring methods in operations research. It is based on game theory and adapts the use of games to complex organisational situations, accounting for emotional responses that can provoke irrational reactions and lead the players to redefine the game.

Pringle & Michel (2007) propose that the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) accredited schools both indirect and direct measures of students having met the learning outcomes of their courses are required to assure learning. They further posit that the direct measure of the learning outcome can include oral presentations, yet there is little guidance for practitioners on how to design direct measures.

In particular, fear of public speaking as a key inhibitor of performance has been identified by Shanahan, (2013) and steps to overcome these high levels of what are termed ‘Oral Communication Apprehensives’ (OCA), in other words how can we help students overcome their nerves and improve their performance?

Shanahan’s study identifies one area for improvement in communication courses as being “instruction in strategies for managing continuous assessment” via presentations in a “supportive and non-evaluative environment”

In this study we follow on from notable works to examine the impact of one particular strategy to help students manage oral communication apprehension in the context of formal communication modules. That is specifically, the introduction of Drama Instruction and Teaching as a tool for business students in preparing for the presentation.

Following this thinking will mean understanding the presentation as a performance which the student gives to an audience. Whilst the student will bring subject-matter and content to the performance, it is the act of presenting this that causes OCA and this can significantly impact their learning outcomes.

The specific technique this paper explores is to examine the introduction of a technique from Drama Instruction into the business faculty which enables students to conceptualise and communicate their fears prior to the ‘performance’.
This is an exercise called ‘fear in a hat’, where students anonymously write down their biggest fear/s in relation to oral presentations and put the fears into a hat. The lecturer then shuffles the ‘fears’ and passes the hat round the class, each student takes a fear, and reads it aloud. The lecturer acknowledges the fear/s as they are being read and provides specific formative feedback and strategies to all students.

Data on specific types of OCS fears was collected from 5 different formal communications programmes in 2018 where 200 students were instructed on strategies to overcome OCA using this method. The results were analysed inductively and findings are presented herein with a reflection on the main strategies proposed to students about their fears.

Keywords:

Drama, stage, learning and teaching, oral presentations.