Education Commons^™

Improvisation As A Teaching Tool For Improving Oral Communication Skills In Premedical And Pre-Biomedical Graduate Students, Marianne Phelps, Catrina White, Lin Xiang, Hollie I. Swanson

Theatre and Dance Faculty Publications

Objective:

To evaluate the relationship between training in theatre improvisation and empathy, communication, and other professional skills.

Methods:

Undergraduate and graduate students who were participants of a 10-week summer undergraduate research program engaged in theatre improvisation techniques during a 3-hour workshop. In Study #1, a de-identified, self-report questionnaire (known as the Empathy Quotient) was administered prior to and following the workshop. Paired sample 2-tailed t-tests were performed to evaluate pre- and post-test scores. To identify additional benefits of engaging in theatre improvisation techniques, Study #2 was performed. Here, a survey was administered to the participants following their completion of …

Fiera, Guambra, Y Karichina!: Transgressing The Borders Of Community And Academy, Patricia Herrera

Theatre and Dance Faculty Publications

As Latinas with diverse biographies in and out of the university,¹ we share a commitment to actively engage with all of our communities. As students and teachers, we are expected to leave our personal lives out of our "intellectual" workspaces, causing feelings of isolation and fragmentation (hooks, 1994). We are concerned with the ways we can maintain a sense of connection and wholeness for our well-being and that of our communities. Our collaboration with the National Latina Health Organization's (NLH0)² Intergenerational Latina Health Leadership Project has enabled us to work toward this goal. This project provides a revolutionary …