RolePlay

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Role-Play

• Chapter 15

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Two Main Categories of Role-Play

• Preplanned
• Extension of a case study
• The problem is acted rather than just described.
• Trainees are giving briefings about the roles
  they will play.
• The other trainees watching the role play will be
  given detailed observation guides so that they
  know what to look for during the role-play.
• All trainees will receive a background statement.

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Two Main Categories of Role-Play

• Spontaneous
• Trainee is given a role which he or she plays
  himself or herself but tries out a certain new
  behavior to expand his or her range of responses.
  
• Empathy
• Reflective listening
• Briefings are minimal in this role-play.
• Detailed observers guides are required.

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Advantages of Role-Play

• Encourages transfer of training
• Encourages practice and observation of new ways
  of behaving
• Emphasizes good human relations skills
• Teaches trainees to understand the effects of
  their behavior on others
• Teaches that a persons behavior is influenced by
  himself or herself as well as the situation
• Creates new insights for the trainee by giving
  him or her new and more complex information

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Disadvantages

• Ineptness of the trainer to conduct a successful
  role-play
• Ineptness of trainee to act or role-play
• Unreal so not taken seriously
• Irrelevant information brought up can often
  disrupt the role-play and the debriefing

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When Should You Use the Role-Play?

• When an objective is to change attitudes and/or
  behavior, to understand the perceptions and
  feelings of others, or to develop communication
  or interpersonal skills.
• When the trainees would be motivated by working
  on a real problem.

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• When the trainer has observation, evaluation,
  discussion, and feedback skills.
• When sufficient time is available for post-play
  analysis and discussion. Observation guides and
  videotaping are useful tools for analysis.

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Conducting a Role-Play

• The trainer introduces the role-play.
• The role-play is enacted.
• The trainer de-roles the role-players.
• De-roling is the opportunity for the players
  to express their residual feelings.
• The trainer conducts the post-play discussion.
  The trainer collect observers sheets and
  summarize findings.
• If possible allow all trainees to engage in
  role-play situations utilizing the behaviors they
  have witnessed and discussed.

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De-roling

• Still in the place where the role-play was
  enacted and using role names, ask the
  role-players what they are feeling. Continue
  until all significant feelings have been
  expressed.
• Perform a ceremonial de-roling. Ask role-players
  to remove role name tags, clothing, and props
  associated with the role-play. Conduct
  discussion.
• Using real names, thank the role-players for
  their role-playing, and assure them that they
  have done what you wanted them to do. Continue
  with discussion until all significant feelings
  have been expressed.

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Combining the Case and Role-Play

• When a case study is long, a role-play may be
  used to keep the trainees involved and
  interested.
• To further strengthen the new behaviors that
  arise as a result of the case study.

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Writing a Case Study or a Role-Play

• Define the theoretical principles or skills you
  wish the trainees to learn.
• Convert these principles into training objectives
• Define the population of trainees.
• Establish a situation that illustrates the
  theoretical principles or allows the trainees to
  develop the required skills.
• Brainstorm ideas, look at newspaper articles, use
  personal experiences, create information

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• Develop the symptoms
• Write the case study or role-play
• Check the written case or role-play with the
  written objectives

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Writing a Case Study or a Role-Play

• Develop the questions
• Prepare the debriefing activity
• Test it!
• Role-play de-role gather observers findings,
  analyze, and report encourage new behavior