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Medical Readers’ Theater as a Teaching Tool

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2010

Extract

Readers’ Theater (RT) is a unique vehicle for introducing ethical, cultural, and social issues in medicine to academic, professional, and community audiences. It brings alive the characters in a story in a way that silent reading or reading a story aloud cannot. Audience members experience what is, in essence, a case report acted out “on stage” rather than reading or hearing someone report on a situation second hand. RT has an immediacy about it, a compelling aspect, that makes listeners pay attention and mentally participate in the action. It draws people into the story, engages them. The oral reading and subsequent open discussion combine to educate audience members about the topic of the story and the variety of ways one can interpret the story’s message. This article describes the long-standing RT program at the Brody School of Medicine (BSOM) at East Carolina University (ECU) and some of variations on RT that people have developed around the country.

Type
Special Section: Bioethics Education
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1. Savitt, TL, ed. Medical Readers’ Theater: A Guide and Scripts. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press; 2002Google Scholar.

2. Hawkins, AH, Ballard, JO, eds. Time to Go: Three Plays on Death and Dying with Commentary on End-of-Life Issues. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press; 1995CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3. Case, GA, Micco, G. Moral imagination takes the stage: Readers’ Theater in a medical context. Journal for Learning through the Arts 2007;2; available at: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7380r49s (retrieved 8 Mar 2010).Google Scholar