Neuroscience-Informed Drama Pedagogy

COURSE SESSIONS

Emotion, Memory and Performance: Neuroscience-Informed Drama Pedagogy

Introduction

Discover how emotions shape memory and learning through the lens of neuroscience and drama. This hands-on course empowers educators to design engaging, brain-friendly learning experiences using storytelling, embodiment, and performance to enhance student motivation, retention, and wellbeing.

Description

This course explores the intersection of drama pedagogy and Educational Neuroscience, focusing on how emotion, memory, and embodiment influence learning processes. Participants examine key concepts such as emotional regulation, memory encoding, and the role of social interaction in cognition, while engaging in experiential drama-based methodologies. Drawing on research related to the Limbic System and embodied cognition, the course demonstrates how emotionally meaningful experiences enhance retention and engagement. Through structured activities including storytelling, role-play, and improvisation, educators develop practical strategies to foster inclusive, safe, and stimulating learning environments. The course emphasises the translation of neuroscience-informed principles into classroom practice across subjects and educational levels.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Understand key principles of neuroscience relevant to emotion, memory, and learning
Explain how emotional engagement influences memory formation and retention
Apply drama-based techniques to support embodied and experiential learning
Foster psychologically safe and inclusive learning environments
Use storytelling and role-play to enhance student motivation and engagement
Support emotional regulation and wellbeing through creative pedagogies
Design neuroscience-informed lesson plans integrating drama across curricula
Promote empathy, collaboration, and social learning through performance-based methods
Critically reflect on teaching practices using a neuroscience-informed lens

Methodology and Assessment

The course adopts an experiential, learner-centred approach combining theoretical input with hands-on drama activities, collaborative learning, and reflective practice. Participants engage in micro-teaching, peer feedback, and group discussions. Assessment is continuous and formative, based on participation, reflection, and the development and presentation of lesson plans.

Materials, Digital Tools & Other Learning Resources

Participants will use a variety of resources including facilitator handouts, reflective journals, and lesson design templates. Digital tools such as Padlet, Mentimeter, and Canva support collaboration and content creation. Supplementary readings and multimedia resources on neuroscience and drama pedagogy are provided.

Preparation

After registration participants will receive pre-course questionnaire which will be used by the trainer to learn about participants’ teaching backgrounds and to assess their exact needs. Before the beginning of the course a basic reading list will be suggested to participants to prepare for the training. Participants will also be asked to prepare a presentation about themselves, their professional context and their culture which will be presented during the course. Participants will receive information about the country they are going to visit in order to prepare them for their cultural experience.

Follow up

After the course participants will be asked to share what they have learned with the rest of the staff in their schools. Further books and articles to deepen the topic and contacts with some other practitioners all over Europe and in the world will be suggested by the trainer. The methods shared and explored and the bibliography given will allow the participants to complete and improve their educational path.

Certificate

Each participant will get a course attendance certificate and on request we will complete the Europass Mobility Document.

Accommodation

We do not directly offer accommodation and subsistence and participants are responsible for organizing it by themselves.

Paperwork

We also provide all the support with paperwork you might need for your Erasmus+ project documentation such as mobility agreement and registration letter.

Fee: 560 €

Cancelation policy

Free cancellation up to 30 days before the start. After that, the reservation is not refundable. Changes in name and profile of the participant are possible any time before the start of the course (replacement participants from the same school/org are accepted at any time). In case the school/org doesn't find a replacement, we will still offer a place at any of our confirmed courses later in the year without any additional costs but we can not guarantee that every course session will be confirmed and the school/org will only be offered to choose from already confirmed course sessions. In case it will not be possible for the participant to attend the course or for us to organize the course due to extraordinary circumstances (classified as such by the European Commission) which present themselves in the period of less than 30 days before the start of the course and we don’t manage to find an alternative solution, we will keep 50 % of the payment and refund the remaining balance of 50% to the payer’s bank account.

Draft Programme - 35 didactic hours

Day 1

Welcome and introduction
Outline of the programme
Cultural exchange
Warm ups and icebreakers
Course expectations and needs analysis, setting up a collaborative learning environment and creating an educational contract
Introduction to educational neuroscience

Day 2

Emotion as a driver of learning
Role of the
Emotional tagging and memory formation
Drama as an emotional learning tool
Introduction to process drama and embodied cognition

Day 3

Emotion & memory encoding
Storytelling and narrative structures
Embodied cognition in drama

Day 4

Stress and learning
Creating psychologically safe spaces
Regulation through drama
Trauma-sensitive pedagogy
Drama as a safe distancing tool

Day 5

The social brain in learning
Introduction to
Empathy and perspective-taking
Role-play and identity exploration
Building empathy through performance
Dialogue and emotional literacy

Day 6

Divergent thinking and neural networks
The role of imagination in learning
Improvisation as cognitive training
Flow and engagement
Multi-sensory learning

Day 7

Design of personal plan for implementation of neuroscience informed drama pedagogy
Presentation of outputs(personal implementation plans)
Group reflection, feedback and discussion
Dissemination strategy and European dimension
Validation of the learning outcomes
Evaluation of the course
Closing session