The teaching-learning process of the history of cinema through a strategy of storytelling and theatrical storydoing applied to the university environment

Abstract

The subjects related to the History usually present difficulties for the students and occasionally they can be tedious to be interpreted as a compilation of dates and names, sometimes when they seem unconnected. This research analyses an alternative teaching practice applied to the teaching-learning of the history of cinema at university level with the aim of finding out the usefulness of storytelling and theatrical storydoing in this field, as well as students' perceptions of this initiative that aims to make them the protagonists of learning about cinema. In order to invigorate and facilitate the process of meaningful learning of the history of cinema, the project ´Cinema through storytelling and theatre´ has been developed within the framework of the subject Filming of the third year of the Degrees in Communication at EADE University of Wales in Malaga. The methodology that has been applied reinforces the work on the theoretical aspects related to the history of cinema through a dynamics of role playing in which the students interpret, direct and perform audiovisual theatrical texts in which the plot and the characters are centered in personalities relevant to the development of the seventh art. Through a qualitative and quantitative research, the texts used and the students' perceptions about this educational practice that applies storytelling and combines it with storydoing to turn students into protagonists of film learning have been studied. The results indicate that this methodology applied to the teaching of film content has proved effective in transferring the students' theoretical knowledge of the subject in an innovative way while developing cross-cutting skills related to non-verbal communication, public communication, collaborative work and the audiovisual technique.