THEATRE AND DISCOMBOBULATING TEACHER-LEARNER PEDAGOGY: ACADEMIC PERFORMANCES OF STUDENTS IN ALVAN INSTITUTION, OWERRI NIGERIA IN FOCUS

Résumé

Students are inarguably a pivotal part of a society's future, progress, growth and development. Hence the need to secure their educational and career goals becomes expedient. This study seeks to stimulate discussions about the factors, militating against the academic performance of students in selected departments in Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education, Owerri, in a bid to restructure the debased system which is gradually corrupting the learner's attitude towards learning. The paper employed the qualitative methodology through the use of focus group, semi structured interviews, surveys, participant observation, and performance to stimulate discussion and derive information about the factors militating against the academic performance of learners, the likely causes of these factors, employable measures to checkmating these factors and bringing stakeholders to a conscious level of the need to combat this problem. Theatre for development and the medium theory outlined by John B. Thompson were adopted to harness critical consciousness, dialogue and interactive performances, geared towards engaging participants in critical discussions about the study's focus. At the interim, it was deduced that all stakeholders comprising of learners, teachers and those at the managerial level of the institution, were contributory to the factors militating against the academic performance of students. In the same vein, stakeholders from their responses during the post-performance facilitation displayed a sense of understanding and support by making recommendations on the need for these factors to be debased and restructuring embraced for the enhancement of the academic performance of students in the institution. The study summed this by doing a follow up after two academic sessions, to ascertain the following; achievability of expected outcome, sustainability of expected outcome, change level, impact level and awareness level. The conclusion is that the study's objectives were successfully achieved because visible improvements were seen and documented.