PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION (2020) 57(9): 7035-7041 ISSN: 00333077 7035 www.psychologyandeducation.net Psychodrama as an Interactive Method to Improve Teacher Candidates' Problem-solving Skill Gohar Seyedi Asst. Prof Lokman Hekim University, Ankara/ Turkey ABSTRACT The study aims to use psychodrama techniques for teacher candidates to improve their problem-solving skills in teaching and classroom management in the first years of their profession and prepare them for future pedagogical challenges. For this purpose, an eight-week in-service teacher training workshop was designed to promote teacher candidates' cognition and creativity in decision making in problematic classroom situations through role playing, role reversal, doubling and mirroring. The impact of these psychodrama techniques on problem-solving skills was then evaluated through interview and reflection. The results proved that psychodrama had a marked positive impact on the problem-solving skills of participant teachers and their critical thinking as well as self-management that allows for resolution through action. Novice teachers had better go through workshops on psychodrama in order to bring about positive and impactful results in their professional development and creating rapport in the classroom, which would go a long way in effective and productive teaching Keywords Psychodrama, Problem-solving skill, Role reversal, Doubling, Mirroring Article Received: 10 August 2020, Revised: 25 October 2020, Accepted: 18 November 2020 Introduction Teaching has been getting more and more complicated because of the changing nature of the world. Teachers face with many increasing challenges especially in the first years of teaching. Teaching is a practical activity and teachers have so many different roles to fulfill. There are times when teachers in particular have difficulty in finding out how to behave in certain situations. Major challanges that novice teachers face can be summarized as follows: the need to establish authority, build a good rapport, motivate students, deal with individual differences, difficulties in aligning instructional techniques to the subject content, evaluation and variety of problems, many of which are all too common occurrences, leading to inappropriate instructional preparation, decrease in student achievement, and the absence of effective communication that are more likely to occur in the first years of teaching experience because of the lack of knowledge and skill. Along with the changing nature of the world, teaching methods also need to be evolved. For most EFL learners, it is very boring just to sit, look at the board, listen to the teacher, take notes and do homework. Unlike traditional methods of teaching a foreign language, activities that involve students in learning appear to be more effective rather than passive learning. A key motivator in language learning for students is the sense of interest, not only in language itself but in the method used. The most commonly used method that teachers employ in language classes is teaching grammar, some vocabularies, conversations to memorize, role playing, reading a passage and translating it or asking some comprehension questions that are traditional educational policies in teaching a language and aren’t tailored to the individual learner. This type of teaching is not without value, but making use of variety of teaching methods and techniques considering learners’ need and their differences are more useful for them. Accordingly, the ability to make an impulsive and efficient decision in some challenging situations is one of the fundamental competencies that teachers need to possess. The essence of problem-solving in teaching is, first of all, to acquire methods of gaining new knowledge independently based on application of existing knowledge and skills. Thus, it is quite logical that this approach is particularly productive in teaching foreign languages. In order to fulfill their roles professionally, teachers need to be competent in their responsibilities towards their student behavior and their learning procedure. They need to have enough knowledge about existing methods, techniques and strategies so that they can alleviate any type of student misbahavior and learning problems they might have. Psychodrama techniques mainly aim at developing cognitive and real-life problem- solving skills that are essential for teaching practice. The ability to step out of the situation and looking at their relationship with the students from outside is needed in case of a problem in order that the teacher can promote an effective learning. The techniques of psychodrama can provide the candidate teachers with the opportunity to dramatize the situation and develop their awareness of themselves and the system in which they discover themselves, and move towards living more in accordance with their own values and vision as well as getting others’ attitude of the situation to overcome the challenge without anxiety. Psychodrama is a science of interpersonal relations. It helps people become aware of their own ways of establishing relations with others, offers alternative ways of approaching the problems in interpersonal relations, provides them with an opportunity to see and judge their own reaction to the situation from outside by dramatizing it and see how others react to it, causing a collaborative, teamwork approach in the delivery of student problems. An important consideration for teachers is that motivation makes a real difference in learner development; hence teachers need to improve higher order thinking to be able to decide to behave students appropriately, motivate them to engage in learning task and provide them with a supportive