‘Rolling the DICE’. Introduction to the international research project Drama Improves Lisbon Key Competences in Education

In applying chiefly a quantitative research approach, and by involving 11 countries across Europe plus Palestine, DICE is a project that both metaphorically and conceptually explored effects of drama education on 5 of 8 key competences in education as defined by the EU. DICE demonstrated that students who have attended drama/theatre sessions score higher in the measured key competences than peer students who have not. The research shows that students in the research groups developed life skills, such as self-confidence, coping with stress, openness towards people from other cultures, reading and writing skills, etc. The present authors acknowledge the DICE Consortium’s research report (Cziboly 2010) as a prime source for this article.