ABSTRACT

Christian Religious Knowledge is taught in Nigerian secondary schools to build morals, teach Bible stories, and help students become good citizens. But the common way of teaching through lecture, reading, and notes makes students memorize without understanding. This leads to boredom, forgetting, and bad behavior outside class. This study looks at drama as a teaching method for CRK. We used Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, which says people learn by watching, copying, and modeling others. The experiment was done at Bobas High School, Ikere, with J.S.S.2 students for two weeks. We taught the “Passion of Christ” using role play. Students acted as Jesus, Judas, Peter, soldiers, and the crowd. Others watched. We then held a Focused Group Discussion with 17 students to check what they learned. Results showed that drama works better than a lecture. Students paid more attention because drama uses action and sound, not just talk. They remembered more because acting uses the body and feelings. They also changed their behavior. Many said they now understand forgiveness because they saw Jesus forgive. Others said they will not betray friends because they saw what Judas did. The old method causes rote learning, memorization and laziness. Drama makes students part of learning, not just watchers. It builds creativity, cooperation, and moral thinking. The study recommends that schools should add drama to the CRK curriculum. Teacher training should include drama methods. When students act out the Bible, they don’t just know the story, they feel it and live it. That is real education. CRK is not for passing exams only. It is for changing lives. Drama helps do that. So, we must move from “chalk and talk” to “act and learn”.