ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Teacher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1683681
Drama Pedagogy and the Core Competency Development of Pre-Service Teachers: The Mediating and Moderating Roles of Psychological Well-being
Provisionally accepted
Yaxin Hu1,2*
Jack Shu1- 1Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong, China
- 2Wuhan City Vocational College, Wuhan, China
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This study examines how drama pedagogy supports core competency development among Chinese pre-service teachers, focusing on the mediating and moderating roles of psychological well-being. Grounded in positive psychology and social-emotional learning, a convergent mixed-methods design combined quantitative analyses (t-tests, structural equation modeling, moderated regression) with qualitative focus groups. Participants were vocational college students, divided into an experimental group receiving a drama-integrated curriculum and a control group with traditional instruction. Results showed that drama pedagogy significantly enhanced communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and cultural awareness. Psychological well-being fully mediated these effects, while moderation was non-significant. Qualitative findings revealed emotional catharsis, peer support, and embodied collaboration as mechanisms for growth. The study reconceptualizes well-being as an active pedagogical force, highlights the value of mixed methods, and suggests embedding structured drama and well-being support into teacher education. Implications extend beyond China to international debates on arts-based pedagogy.
Keywords: Drama pedagogy, pre-service teacher education, psychological well-being, core competencies, Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), embodied learning, Mixed-methods Research
Received: 12 Aug 2025; Accepted: 29 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hu and Shu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yaxin Hu, s1350034@live.hkmu.edu.hk
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