IMPROVISING IN

YOUR TEACHING
PGCert in Performance Teaching
Guildhall School
Carlos Lopez-Real
IMPROVISATION IN OUR LIVES
 IMPROVISATION IN OUR LIVES
• What examples can we think of?

• What qualities do they have? (especially compared to a

less-improvised counterpart)

• What processes are involved?

• What skills/experience are needed?

• What else is needed? Conditions, mindset etc?

Gather these thoughts on the flip chart paper

 A PROVOCATION

“Improvisation is an activity which

includes both pre-planned and
spontaneous action, and thus a risk
factor in dialogue with a pre-defined
structure”
Ben-Horin, O. (2016, p.3)
 IMPROVISATION IN THE ARTS…
• What examples can we think of?

• What qualities do they have? (especially compared to a

less-improvised counterpart)

• What processes are involved?

• What skills/experience are needed?

• What else is needed? Conditions, mindset etc?

Group discussion
PEDAGOGICAL IMPROVISATION
Common characteristics from root
traditions – rhetoric, music, theatre
• Communication and dialogue

• Structure and artistic design

• Learnable repertoires and preparation

Holdhus, K., et al. (2016).

PEDAGOGICAL IMPROVISATION
Common characteristics from root
traditions – rhetoric, music, theatre
• Communication and dialogue
• Structure and artistic design
• Learnable repertoires and preparation

Compare Aadland et al (2016). Typology of professional

improvisation:
• Responsive dialogue
• Use of sequences
• Selection of examples
PEDAGOGICAL IMPROVISATION
“Simultaneous decision and action within a
pedagogical setting. It can be applied to one or more
of several factors such as learned content, choice of
teaching method, the examples invoked, and body
language”

Donmoyer (1983)
PEDAGOGICAL IMPROVISATION
‘Disciplined improvisation’ (Sawyer)
Good teaching is a balance between structure and
improvisation:

“Creative teaching is disciplined improvisation because it

always occurs within broad structures and frameworks…
disciplined improvisation is a dynamic process involving a
combination of planning and improvisation”

Sawyer (2004, pp.13-16)

PEDAGOGICAL IMPROVISATION
‘Disciplined improvisation’ (Sawyer)
“Disciplined improvisation in teaching for creativity involves
reworking the curriculum-as-planned in relation to
unanticipated ideas conceived, shaped, and transformed
under the special conditions of the curriculum-as-lived,
thereby adding unique or fluid features to the learning of
academic subject matter.”

Beghetto & Kaufman, in Sawyer (2011, p.96)

PEDAGOGICAL IMPROVISATION
Common characteristics from root
traditions – rhetoric, music, theatre
• Communication and dialogue:
o Responsiveness… be present… listen… interact
o Mutual respect > trust > risk-taking

“Education is located not in the activities of the teacher, nor in

the activities of the learner, but in the interaction between
the two”
Biesta (2004, pp.12-13).
PEDAGOGICAL IMPROVISATION
Common characteristics from root
traditions – rhetoric, music, theatre
• Structure and artistic design
o Timing
o Make structural shifts if necessary
• Teachable/golden ‘moments’…
• Whole lessons…
• Whole term or course of study…
• Curriculum design…

Holdhus,K., et al. (2016).

PEDAGOGICAL IMPROVISATION
Common characteristics from root
traditions – rhetoric, music, theatre
• Learnable repertoires and preparation
• Repertoires of examples or methods
• Prerequisite to use ‘golden moments’, and to change
structure
• Shaped by content knowledge, curricula and personal
experience

Holdhus, K., et al. (2016).

PEDAGOGICAL IMPROVISATION

Balance…
• Structure --- Flexibility
• Scripted performance --- improvisation
• Carefully scaffolded exercises --- more open-ended
constructivist approaches
• Scripted curriculum --- flexible suggestions
• General pedagogic knowledge --- Pedagogical content
knowledge
PEDAGOGICAL IMPROVISATION

Risks?
Trade offs?
Downsides?
Complications?
 Pedagogical improvisation

Don’t make your improvisation just reactionary… Also

include noticing, and acting on, your own ‘lightbulb’
moments…
PEDAGOGICAL IMPROVISATION
4 corners exercise…
• Successful / satisfactory improvisational example < >
Unsuccessful / unsatisfactory…
• Improv in response to a student’s misunderstanding /
misconception… or in response to your own (initial)
misunderstanding / misconception
• In response to a student’s question / suggestion / method…
or In response to a ‘lightbulb’ moment that you had in the
middle of a session
• In response to an event (of whatever nature) that was
completely unanticipated by you (i.e. surprising,
unpredictable)
 ‘PRESENCE’

The ‘artful listening and nimble

responsiveness’ at the heart of improvisational
theatre, music, dance…

Barker and Borko (2011)

 ‘PRESENCE’
Rodgers and Raider-Roth (2006):
1. Connection to self
2. Attunement to others
3. Knowledge of subject matter
 ‘PRESENCE’
Compare:
• Dewey (1933) – teacher being ‘alive’
• Greene (1973) – ‘wide-awakeness’
• Mindfulness
• Schön (1983) – ‘reflection-in-action’
 ‘PRESENCE’
Rodgers and Raider-Roth (2006):
1. Connection to self
2. Attunement to others
• Shared Control (cf Jones, Heron etc.)
• Attention to both the individual and the
collective
 ‘PRESENCE’
Rodgers and Raider-Roth (2006):
1. Connection to self
2. Attunement to others
3. Knowledge of subject matter
• Specialised content knowledge
• Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)
‘PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE (PCK)’
- LEE SHULMAN, 1986

PK CK
(Pedagogical (Content
Knowledge) Knowledge)
‘PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE (PCK)’
- LEE SHULMAN, 1986

PK
PCK CK
‘PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE (PCK)’
- BALL, THAMES & PHELPS, 2008

PCK:
• Knowledge of content and teaching
• Knowledge of content and students
 ‘PRESENCE’
Barker & Borko (2011)
Teacher presence requires:
• Attunement to self, student(s), subject
matter and pedagogy, within a given
context
• Openness to shared control
• Attention to individual students as well as
larger learning community
“The work will wait while you
show the child the rainbow,
but the rainbow won’t wait
while you finish the work.”
– Patricia Clafford
“When teachers SEE learning
through the eyes of the
student and when students
SEE themselves as their own
teachers.”
– John Hattie, Visible
Learning
 References
Aadland, H., et al. (2017). "Towards a typology of improvisation as a professional teaching skill: Implications for pre-service teacher education programmes." Cogent Education 4.

Ben-Horin, O. (2016). "Towards a professionalization of pedagogical improvisation in teacher education." Cogent Education 3.

Biasutti, M. (2009). "Dimensions of Music Improvisation." Creativity Research Journal 21(2): 232-242.

Burnard, P. (2000). "Examining experiential differences between improvisation and composition in children's music-making." British Journal of Music Education 17(3): 227-245.

Donmoyer, R. (1983). "Pedagogical Improvisation." Educational Leadership.

Holdhus, K., et al. (2016). "Improvisation in teaching and education—roots and applications." Cogent Education 3.

Larson, S. (2005). "Composition versus Improvisation?" Journal of Music Theory 49(2): 241-275.

Sawyer, R. K. (2004). "Creative Teaching: Collaborative Discussion as Disciplined Improvisation." Educational Researcher 33(2): 12-20.

Sawyer, R. K., Ed. (2011). Structure and Improvisation in Creative Teaching, Cambridge University Press.

Sawyer, R. K. (2015). "A call to action: The challenges of creative teaching and learning." Teachers College Record.

Toivanen, T., et al. (2011). "Drama education and improvisation as a resource of teacher student’s creativity." Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 12: 60-69.