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CREATIVE TEACHING : COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSION AS DISCIPLINED
IMPROVISATION
(Summary of a journal article)
In this article, the writer draws on recent studies to provide a new perspective on classroom
creativity. Pedagogical methods generally can be categorized into two distinct categories i.e.
scripted instruction method and the constructivist, inquiry-based and dialogic teaching
methods. The writer coined the term ‘creative teaching’ to refer to this second method.
Scripted instruction method is associated with the traditional classroom where
communication is a one way affairs i.e from teacher to students. As opposed to the scripted
instruction method which dispenses with the active participation of student, the constructivist
method emphasize classroom collaboration where children work together to collectively
construct their own knowledge.
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In both methods however, the teacher’s role is comparable to that of theatrical performer. In
the scripted instruction method, the teacher is metaphorically a solo performer or actor
reading from a script with the student as the passive, observing audience. The skills
demanded from teacher under this method are the same skills demanded from actor and
performer working under a script i.e. the skills to hold the attention of the audience such as
presentation, delivery, voice, movement and timing skills. The teacher in the creative
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teaching method assumes the same role as the teacher in the scripted instruction method,
though under creative teaching method the teacher is not an ordinary performer but an
improvisational performer. This metaphor of teacher as improvisational performer and
teaching as improvisational performance is termed by the author as the improvisation
metaphor.
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Creative teaching method equates teaching with improvisation as it emphasizes the
interactional and responsive creativity of a teacher working together with a unique group of
student. In such a class, the flow of the class is unpredictable and emerges from the actions of
both the teachers and students. Despite this freedom, creative teaching occurs within the
confines of broad structures and frameworks i.e. routines and activity structures but within
this confines the teachers and students are allowed flexibility and freedom of creativity.
Thus, creative teaching is a disciplined improvisation. In a classroom conducted according to
the creative teaching method or referred to as improvisational classroom discussion, the
effective classroom discussion emerges from classroom discourse, and is not scripted by the
lesson plan or by the teacher’s predetermined agenda. This is similar to what happens in an
improvisational theatre performance where performances emerge from unpredictable and
unscripted dialogue, on stage and in front of audience. In both cases, the discourse and the
dialogue are referred to as collaborative emergence. They are emergent because the outcome
cannot be predicted in advance and they are collaborative because the outcome that emerges
is collectively determined by all participants.
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Creative teaching is only a facet of the improvisational classroom discussion, the other facet
being the learning process. This is where constructivist theory comes in. The basic insight of
constructivism is that learning, like teaching, is a creative improvisational process and
learning through classroom collaboration is termed as co-construction. In the sociocultural
and social constructivist theory, both creative teaching and co-construction are related to one
another and one cannot exist without the other since if the classroom is scripted and directed
by the teacher, the student cannot co-construct their own knowledge. To create
improvisational classroom, the teacher must have a high degree of pedagogical content
knowledge, the skill to notice and comment on connections between students and the
materials and the skill to manage the participatory aspects of social interaction i.e. connection
among students, turn taking, the timing and sequence of turns, participant roles and
relationships, the degree of simultaneity of participation and rights of participants to speak.
The preceding discussion shows how classroom collaboration occurs at the macro level (i.e.
the whole classroom collaborates). Collaboration can also be directed at micro level i.e.
teachers divide the class into groups of two to four students and each groups is required to
solve a given assignment .Social constructivists argue that this collaborative discourse in the
classroom (macro or micro level) is effective since the interaction that occurs in this
collaborative discourse is multivocal i.e. containing multiple perspective rather than the
single “correct” perspective of the teacher.
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Despite the noted dichotomy between the scripted teaching method and the creative teaching
method, the writer argues that the improvisation metaphor provides an avenue to reconcile
both. According to the writer, even when teachers are following a rather rigid script, there is
always some residual requirement to improvise responses to students in class. Conversely,
disciplined improvisation acknowledges the need for a curricula i.e. there must be some
structure to the classroom performance. Creative teaching also employs plans and goals for
each lesson and creative teachers pose problems and situations for students that are based in a
pedagogical framework. As has been said in elsewhere in this synopsis, creative teaching
occurs within the confines of broad structures and frameworks i.e. routines and activity
structures but within this confines the teachers and students are allowed flexibility and
freedom of creativity. Research has shown that the most effective collaborating groups are
those that are partially structured by the teachers-the most effective collaborations being
collaborations that involve some structure, but not too much, and are of a type appropriate to
the learning task.
As final words, the writer is of the opinion that creative teaching has the potential to brought
about a brighter, more motivated and more effective teachers and will result in students with
deeper understanding and improved creative and social skills.
The writer can be contacted at
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