Improvisation has long been regarded an integral element of artistic work, but has received less attention for ways it may inform education and learning. This dissertation explores understandings central to improvisation, interrogates how they are embodied in music (Western classical music, jazz and African drumming) and theatrical practices, and uses them to problematize values in curricular design and modes of classroom instruction. Improvisation is presented as a means of confronting indeterminacy and negotiating change, concepts that are discussed first in philosophical and anthropological contexts. These theoretical frameworks serve to foreground notions of performance and agency, particularly as they are actualized in creativity and play. Jazz (as well as its adoption in Knowledge Management) and Process Drama are offered as practices that utilize open-ended, interactive structures to highlight creative collaboration. These artistic forms of engagement are shown to integrate features central to cognitive and social development, and should therefore be regarded as fundamental elements of educational praxis. It is argued that improvisation-based curricula display the following features: they foster learner creativity and aesthetic sensitivity, promote democratic interaction, and validate student subjectivities. These dynamics, which foreground dialogic encounter, are considered to be of particular importance in language arts. The applied use of improvisation in the classroom is shown to complement leading theories and pedagogical approaches in education, resonating strongly with situated cognition, constructivism and the works of Vygotsky, Dewey, and Lave and Wenger. Improvisation is proposed as a generative and transformative alternative to the reproductive and impersonal nature of standardized curricula.
展开▼
