Skip to Content

The improvisational creativity of expert teachers

R. Keith Sawyer

Published: 2010-04-15

Exploring teaching as performance, teacher expertise, and creativity in teaching, this article compares jazz performance and improvisational theater to teaching and scholarly practices, and suggests that a balance between improvisation and structure is what ultimately optimizes student learning.Exploring teaching as performance, teacher expertise, and creativity in teaching, this article compares jazz performance and improvisational theater to teaching and scholarly practices, and suggests that a balance between improvisation and structure is what ultimately optimizes student learning.

Available Files

  • improvisational_creativity_expert_teachers.pdf

    128 KB | application/pdf

    Download

Listening itself, an improvisative act engaged in by everyone, announces a practice of active engagement with the world, where we sift, interpret, store and forget, in parallel with action and fundamentally articulated with it ("Mobilitas Animi" 113).

– George E. Lewis