“EMBRACING THE UNCERTAINTY”: AN EXPLORATORY CASE STUDY OF IMPROVISATION-BASED TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

While many education researchers have characterized the impromptu nature of classroom teaching as improvisation, few studies of teacher education or professional development (PD) have examined the potential of improvisation workshops for equipping teachers to face unforeseen classroom moments productively. In this dissertation, I introduced an applied theatrical improvisation framework I call Pedagogical Improvisation (PI), and used it to design, implement, and conduct a qualitative case study of an improvisation-based professional development experience (the PIPD) for a group of nine high school teachers. The research questions were:1. How, if at all, did PIPD participation influence teacher-participants’ attitudes toward, and beliefs about, improvisation and improvisational teaching?

How, if at all, did PIPD participation influence teacher-participants’ teaching practices, especially with respect to unforeseen classroom moments?

Additionally, during the data analysis process, I added a third research question, based on participating teachers’ responses about the benefits of group participation in the PIPD:3. How, if at all, did the PIPD promote the formation of a Community of Practice for teacher-participants? Findings indicated that, as a result of their PIPD experiences, teacher-participants came to see the role of teacher as a professional improviser more clearly, became more comfortable with uncertainty in both the workshop setting and their classrooms, and experimented with various types of teaching practices related to the PIPD workshop activities and the Elements of Improvisation. Teacher-participants also identified several ways in which the PIPD workshops supported their development of improvisational skills/mindsets, and several constraints that served as obstacles to experimenting with improvisational activities or teaching practices in their classrooms. Beyond their individual reflections and applications of the workshop activities to their classroom, PIPD teachers experienced the benefits of group participation through the Community of Practice that formed as a result of the PIPD workshops. By laughing, playing, and learning together in a workshop setting characterized by psychological safety, teachers also came to see themselves as responsible for creating that type of atmosphere for students in their own classrooms, and experimented with many ways of doing so. This dissertation has implications for research, teaching, teacher education, and professional development, and joins a body of now-quickly-growing research across many fields that supports Tint, McWaters, and Van Driel’s (2015) assertion that applied improvisation is “consistently transformative and successful.” Further, it seeks to respond to their call for “rigorous and structured research to ground the findings in larger, evidence-based processes” (p. 73).