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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. The writer can be contacted at scholars.assist@gmail.com In both methods however, the teachers 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 teaching method assumes the same role as the teacher in the scripted instruction method,
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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. The writer can be contacted at scholars.assist@gmail.com 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 teachers 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. The writer can be contacted at scholars.assist@gmail.com

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 scholars.assist@gmail.com