Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/using-the-rules-of-improvisation-to-build-playful-teams/5022052/
“Real life isn’t scripted. Neither is real teaching.”Debbie Miller, Teaching with Intention
The shelves abound with team-building books. Titles like The Ten-Minute Inservice28 and Quick Team Building Activities for Busy Managers17 inspire directors to plan snappy activities to encourage positive staff relationships. From “Toolboxes” to “Strategies” to “Activity Guides,” ideas overflow. But what would happen if we looked at something deeper? What if we focused on dispositions? Dispositions are contrasted with discrete skills; they’ve been described as ‘habits of mind,6 which can be taught or strengthened.
The world of improvising may seem like an unlikely source of inspiration, but the ‘habits of mind’ that improv troupes follow as a way of being with their fellow players make a lot of sense in the early childhood world. While Sawyer’s work documenting the intersection of early childhood education and improvisation dealt mostly with teacher-student interactions or child-to-child interactions,20-26 Lobman’s research7-14 examines how supporting teachers through improvisational means impacts teaching. I am inspired by their work and further ask: What might early childhood programs learn from exploring improvisational ideas and ‘rules’ to get the most out of our professional teaching staff and administration?
What are these improvisational ideas? We may have some familiarity with improv ideas through ...