I am new to the list--allow me to introduce myself, my name is Carrie
Lobman and I am a professor of early childhood education at Rutgers
University.
I am writing in response to Willow's questions about the use of the arts
in educational research and teacher professional development. My
research focuses on performance and improvisation as untapped resources
for teachers and teacher educators. I have found that when teachers are
given training in improvisation they develop as leaders in the
classroom and it opens them up to more creative and collective ways of
interacting with children. I believe this is because improvisation
reconnects adults to an ability we all had as children--the ability to
be other than who we are and to create collectively with other people
without being overdetermined by the end product. I've recently concluded
a pilot study where I provided improvisational training to preschool
teachers and then studied the effects on their teaching. While I am
still analyzing the videotaped observations from the workshops and the
classrooms the strongest initial result had to do with how the teachers
understood what it meant to listen to children. The improvisation
training pushed them to see listening and responding as a building
activity where you are collectively creating the conversation with the
children rather than trying to "make a point" or even provide a learning
moment. Its been a very interesting project.
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