The author examines a federally funded internship program he organized while serving as the director of the High School for Recording Arts Los Angeles program. The school paid students to operate their own record label. Under the American Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, approved organizations provide paid, for-credit internships to young…

Purpose: In this paper, the authors engage with embodied critical literacies through an exploration of the possibilities provided by the use of improvisational comedy (improv) in the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to extend understandings of critical literacy to consider how embodied critical literacy may be transformative for both…

The need to improvise and take action as a practitioner draws on Schwab's notion of deliberation and the Greek concept of poiesis. Inspired by an impromptu discussion with students at a computer summer camp, the author uses the works of Sarason, Eisner, and Stenhouse to show how practitioner performance, student audience, educational inquiry,…

An important aspect of Applied Improvisation and Applied Drama is using and perceiving the body. What happens when this room is virtual? Can adaptations be made to enable embodied work online without jeopardizing impact? This paper focuses on adaptations and inventions two academics have made to engage participants in online embodiment processes.…

In this article I outline the theoretical underpinnings of the maker movement, and I provide the reader with a detailed analysis of how these theories relate to current discussions of making in art education. The primary research concern is to compare the implementation of digital technologies in art educational practices with the claims currently…

Any effort to clarify the meaning of creativity, although productive, risks limiting this important concept to a singular definition at the exclusion of other valuable interpretations. This article presents generative redefinitions of creativity by surveying a range of metaphors that are used to describe creativity. To explore the polysemic…

Empathy development is foundational to counselor training, yet there is scant research on techniques for teaching empathy aside from traditional microskills models. The authors discuss empathy as a skill set, highlight how improvisation (improv) can be used to enhance training, and describe how to incorporate improv activities within the classroom.

The importance of STEM Education has become central to discussions about the future of schooling over the past 20 years. Predicated on the idea that a primary purpose of schooling is to prepare skilled and knowledgeable workers, these discussions have been grounded, in part, in cold-war era concerns about rapid advancements in STEM fields driven…

"Improvisational theater" is a collaborative art form in which performers co-construct unscripted narratives, often based on audience suggestions, and always guided by a set of central principles. One practice common in improv instructional settings is "side-coaching," the move of providing immediate, public, verbal feedback…

The present article introduces, develops, and illustrates a perspectival framework for the creative process drawing on current developments within the cultural psychology of creativity and the social theory of George Herbert Mead. The creative process is conceptualized as a form of action by which actors, materially and symbolically, alone and in…

Synchronous learning engagement has been studied during the pandemic COVID-19. However, few studies investigated Zen participants' engagement in particular courses. The study aims to disclose the EFL Zen students' devotion to synchronous instructional research courses during the disruption phase. The study focuses on the students'; miscellaneous…

Today, schools are introducing STEM education and robotics to children in ever-lower grades. In "Beyond Coding," Marina Umaschi Bers lays out a pedagogical roadmap for teaching code that encompasses the cultivation of character along with technical knowledge and skills. Presenting code as a universal language, she shows how children…

Healthcare practitioners are often presented with vulnerable encounters where their professional experience is insufficient when dealing with patients who suffer from illnesses such as chronic pain. How can one otherwise understand chronic pain and develop practices whereby medical healthcare practitioners can experience alternative ways of doing…

Our aims were to examine the efficacy of a new observational instrument "System for Observing Outdoor Play" for detecting changes in outdoor play and chart the use of recycled and repurposed materials in the school playground during the course of an intervention to increase outdoor play. Children from one Sydney primary school were…

This longitudinal study examines the relationship between young people's creative and performing arts participation (e.g., in dance, drama, film, music, visual arts) and their arts self-concept. Drawing on the positive youth development (PYD) framework and the reciprocal effects model (REM) of self-concept, a cross-lagged panel design is…