ACERT Conference 21 March 2015

Dark Matter and the

Jazz of Teaching
Adrian Underhill

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Improvisation
Teaching: a performance art, co-constructed, live in
the moment…

The student’s ‘learning edge’ unfolds in front of us

Because we can’t predict what will happen in class,

improvisation is an important way of responding

We all improvise in teaching, in conversation, in life

Improvisation: not part of ELT methodology
ELT methodology discusses preparation, but not
improvisation.

Spontaneous interaction is not easily represented

in the lesson plan, the course material, or in the
observation/feedback discussion.

Impro doesn’t tick boxes. It’s difficult to ‘measure’.

The dark matter of teaching
So the art of improvisation escapes being discussed,
critiqued or developed.

Yet …. this improvisation makes up the bulk of most

lessons.

Therefore I call it The dark matter of teaching

Other performance arts discuss improvisation, and how

to improve it ….eg Jazz and Drama
Count Basie and Oscar Peterson

Two pianists improvising together…

Watch their hands and faces while you listen…

How do they cue and respond to each other?

What’s going on between them?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIs1vcoPQbw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3drqJ1bUmEA
 Improvisation has structure
A background structure provides a framework for
foreground spontaneity

Picture yourself writing a lesson plan….

What does the plan do for you?
When do you stick to the plan?
When do you depart from the plan?
And then who is at the helm?
Departing from the plan
As the unpredictable starts to occur in our lessons …
we depart from the plan to attend to what is needed

The class becomes a living interaction rather than the

enactment of a script

When did you last depart from your plan? Why?

Was it a distraction, a nuisance?
Was it a threat to your control?
Was it an opportunity for
engagement?
Spontaneous conversation

Like teachers, jazz improvisers also depart from their plan

(the sheet music) to create variations on the melody.

Like teachers, this makes up most of their performance

Like teachers, they don’t do it alone… Their improvisation

is a living and playful conversation with the other
musicians

And this impro is discussed, critiqued or developed.

Degrees of departure from the sheet music:
1. Play the sheet music

1. Stretch the sheet music

2. Add decorations

3. Introduce other notes and rhythms

4. Develop new melodies, make references

5. Total departure, yet retain basic structure

6. Departure from basic structure too

What is quality in improvisation?
Improviation does not mean anything goes

Improvisation does not mean good

Preparation does not mean bad

In fact preparedness is needed for good improvisation

What is good improvisation?

in jazz?
in teaching?
in conversation?
Accepting ‘the offer’

In improvisation a cardinal rule concerns accepting ‘the

offer’. It’s like ‘going with the energy….

The offer is what the other person/student/actor,

musician, says, or does, or… the space they leave

I can refuse the offer, preferring my idea

Or I accept the offer.

And even if I accept it, is my response to it fresh?

Or do I fall back on previous responses, past cliches?
Improvisation V “Hot licks”

Quality improvisation: My response fits the offer

Hot lick/Cliche: My response misses the offer

The tension between Improvisation and Hot licks, can be

aplied to jazz…. or theatre …. or teaching …. Or having a
conversation….

To be free from hot licks we need The Queen of Skills….

 In Jazz the Queen of Skills is … Listening
Listening connects us with what the other musicians are
doing… It reveals the offer. But I have to let go of
something….

My preconceptions: if my idea is too strong it gets harder

to hear yours…

And the same goes for teaching

So how do I develop the Queen of Skills?

6 great ways to make a mess of listening
1. While listening, formulate what you want to say

2. Search for the killer reply, and start rehearsing it,

3. Look for a gap to insert it

4. Make inner judgments about the speaker/clothes etc

5. Worry what the speaker is thinking about you

6. Use the time to plan dinner or the shopping list, or

just daydream, while looking attentive
Conversations: The cocktail party
The tension between Impro and Hot licks also applies
to cocktail parties

Would you prepare a script for what to say at a cocktail

party?

To have a conversation I need to hear the other person,

to hear ‘the offer’

But that’s hard to do when I’m working from a script

Viola Spolin on spontaneity:

“…Through spontaneity we are re-formed into ourselves.

It creates an explosion that for the moment frees us from
handed-down frames of reference, memory choked with
old facts and information and undigested theories and
techniques of other people's findings.

Spontaneity is the moment of personal freedom when

we are faced with reality, and see it, explore it and act
accordingly…”
A Tai chi perspective:
“…Planning may be necessary in many circumstances
but it can also be a hindrance.

When a person prepares for an activity they encounter a

minute tensing of the muscles and a tightening of the
joints….

The subtle act of preparation actually reduces your

ability to move and slows the body considerably…”

Tai Chi website

Improvisation and reflection

“Living itself … is an improvisatory art… Men and

women … are strengthened to meet uncertainty if they
can claim a history of improvisation and a habit of
reflection…”

Catherine Bateson
Writer and cultural anthropologist
Nothing in the way…

“…Jazz summarises the power of the present

It's the foundation … learn how to improvise…there is
nothing you can't do, there is nothing in the way…”

Sonny Rollins
Jazz tenor saxophonist
The present moment is not a given…
The present moment does not arrive, independent of
us, ready made, ready to go.

It does not arrive like a tennis ball over the net… and
we just have to hit it back.

We co-author it. We draw it into existence

Through the quality of our own presence we draw one

or another present moment into existence
Spontaneity in training and supervision

How can we make spontaneity more visible and

discussible in teacher training and supervision?

Is it possible in preservice training, or only later on, with

more experience….?

Does it just ‘come with experience’?

7 suggestions (with Alan Maley) 

Spontaneity in training and supervision
1.. Presentation skills
2.. Theatre and impro games
3.. Reflect on methodologies which avoid pre-planning:
Silent Way, CLL, Dogme
4..Provoke unpredictability in class eg John Fanselow’s
‘Do the opposite’, ‘Find your rules and break them’
5.. Include spontaneity and improvisation in reflection
and feedback discussions
6.. Learn to teach‘as an act of inquiry’ rather than ‘as
an act of being right’
7.. Spend less time controlling people and more time
connecting people together
Personal preparation for spontaneity
1. Practise spotting ‘the offer’. Notice if you accept/refuse
2. Work with what’s happening, rather than with what
you wish was happening
3. Start conversations about whatever matters to whoever
is there
4. Give up trying to be interesting, and reach out and
connect
5. Make plans but don’t expect them to work out.
6. Welcome the unexpected
7. Bother less about trying to control, reach out and
connect
6. Use intuition, follow hunches, be vulnerable, risk fear,
leave gaps, be messy, hang loose, welcome student
spontaneity

7. See the school as an adventure park for your learning.

See yourself as an improviser…

8. See what’s going on …

…Do something different
…Learn from it

What is the Jazz of your Teaching?

The problem with sticking to the plan…

Lies not with the plan,

But with the sticking…

First step? Get a non-stick plan…

Second step? Be aware of my preconceptions about

what the learner needs….
We improvise in teaching as in life…
Start seeing the your improvisation

… so we can talk about it

… so we can develop it
 ACERT Conference 21 March 2015

Dark Matter and the Jazz of Teaching

THANK YOU!
Adrian Underhill

Related links:
demandhighelt.wordpress.com
facebook.com/demandhighelt
adrianpronchart.wordpress.com
thecreativitygroup.weebly.com