The Role Improvisation Can Play in Higher Education

Abstract

In most universities world-wide, the traditional, teacher-centered and passive teaching format is the standard. However, scholars have suggested that changes should be made to make education more student-centered and active. As an alternative teaching method, the inclusion of improvisational activities was proposed. This inclusion is more interactive and requires students to be more engaged with the material by looking at it from different perspectives. To effectively use improv as an educational medium, the foundation of improv as well as educational values must be considered. The present study aims to investigate the effects of the inclusion of improv as a teaching method in higher education. To achieve this, improvisational activities have been designed based on the different principles proposed by previous studies. These activities were then carried out in classes of the course “Language and Identity: Researching and Writing Who We Are”. Afterwards, some students were interviewed to provide their insight into the effectiveness of improv as a teaching method. The results of this investigation showed that generally, students experienced the positive effects of the improvisational activities that have been found in previous studies. However, there were also results that indicated things to be considered when using improv as a medium for education, like the time span over which students have the opportunity to grow comfortable with each other and the relatively unique activities.