Oded Ben-Horin

My PhD study is situated in arts education. It explores the process of education as a creative and improvisational practice. A pedagogical environment characterized by pupils’ inquiry in both art and science, Write a Science Opera (WASO), provides the context. The study explores the relationships of the educational design and articulation of creativity in WASO. WASO furthermore provides a context through which research regarding educators’ pedagogical improvisation is conducted. A qualitative approach is taken, recognizing importance of subjective interpretation (Eisner, 1991). The study relies on Pragmatism (Biesta & Burbules, 2003), a philosophical tradition which holds that the meaning of theories lies in their practical values. Educational Design Research (EDR) (McKenney & Reeves, 2012) provides a methodological framework for iterative, practical school-based WASO interventions in which research may be conducted on and through an intervention, allowing for multiple aspects of the research object to be explored.

The main research questions:

• What characterizes creativity in the WASO environment? What do such characteristics imply for the design of WASO as a creative pedagogical environment?
• In what ways can knowledge gained through improvised teaching experiences impact educational settings with regard to educators’ levels of risk-taking, interaction with pupils and self-regulation during teaching? What are their needs in order to realize improvisation’s potential in the classroom?
• What is the optimal approach to the merging of science and art within the WASO environment?

My study relies on a qualitative approach, enabling in-depth analysis of informants’ processes and experiences by making their voices heard (Lichtman, 2010, pg. 69). This enabled my subjective interpretation of collected data, needed in order to understand the inherently social context of specific schools in which interventions were implemented (Eisner, 1991). Data consisted of two sources. The first included transcriptions of in-depth interviews and reflective notes collected from educators at two WASO iterations in 3rd-grade classes in Norway. The second is a thick description of the rationale and process of my own creation of a science opera. The three research strands: 1) inter-relationships between the WASO design and characterization of creativity in WASO explored as Wise Humanizing Creativity, a theory of creativity in education which links collaborative co-creation and identity (Chappell, Pender, Swinford & Ford, 2016). An Educational Design Research (EDR) framework was employed as research on the intervention. Results, yielded through data coding and corresponding emergent themes, provided conclusions regarding collaborative creativity in WASO based on Wise Humanizing Creativity theory features; individual pupils’ creative process; and principles for WASO’s design; 2) strategies and techniques designed to train educators for pedagogical improvisation within the WASO environment, based on pedagogical processes aimed at training jazz music improvisation. An EDR framework was employed as research through the intervention. Results, yielded through data coding and corresponding emergent themes, pointed at tendencies of educators’ handling of risk-taking, interaction with pupils and, to a lesser extent, self-regulation. Results supported prospects of training pedagogical improvisation, and of a specifically proposed technique as relevant for training improvisation: Rehearsing Pedagogical Improvisation (RPI). The latter was confirmed under condition of RPI being preceded by pre-iteration preparation, and being followed by “real” improvisation in authentic settings, and reflection. Results also yielded specific design principles for RPI; 3) a specific approach to inter-connectedness of art and science inquiry achieved by means of my undergoing the WASO process as part of a network of artists and scientists. The libretto, music, structure and design were inspired by a research question from the field of neuroscience. That question related to the arts’ potential role in a scientific inquiry into the nature of consciousness. Results raise further questions and propositions regarding the extent and character of art and science relationships in WASO, as inspiration for new creative educational designs.

My study is situated within Pragmatism. The meaning of philosophical topics and theories lies in their practical values. The study’s epistemological stance relies on the notion of knowledge, an instrumental force in society’s life (Dewey, 2012), constituting a relationship occurring between actions and their consequences (Biesta & Burbules, 2003). Johnson (2010), relying on Dewey’s notion of experience (1934, pg. 38-39), described this as a shift away from viewing knowledge as a fixed body of claims, towards intelligent transformation of experience. Dewey referred to the acquisition of knowledge as inquiry (1938), a temporal process which transforms a current situation into a new one following identification of a problematic situation (Biesta & Burbules, 2003). It is only when that transformation process leads to deliberate, intellectual discipline that it is identified with freedom in its truest sense (Dewey, 2012). The contextualization of this perspective within my study of creativity and improvisation relies on Biesta (2013). Biesta (ibid) echoes Dewey’s regarding freedom and independence as central educational aims. He addresses creativity in education as an act of creation. Biesta (ibid) describes different approaches to creation based on the educator-as-creator’s willingness to engage with the risk entailed in creation. Education is always risky as it is an encounter between subjects. Educating for freedom and independence thus requires that subject-ness be allowed to emerge. The latter cannot be taken for granted. It must rather be allowed to evolve in always new, open, unpredictable situations. Teacher and pupils create something together, as it emerges. An improvisational reality is thus inherent in an educational process viewed as an act of creation (Biesta, 2017). Creativity and improvisation thus share a vital and complex relationship in my study, one further nuanced based on understandings that improvisation and creativity always co-exist (Sawyer, 2012, pg. 367; Burnard, 2012, pg. 179); improvisation is itself a creative process (Alterhaug, 2004); and creativity is inherently improvisational (Burnard, 2012, pg. 66, 157). Indeed, teaching is inherently improvisational (DeZutter, 2011). Pedagogical Improvisation (Donmoyer, 1983) consequently exists at the crossroads of an educator’s teaching methods, content knowledge, and didactical approach. This raises the question of improvisation’s systematic role in teacher education through its potential professionalization. DeZutter (2011) argues this would require methods of training educators to identify, experience, and consciously employ improvisation. Though jazz music educators command large repertories aimed at training improvisation and evaluating its quality, no body of knowledge dedicated to training improvisation in general teacher education currently exists. In music, jazz musicians “say something” through improvised interaction related intrinsically to interactive shaping of social contexts (Monson, 1996). Relying on African-American traditions, jazz contains musical processes which have no analog in Western classical music (ibid). These include the aesthetically central interactive and spontaneous aspects of jazz improvisation (pg. 84, 136). My study’s training of pedagogical improvisation was consequently conceptualized to explore improvisation’s potential not only as a tool for handling unexpected happenings, but as a goal in its own right.

WASO occurs at a point of interaction between the disciplines of art and science. This is based on common impulses of art and science (Garoian & Mathews, 1997) and affordances provided by their meeting points (Strosberg, 2015). The negotiation of creativity, improvisation and the WASO and RPI designs within a trans-disciplinary context thus provided a complex educational reality. Educational Design Research (EDR), a suitable framework for implementation of interventions for which no pre-defined prescriptions are available, was therefore employed. EDR applies a systematic exploration of the educational design through a series of iterations aimed at providing new knowledge in the form of practical design principles and new theory, as a solution to an educational problem (McKenney & Reeves, 2012). EDR thus recalls Dewey’s argument for a linking science which would connect theoretical and practical work (ibid, pg. 8). My own creation of a science opera within a network of scientists and artists represented an additional layer of the practical bridge between both art and science, and research and my own understanding of the WASO practice.

Results will be discussed in light of two perspectives. The first is current political determination to increase creative activity in education through integration of science, creativity, culture and arts (EAMEYIC, 2009). The second is Living Dialogic Space (Chappell & Craft, 2011), a theory which views creativity from the perspective of society’s mode of production in a dialogue-based, flat-hierarchy structure.

Several questions require deeper elaboration. These relate to clearer specifications of a) how the “bridge” between art and science differs from other inquiry processes; b) relationships between my research process and the pupils’ inquiry process; c) the role of didactics of teaching music improvisation in future practices of RPI; and d) the negotiation of my own role in the study.

References

• Alterhaug, B. (2004). Improvisation on a triple theme: Creativity, Jazz Improvisation and Communication, in Studia Musicologica Norwegica, vol. 30.
• Biesta, G. & Burbules, N. (2003). Pragmatism and Educational Research. Lanham, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
• Biesta, G. J. J.  (2014). The beautiful risk of education. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.
• Biesta, G. J. J. (2017). Lecture: The arts and the beautiful risk of education. The Arts and Education 2017: Integration or Separation? Conference, Western Norway Univ. of Applied Sciences, Stord.
• Burnard, P. (2012). Musical Creativities in Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Chappell, K. & Craft, A. (2011). Creative learning conversations: producing living dialogic spaces. Educational Research, 53(3) pp. 363–385.
• Chappell, K., Pender, T., Swinford, E. and Ford, K. (2016). Making and being made: wise humanising creativity in interdisciplinary early years arts education. International Journal Of Early Years Education Vol. 24, Iss. 3, 2016.
• Dewey, J. (1938).  Logic: The Theory of Inquiry. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company
• Dewey, J. (2012). How We Think. USA: Renaissance Classics.
• DeZutter, S. (2011). Professional improvisation and teacher education: Opening the conversation. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), Structure and improvisation in creative teaching (pp. 27-50). New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Donmoyer, R. (1983). Pedagogical Improvisation. Educational Leadership, 40(4): 39-43.
• Eisner, E. W. (1991). The enlightened eye: Qualitative inquiry and the enhancement of educational practice. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company.
• European Commission (2009). Manifesto of the European Ambassadors for the European Year of Creativity and Innovation. Available at: http://www.create2009.europa.eu/ambassadors.html. Retrieved on Oct. 28th, 2016.
• Garoian, C. R. & Mathews, J. D. (1996). A common impulse in art and science. Leonardo 29(3), 193-196.
• Lichtman, M. (2010). Qualitative Research in Education: A User’s Guide. 2^nd Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications.
• McKenney, S. & Reeves, T. (2012). Conducting Educational Design Research. London: Routledge.
• Monson, I. (1996). Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Johnson, M. (2010). Embodied Knowing Through Art. In Biggs, M., & Karlsson, H. (Eds.). The Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts (pg. 141-151). London: Routledge.
• Sawyer, R. K. (2012). The Science of Innovation: Explaining Creativity. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Strosberg, E. (2015). Art and Science. 2^nd Edition. New York, NY: Abbeville Press.

Biography

Associate Professor Oded Ben-Horin (HVL) is a PhD candidate at UiB/GRS. Oded coordinates the Global Science Opera, and is a co-developer of that concept. He is responsible for implementation of the EU Horizons 2020 project “Developing an Engaging Science Classroom (CREATIONS)” in Norway; coordinates the EU Erasmus+ project “Creativity, Art and Science in Primary Education (CASE)”; was Project Coordinator of the EU Comenius project “Implementing Creative Strategies into Science Teaching” (CREAT-IT), 2013-15; leads the Pedagogical Framework of the EU Erasmus+ project “SPACE”; is WP leader for Global Science Opera research in the Norwegian Research Council project “iSCOPE”. Oded is Deputy-Chair of the Center of Creativities, Arts and Science in Education (CASE) at Stord. He has delivered lectures on creativity in art-and-science education at the Royal Institution/Lunar Mission One (London), the Greek Physical Society (Athens), the European Space Agency Technology Center (Noordwijk), Scientix (Brussels) and City University of New York (New York) among others. He has published several research and popular science articles on creativity, improvisation and the meeting points of art and science in education. He is the main developer of Write a Science Opera (WASO), which was the foundation for the Danish Education and Culture Ministries’ “Springfrø” prize for Creativity in Schools awarded to “Opera i Midten” (2016). Oded has led WASO workshops at the Norwegian Opera (Oslo), the Flemish Opera (Antwerp) and the Louis Cruls Astronomy Club (Campos, Brazil) among others. As an artist (librettist, jazz vocalist, composer) he has collaborated with international science institutions to produce music as creative public outreach. “Rosetta’s Stone”, his first science opera (concept developer and co-librettist) has been performed at various festivals and conferences in the USA since 2016. He teaches music theory, ear training, voice and improvisation at the University of Bergen. Oded is a member of the European Network for Opera & Dance Education (RESEO) and CASE Center Steering Committees. He has Bachelor Degrees in Musicology and Business Administration, and a Masters Degree in Vocal Jazz Performance.