Dialogic communication in the one-to-one improvisation lesson: A qualitative study

Abstract

This qualitative study investigates the dialogic interactions between teacher and student that enhance learning and teaching within the one-to-one music improvisation lesson. This study analyses the ways teachers elicit student actions, thoughts and processes that develop student skills, critical and creative thinking processes necessary for improvisational development. Interactions and interplay between six Australian conservatoire improvisation students and their teachers were investigated. Data reveal dialogic interactions that span instruction, conversation, inquiry and enablement of student knowledge and skills that constitute a complex socio-cultural tapestry of discursive threads. Teacher-student interactions that activate desired creative student activity engage meta-cognitive processes and the cultivation of creative habits of mind that allow improvisational skill to flourish. Teachers engage in dialogic interaction and shape interactional behaviour, asserting a learning culture that makes explicit and visible the acquiring of skills and knowledge. Implications for skilled teaching that can effectively craft the at times improvisatory and ephemeral nature of teacher-student interactions are suggested.