Structured creative processes in learning playwriting: invoking imaginative pedagogies

Abstract

The concept of the ‘creative’ in creative writing has a vexed history. This article explores the myths surrounding creativity and how they have influenced the way teachers have approached playwriting pedagogy. It reports on research into the teaching and learning experiences of students and teachers in secondary schools, focusing on the participants’ understanding of creativity and the impact this had on the pedagogical process. The research found that a counterproductive idealist view of creativity persists in classrooms: the teachers and students were operating on a conception of creativity and creative practice that reflected a belief in a mystical and unknowable creative process. This article explores the experiences of creativity through systems theory and argues that this approach can inform teaching and learning for creative processes and products. The article concludes that the teaching and learning practices were unnecessarily tentative and that knowledge of creativity theory would improve the students’ development of both playwriting proficiency as well as creativity-relevant skills. It suggests that demystifying the creative process should result in greater student proficiency and improved teaching and learning experiences for teachers and students.

Keywords:

• Playwriting
• creativity
• creative pedagogies
• teaching and learning

Notes

1. Students in their final year of school in NSW complete the HSC. The HSC drama course involves three components: the study of core content (Australian Drama and Theatre and Studies in Drama and Theatre) assessed through a written examination (40%), as well as a Group Performance (30%) and an Individual Project (30%). The Individual Project allows students to choose to complete work in Critical Analysis (either Director’s Folio, Theatre Criticism or Applied Research), Design (Set, Costume or Lighting), Performance, Scriptwriting or Video Drama.

2. The nature of the Individual Project means that the majority of work is carried out independently of the teacher, and most of the interaction between teacher and student occurred outside of normal class time.

3. For a discussion of the issues of student agency and personal investment, see Gardiner and Anderson (2016) Why playwriting: dealing with the big issues and empowering student voices, NJ: Drama Australia Journal 39 (2), 122–134.

4. The Internal Assessment schedule for these (and most) schools places the larger weighted Individual Project tasks near the end of the course.