The paper analyzes the various aspects of the possibilities for the implementation of improvisation activities in the process of adult education. The author presents some of the theoretical assumptions that suggest the importance of improvisation for learning at all ages, along with its essential traits that construct and define it. Furthermore, the paper indicates the profound permeation of the capacity for improvisation and human development. It is through this connection that the andragogical interest for the techniques of improvisation stems from. As part of such analysis, improvisation was perceived as a methodology of learning and a manner of enriching the educational process by a collective activity of creative development. The approach that is used in this paper to interpret improvisation in relation to adult education and learning perceives improvisation as a fundamental human capacity, a manner and type of an inherent capacity for play, which is a precondition and driver of human development. By favoring the model of developmental learning, improvisation presents a possible path and direction of inserting the developmental element in the process of adult education, which in contemporary times demonstrates diminishing spontaneity and creativity. In that sense, this paper should be perceived as an inclination to initiate an improvised collective process involving everyone ready to inspire others with their desire and readiness for play.

Author:

Tamara Nikolić, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Department of Pedagogy and Andragogy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade (tamara.nikolic@f.bg.ac.rs).