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Six Reasons to Use Improv in Classrooms

by | Feb 1, 2016 | Improv | 1 comment

As educational expectations and responsibilities continue to increase, finding classroom friendly and effective methods for inclusive and diverse classrooms is imperative. If you are looking for a no cost, quick and highly impactful means of increasing motivation, engagement, and essential skill development while teaching content and meeting standards, improv can help.

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Fitting easily into the content packed classrooms of today, improv serves as an effective and efficient intervention that simultaneously develops social-emotional, interpersonal and performance skills essential to learning. It increases motivation and student engagement; and it can deepen learning. Many  games invite curricular integration to introduce, practice or reinforce content and meet standards.

What is Improv & Why it Works

Improv, for the purpose of this article, is defined as short-form comedic improv. It is a theatrical form of improvisation which consists of short 1- to 3-minute games and should not be confused with improvisational theater games or improvisational role-play activities. Although all are unscripted, experiential and share other overlapping qualities and benefits, improv differentiates itself by specific rules and structures.  It is the consistent practice of these in each game that allow for all the benefits to occur. With its short time requirement, small space need, and simultaneous skill development, improv’s games are an easy fit into the content-packed classrooms.

Before we talk about integrating improv, let’s address those two four letter words, “play” and “game.” The same improv games that are played in elementary and secondary classroom are also played by higher education students in top universities and grad schools, as well as incorporated into training programs at leading businesses. My earlier post Play is Powerful Learning for All Ages discusses that people of all ages learn through play and what a person learns depends upon the game structure chosen or designed by the teacher. Improv provides fast and effective, classroom-friendly game structures that support learning and instruction.

 Six Reasons to Use Improv      

  1. Classroom Friendly: Improv games are only 1-to 3- minutes in length. They mostly require only a small space in front of the class. Although a small group performs at a time, the entire class is involved in each game, increasing engagement and the sense of community. There are many games from which to choose, so finding games that fit the comfort level of students and teachers is not difficult.
  2. Skill Development: Improv’s foundational rule of “Yes, and…” is practiced throughout each game. It acts a frame prompting and guiding collaborative interactions. When a student follows “Yes, and…” they must accept the preceding offer and build upon it. It is through this rule many essential learning skills are developed. Some of the social-emotional, interpersonal and performance skills are: collaboration, communication (speaking & listening) creativity, flexible thinking, fluency (thought and speech), focus, awareness, self-esteem, trust, confidence, spontaneity regulation of behavior and more.
  3. Engages Learners- Improv engages learners of diverse populations. Regardless of gender, ethnic, racial, cultural background or educational needs, Improv’s rule of “Yes, and…” guides each student to fully listen to and accept another’s offer and build upon it. As students create collective stories/scenes, built upon offers drawn from their interest, experience or curricular exposure, a sense of validation, trust and respect towards themselves and others develop. Diversity is revealed and honored. Anxieties fade and a supportive community emerges.
  4. Deepens Learning- Improv games are collaborative, multi-modal, and experiential. They are learner centered and embrace inductive discovery. Drawing upon their existing knowledge base and experience, student construct knowledge through improv as they explore, synthesize, apply and demonstrate their comprehension of content creating new and sometimes humorous results.
  5. Increases Motivation- Although improv can be fun, which is one of the five basic human needs for intrinsic motivation, as described by William Glasser in his book Choice Theory (1998), improv also meets the four other needs. Participation in improv provides students with a sense of belonging, autonomy, competence, fun and provides a sense safety in the learning environment.
  6. Content Integration-Many game structures offer the ability to integrate curricular content. While students are increasing motivation and engagement, and developing essential learning skills, the introduction, practice or reinforcement of curricular content and standards can be accomplished.

Learn More

Improv’s deceivingly simple game structures deliver complex educational benefits. Improv is not a fad. It is not going away. It is a pedagogical tool that supports learning and instruction in many ways. For more information about the benefits of using improv in the classroom you might find the following articles useful.