Improvising musicians' self-regulation and distributed creativities: A phenomenological investigation

Abstract

This paper explores musical improvisation, examining the learning processes utilized in acquiring improvisational skill, and the development of creative processes and expression of six elite Australian improvisers. Taking a socio-constructivist approach to examining how groups and individuals engage in, sustain, support, and productively develop processes of collaborative learning, this phenomenological study investigates the temporal and sequential characteristics of SRL and SSRL regulation that can inform teachers’ facilitation of group learning in the creative music ensemble. Concepts of meta-cognition and regulation of activity as a stable trait are challenged by the diverse ways self-regulation, co-regulation and socially shared regulation impact and shape thinking and learning. Distributed development and refinement of strategies and conceptualizations shaped by individual, teacher-student, and group activity impacting feedback, reflection and goal-setting of creative processes are discussed, with findings suggesting multiple creativities are distributed and interrelated amongst individual, teacher-student pairings and wider shared group activities. The study argues for informed thinking and teaching that develop multiple distributed creativities and awareness in teacher practice that enhance effective regulatory processes and learning.