Foreword: Four Moves toward an Artistry of Teaching by Steve Seidel Acknowledgments 1: Thinking with the Theatre Arts 2: Teacher Learning Groups: Practices, Problems, and Possibilities 3: The Theatrical Turn in Teacher Learning Groups 4: Collective Creation in the Black Box 5: Collective Creation in the Teachers Room 6: Exquisite Pressure and Cumulative Progression 7: Putting Collective Creation to Work 8: From Community to Company: Three Cues for Teacher Learning Groups Appendix: Resources References

Allen uses a cross-domain methodology and extends it from teachers' preservice experiences to practicing teachers as they work together in teacher learning groups (TLG) in K-12 schools. The opening chapters apply the theoretical foundation of such educators as John Dewey, who maintained that the qualities of 'esthetic experiences' allow perceptions of the nature of any experience to become clearer and more intense. Powerful Teacher Learning focuses on the specific practices of theater artists. Allen investigates the methods of theater artists and their contemporary theater companies, such as the methods of Anne Bogart and her collaborator Tina Landau, and the work of the Ghost Road Company and the RSVP Cycles developed by Lawrence and Anna Halprin. The concluding chapters shift back to TLG, but the thinking and practices of the TLG with the theater arts contribute to the framework for the collective creation. The lessons learned from the theater companies offer inquiry groups and critical-friends groups in schools specific tools for meaningful professional learning and instruction improvement. This book is highly recommended for practicing teachers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, graduate students, and professionals.