Playwriting and Flow: The Interconnection Between Creativity, Engagement and Skill Development

Understanding, encouraging and developing creativity in the classroom is an international priority (Craft, 2011). This article outlines the findings of research into playwriting pedagogy. It interrogates the conceptual assumptions that surround teaching and learning for creativity, and how these ideas influence teacher practice and student experience. It argues that student engagement and creativity are fundamentally and reciprocally linked. To better understand how to teach and foster creativity in a classroom, teachers' views on creativity and creative processes are explored through Csikszentmihalyi's (2008) theory of 'flow' and the lessons this provides for understanding engagement. The article argues that the teachers' views of creativity and creative processes are of fundamental importance to understanding the teaching and learning experience and that student disengagement can be addressed by increasing student's skills and knowledge both in creativity processes and playwriting proficiency.