No matter how well designed our courses or lesson plans are, even when they are grounded in "best practices" and the science of how people learn, they don't always work. Sometimes we have to be creative and spontaneous. In this way, teaching is both a science and an art. Course and lesson plan design should be informed by both data and literature, but we also need to be reminded that good teaching is also a bit of a performance. We often have a script, but there will be times when we need to leave the script behind and improvise. The article below offers a unique insight into the idea that teaching is "improvisational performance" and it should help many of us learn to appreciate this metaphor, as well as offer us a variety of ways in which we can do this better.

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