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play’ (Wade-Leeuwen, 2011 ) using the creative arts. In this way, participants
developed deeper understanding of the different elements in the Integrative
Pedagogy Model. For example, in the studio-based workshop, the preservice teach-
ers used long bamboo sticks with Chinese brushes attached and dipped them in
Chinese black ink before collaboratively exploring a variety of different mark-mak-
ing strokes during the creative process, which meant they were focusing more on
the process than the product (Fig. 7.1). The studio workshop experiences were later
discussed during the postworkshop interviews. Twelve preservice teachers reflected
on the value of using arts-based research within the framework of the Integrative
Pedagogy Model (Heikkinen et al., 2011 ). Most voiced views that the model pro-
vided a tangible structure for them to reflect on the integration of theory, practice,
self-regulation and the sociocultural experiences during the creative process, which
they felt enhanced their overall self-efficacy and confidence to teach the creative and
visual arts.
This research study (Wade-Leeuwen’s, 2015 ) provided three significant insights.
The first emerged from notions of communicative space in which these preservice
teachers negotiated the phenomenon of ‘learning to be’, that is, allowing time for
discovery of their physical and emotional space within the studio-based workshops
where they could notice and reflect on how they interacted, reacted and worked col-
laboratively together. Collaborative creativity was something they had not consid-
ered before the workshops and they had sufficiently improved on their communication
and collaboration skills during this process. The second was that the preservice
teachers experienced what it is like to be in an artistic classroom setting. This
Fig. 7.1 Preservice teachers using bamboo sticks with brushes attached in the studio-based
workshop
M. O’Brien et al.