Research in Dance Education
(Young people's experiences of effort and engagement in dance) Bond, Karen E.
and Stinson, Susan W. (2007)
At our last campus session
Paula referred to this piece of literature during discussions. I found it
interesting and somewhat relevant to my own professional inquiry.
This literature gives
examples of the findings from an inquiry into how young children learn in dance
education. The study suggests that children must be challenged in order to
achieve
“Students attribute school success and failure to a
variety of causes. Wiseman and hunt (2001) identify four: ability, effort, task
difficulty and luck (2001:43)"
Also suggesting that the
goals must be attainable for them to feel successful in their efforts.
Therefore taking into great consideration the level and difficulty of each task
when planning a dance lesson, to ensure inclusive teaching for students of all
abilities and learning styles.
“Reeve (2005) suggests that students orientated toward
learning/mastery goals may become bored when their skills override the
challenge of a task (echoing Csikszentmihalyi). While students with performance
orientations enjoy tasks in which they can show high ability”. (2007:175)
The study highlighted children’s
views on dance. Many enjoyed the dance lessons if they felt that they have made
an achievement. Some students learn through movement and those who have chosen
dance are more likely to prefer this learning style (Kinesthetic learners).
This links in with my findings from my previous literature review on Gardner’s
Multiple intelligence theory, which suggests that dancers learning through
bodily-kinesthetic styles.
From reviewing this
literature I will consider using a number of smaller tasks, to incorporate
teaching methods to suit ‘all’ learners. I remain convinced that the use of
technology will further consolidate student learning, especially targeting students
who learn from visual aids.
“Dance educators have focused on the importance of
learning through movement for Kinesthetic learners”. (2007:177)
This also leads me to
look into Kolb’s learning styles. as Kolb's model gave rise to the Learning
Style Inventory, an assessment method used to determine an individual's
learning style.