Differentiation, the new monster in education: Colin Everest, The Guardian, Tuesday 18 February 2003.
Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/feb/18/furthereducation.uk4
This Article is taken from the Guardian newspaper; it talks about the concept of differentiation within a class room. Although it is talking about an academic setting rather than a dance class it struck me as an interesting article as the author writes in such an angry tone, which was apparent straight away just from simply reading the title.
Having read the article it became clear that he is not so much angry at the idea of differentiation and actually understands the importance of using a “...range of approaches and all available resources”, but his anger comes from the hype and pressure put on teachers to adopt such ‘buzzwords’ within their practice. As a teacher himself he argues that a lot of these “obvious” ideas about people having different strengths and learning in different ways are already incorporated into how he teaches so why the need for them to be labelled and built up as the craze everyone must follow.
The feeling I get from the article is that the writer dislikes being told how to do his job by education managers, that they are perhaps creating such fuss and hype around ‘new’ teaching strategies for the sake of it and to keep their bosses happy. Rather than acknowledging good practice among teachers, they are being made to feel inadequate.
In relation to my inquiry the article does show that perhaps some teachers would prefer to be left to their own methods and teaching styles. In my opinion I think all teachers should be open to new ideas and influences that could help improve their practice. This is not to say that they were doing a bad job before but I believe there is always room for improvement and new ideas can be incorporated into your established methods to refresh your teaching.
I see that constantly trying to off load new strategies on teachers would get tiresome, and without and praise for the work you do I can sympathise as to why the author would be feeling so frustrated with the so called “experts” higher up.
Dance teaching methods and curriculum design: Gayle Kassing, Danielle Mary Jay, 2003. Page 27: "Applying Multiple Intelligences to Dance Instruction"
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bTm-W4oX0HgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%E2%80%A2%09Dance+teaching+methods+and+curriculum+design&source=bl&ots=PEUrRdV26A&sig=bfNmU4qiL5AC7pt1oegblq6ztvE&hl=en&ei=IA2nTejYIMaAhQeeqOHMCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false
This book provides information on teaching methods for dance and relates educational theories to dance. The section that caught my attention was about how to apply multiple intelligences to dance instruction.
As I am looking into differentiation with in a dance class I have already studied Gardners theory of multiple intelligences. In dance I think most people would decide that learning kinaesthetically is the obvious intelligence. However, although movement of the body is a large part of the dance process I agree with the authors when they say that many other intelligences are used in dance also, “…spatial, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal.” Being aware of the various intelligences should help us recognise how best to deliver certain aspects of a dance class to suit the learners needs. Visual, watching and feeling tasks can all be utilised to enhance participants learning and dance development which are factors that I want to look at throughout my inquiry.
With regards to using other intelligence such as logical-mathematical I disagree with the authors when they say this only comes into use to …”support dance when it is translated choreographically, vocally or into written form.” I would argue that you use mathematical skills as you are dancing as well; counting the beat, use of patterns and symmetry. Erik Stern and Karl Schaffer are the creators of ‘Math Dance’, and have taken this idea further by using dance and movement to teach maths.
I agree that dance education should aim“…to develop the person spiritually, emotionally, physically and intellectually”. This links in to the theory that a body centred approach to dance teaching will enable the individual to “flourish as a person as well as a dancer” (Botham, 2000). This is important to remember as a dance teacher, that it is not just about the outcome and final result but the importance of the process and learning undertaken to get there.
References
Botham, S. 2000. "A dancer is a person" (online). Available at:
http://www.ethicsdance.co.uk/downloads_assets/A%20Dancer%20is%20A%20Person.pdf (accessed 14 April 2011)
Schaffer, K and Stern, E. Math Dance (online). Available at: http://www.mathdance.org/index.html (accessed 14 April 2011)
No comments:
Post a Comment