A dance programme that helps teachers improve their teaching skills and enhance their professional learning has shown promising signs of how teachers can use dance and kinaesthetic learning to support and challenge pupils to achieve their potential.
The Robert Owen Centre team has been working with Scotland’s national dance organisation for young people between the ages of 3 and 21, YDance, to evaluate its Step it Up (SIU) programme, a two-year education programme that focuses on teachers’ long-term professional development (CLPL) and which is funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
Its goal is to show teachers how they can use dance and hands-on learning to help and push their students to reach their full potential. Step It Up wants to help primary school teachers improve their skills and knowledge, so they can use dance and kinaesthetic learning to help students do well in school. SIU is made up of 18 teachers who are helped by three dance artists. They learn about teaching, reflection, and evaluation through practical sessions and blended CLPL.
Valued by teachers
About halfway through the evaluation, it is clear that the Step It Up programme is valued by the teachers who take part in it. They say that it has helped them improve their teaching skills and professional learning. Teachers say that the programme has helped them learn and get better at teaching the basics of dance and kinesthetics, which are important parts of the curriculum.
Most of the participating teachers don’t feel ready to use the Step It Up method on their own yet, but they all think that, with the help of the dance artists, they will be able to do so in the next year.
There are some encouraging signs about how teachers and school leaders are working to spread the professional learning from the programme to the rest of their school and use the methods in school planning and CLPL schedules.
Improving teacher skills
The half-way through evaluation has revealed that teachers have a lot of respect for the YDance staff, especially the dance artists, because of how hard they work to help teachers improve their skills and how well they work with kids in the classroom.
In turn, teachers appreciate how the dance artists work together and how they can adapt to the sometimes difficult situations in the schools. All the teachers who are taking part agree that dance artists and themselves should have more time to work together on planning.
The results of the evaluation so far show that the goals and objectives of the programme are being met and that good things are happening.
Positive changes
As the evaluation moves into its last year, the research team at the Robert Owen Centre will be able to show if the positive changes that are starting to happen are lasting. Researchers will look at how Step It Up’s approach to professional learning compares to other possible ways to reach the program’s overall goals. As the researchers collect evidence over the next year, they will be able to compare the approach and its results to other approaches to professional learning.
Senior researcher Deja Lusk said: “These new ideas and findings are important not just for YDance but also for other groups that want to work together with educational institutions. It shows how important it is for an organisation’s leaders to have a solid but flexible understanding of the model that supports the programme. It also shows that their job is to keep an eye on how operations are going in real time and use their social skills to step in and help keep the integrity of the programme design.”
Collegial ways of working
Linzi McLagan, YDance’s head of education, said: “After reflecting on the findings from our research project Shake It Up, it was apparent that we had to work in a more collegial way with the schools and teachers to develop the teachers’ skills and understanding of dance pedagogy.
“Through Step It Up, we have been able explore ways that external organisations such as YDance can work collaboratively with teachers to increase teachers’ confidence and abilities to ensure legacy and the continuation of cross curricular dance delivery beyond the research project.
“I hope our research findings can help provide an insight on the ways in which arts organisations can implement effective CLPL programmes for teachers to strengthen the delivery of the expressive arts in schools.”
“I hope our research findings can help provide an insight on the ways in which arts organisations can implement effective CLPL programmes for teachers to strengthen the delivery of the expressive arts in schools.”
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