Flipping the dance class!

The university dance technique class is an active, constantly evolving learning environment for the dance student based on the modelling approach (Hsia, 2019).   The students watch, assimilate and re-produce.  In a survey conducted in 2016, less than half of the dance educators tended to agree that technology was not helping them reach their teaching objectives. (Gradwohl, 2018). However, in our digital age of learning, I believe that dance educators cannot ignore the very vibrant and interactive dance educational applications such as Tik Tok and Just Dance Now.  Anyone with a phone and internet access is able to teach themselves how to dance.  In fact, many of my dance students are supplementing their own personal dance education with these online dance applications.  They feel it is essential to stay current with popular dance trends.  To encourage and support our students current online dance education and research, I would like to propose a way of combining their experience of personal online dance learning with the active learning technique of a flipped classroom.   Defined by Bishop, a flipped classroom is an educational technique with two distinct parts. The first part is composed of direct computer-based individual instruction outside the classroom. The second part addressing interactive group learning activities inside the classroom (Bishop, 2013). 

Many of my dance students spend hours weekly observing and learning new forms of dance online from social media applications. I have witnessed certain students sharing their dance moves with their peers before dance technique class.  I would like to formalize this practice with “flipping the classroom”.   I believe the dance student’s current experience and knowledge can serve to create inclusion, diversity and motivation in a practical dance education.  In other words, I would incorporate new dance forms into my practice of teaching by letting my students teach me and their peers.  

Guided by a principle of SoTL: to improve the way my students learn and create pedagogical strategy from the student's point of view (Belanger, 2010), the flipped classroom will address a common student commentary.  Student’s feel that the dance division is not addressing their needs as a pre-professional dancer by exposing them to current dance trends. “Flipping the classroom” has the potential to fill the gap as well as expanding the dance student’s knowledge base to many dance forms and techniques. Thus, fulfilling the desires of our dance students for a more comprehensive BAC dance education. It will also create the opportunity for the dance student to take responsibility of what they are learning.   The student becomes the teacher and in turn the dance teacher becomes the learner. In essence it makes the student responsible for their learning, thus creating a student-center approach to learning (Hsia, 2019).

The flipping of the classroom will demand the dance student to do research and refine their knowledge of the dance form.  They will need to incorporate teaching and social interacting (communication) skills with their peers and their dance teacher. 

In conclusion, the theory (dance form/technique) is learned outside of the practical dance class and the then workshopped in the studio.    This approach to active learning of “flipping the classroom” will diversify the material dance students are being exposed to as well as making it current and relevant for the digital age of learning.  As a dance educator, I am truly excited to explore and implement this active learning technique with my dance students. 

Let’s Flip the Dance Studio!   

Reference : 

Bélanger, C. (2010). Une perspective SoTL au développement professionnel des enseignants au supérieur : Qu’est-ce que cela signifiepour le conseil pédagogique?.The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 1 (2). http://dx.doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2010.2.6

 

Bishop, J. L., & Verleger, M. A. (2013, June). The flipped classroom: A survey of the research. In ASEE national conference proceedings, Atlanta, GA (Vol. 30, No. 9, pp. 1-18).

 

Gradwohl, A. K. (2018). Perceptions of Technology in Dance Education: the Effect of Technology on Student Learning and Teaching Strategies of the Twenty-First Century Skills in Dance Education.

 

 

Hsia, L. H., Hwang, G. J., & Lin, C. J. (2019). A WSQ-based flipped learning approach to improving students’ dance performance through reflection and effort promotion. Interactive Learning Environments, 1-16.