Effective Dimensions of Teaching Employed Within the American Dance Classroom: a Study of an Exploratory Dance Student Ratings Tool

Abstract

The following qualitative study examined an exploratory dance student ratings tool used to assess American dance technique courses. A divergence between a conventional learning environment and the dance technique classroom appeared to be present within the literature and therefore, this study was conducted with the intention of creating a dialogue among educators and administrators to encourage exploration of this variance and its implications on universal assessment tools. 400 American dance students and 8 American dance professors participated in the study. Through surveys and standardized open-ended interviews dance professors described their perceptions of the dimensions of teaching assessed by the exploratory tool and the appropriateness of these prescribed pedagogies to dance technique courses The data collected and analyzed for this study supported dimensions of effective teaching used in the dance classroom purported by dance scholars. The study also revisited the assessment literature for traditional educational environments in an effort to compare dimensions of effective teaching used in a conventional academic setting to those articulated by this study. This study determined that a divergence between the two teaching environments was indeed apparent and consequently, the impact of universal ratings tool within non-conventional classrooms warranted discussion.