Patricia Avenue School (TLIF 5-051) - Making moves: A dancing engagement for students with special learning needs Publications
Publication Details
Project Reference: Patricia Avenue School (TLIF 5-051) - Patricia Avenue School is a specialist school for children and young people who have an intellectual disability. This project took place primarily at the base school. (The school also runs satellite classes and other specialist services.) The catalysts included the successful use of dance sessions to improve the engagement of some reluctant learners and to empower students with profound learning needs, along with concern about some evidence of deficit thinking regarding these students.
Author(s): (Inquiry Team) led by Renee Manning
Date Published: January 2019
Overview
The new initiative involved the deliberate construction of an inclusive dance programme supported by sustained professional learning and the construction of a ‘dance kit’ with activities and information. The initiative was highly successful, inducting teachers into an unfamiliar art form and helping them to develop pedagogical practices that enabled a shift towards more student-centred, collaborative teaching that met the needs of all students. It showed the power of dance to engage and empower students and that the benefits of such a programme can extend across all parts of the curriculum.
Students such as KT have excelled via dance, they love the freedom to express themselves, they love others copying, and leading the adults. This has really empowered them, and I think this has led to taking more responsibility for behaviour. For KT, it has allowed her the opportunity to interact, and she loves being invited into a programme; it has really demonstrated her level of understanding and development. Her work in dance has been a driving force to show that she is ready for a higher level of learning at Satellite.
Classroom teacher
The inquiry story
The project was led by the school’s music specialist and initially focused upon teachers and students in the senior syndicate. It was supported by the school’s deputy principal and professional learning leader and, over time, a growing cast of others, including learning support assistants, other specialist staff and teachers, university students, and a relief teacher with specialist expertise in dance.
What was the focus?
The idea for this project arose primarily from the success of a previous initiative. This had involved collaboration with the University of Waikato to use dance to better engage groups of ‘hard to reach’ boys and empower students with severe levels of disability. It was also based on observations that some staff and some more able students had a fixed mindset regarding the potential of less able students. The team wanted to move to a more positive way of thinking about these students that would foster their inclusion while enabling a general shift to more student-centred and collaborative learning. They wanted to move from “doing for” their students to “doing with” them. Ultimately, they sought to create a sustainable dance programme that would meet the needs of all students, including those with profound and multiple learning difficulties.
The project team developed the following innovation statement:
We want to know whether exposure to a range of pedagogies using the nonverbal art form of dance will have a positive impact on teacher dispositions and capacity to take risks and break down barriers to student learning.
What did the teachers try?
The inquiry commenced with a pilot in 2019, followed by a wider inquiry in 2020. The latter was extended due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
During the pilot, the lead teacher facilitated weekly dance sessions for all the participating classes. Teachers and learning staff were expected to take part, while observing the lead teacher’s modelling of inclusive strategies for using dance to foster student engagement and agency. Staff and students also attended workshops at the University of Waikato. The strategies for an inclusive dance programme were unpacked at team meetings, and staff were prompted to develop their ‘noticing’ skills and consider how to build on students’ natural movement patterns as a base for creative movement.
The dance sessions were also supported by teacher trainees who were taking a dance paper taught by a lecturer who was project’s critical friend. Both she and Rodney Bell, a professional dance artist, led workshops with staff and students. Unexpectedly, additional support and professional advice came from release teacher Hayleigh Rossetter, who is also a dance teacher.
The lead teacher worked with individual teachers to support them to take on responsibility for developing ideas for the classroom dance sessions and to devise a dance work for the Senior School Production. The teacher trainees participated in the entire process, working towards the final production where they were able to provide unobtrusive support to students, as and where it was needed.
In the second year, the lead teacher began work with teachers in the junior and middle schools, supporting them to take risks and try new ideas through integrating dance into the curriculum. Some of these were mixed sessions, including students from the senior syndicate, and all included students of mixed ability.
The experimentation with new ideas and pedagogies was paralleled by the development of a dance kit that includes activities and professional readings. This was adapted as teachers reflected upon the changes they were making. The kit was used by all teachers, including those who joined the project in 2020.
The ongoing development of this work was informed by a range of assessment and reflection processes. These included pre- and post-teacher-assessments and feedback, assessment continuums for targeted students, teacher and student voice and reflection, and video and photographic data. They provided a rich basis for developing the inquiry and monitoring the effects of this work on teacher practice and on student outcomes.
What happened as a result of this innovation?
Initially, ten senior classes were involved in the project. By the end of 2020, 25 classes were having regular dance sessions and the students were aged from 5–21 years. Senior classes that were not included in the project were incorporating dance in their programmes and specialists were using it in therapy. Why this uptake?
One of the big messages of the project was that dance is not just about the performance. As important, or more, it is about the process. However, the performance was a significant moment. Called Te Mauri Ora, it was the outcome of integrated cross-curricular work on the theme of Te Awa. Students’ drawing and visuals were used to develop movement ideas for devising a dance work representing taniwha and eels. Feedback collected from audience members, including whānau and university faculty members, indicates the power of the performance.
Captivating, mesmerising, edifying, and uplifting are four words which best describes our feelings toward the show. Our children were absolutely beautiful-to ‘just be’ and ‘to shine’ in their own way-as they are meant to. He mihi aroha ki a tātou katoa Te Kura o Patricia Avenue.
Parent
The production was an amazing display of the students’ hard work and their own unique creativity and involvement through dance, movement, and music. The inclusiveness and participation of all students helped with her overall confidence.
Parent
Previously, the production had often been a tough experience for the parents and whānau of students with profound and multiple learning difficulties, unintentionally highlighting the gaps between their children and others who were more able. This feedback matters.
Analysis of pre- and post-data indicates the following shifts for teachers:
- Teaching approaches: Ninety percent of teachers improved their ability to use dance as a teaching approach to support student learning and engagement. They talked about the importance of teacher participation and modelling and that they felt more confident about encouraging experimentation and risk-taking. In the process, they were better able to promote student agency and enable them to express their preferences, not only in dance but in other parts of the programme. Some said that because they were learning themselves, it was initially difficult to communicate desired practices to learning support assistants. This had improved over time with much more evidence of collaborative practices, such as the use wait time, appreciation skills, and non-verbal encouragement. There is less prompting and instruction and more use of music rather than voice cues. School leaders noticed that teachers are being very conscious about the clarity of their learning intentions and success criteria. Teachers themselves say that the dance kit has helped build their confidence in their ability to plan and teach dance sessions and their understanding of dance as a creative process and not just a product.
- Dance skills: Ninety percent of teachers say they feel confident about their ability to develop practical knowledge of the dance elements. They can structure a learning path that flows through and between lessons.
- Problem solving: Eighty percent of teachers made positive shifts in their ability to use dance strategies for problem solving in their class programmes. For example, as part of the theme ‘African safari’, students explored the movements different African animals make. Where some students in one class were keen to learn specific moves for a performance, others needed more creative freedom. Their teacher adjusted the lesson structure to accommodate both sets of needs.
- Creative thinking: Sixty percent of teachers saw a positive development in their creative thinking in relation to teaching dance. They are more tolerant of ‘messiness’ and more flexible. They find fun ways to incorporate dance into the day’s routines (such as transitions between activities). This is also evident in feedback from learning support assistants who value the dance sessions, not only for the impact on student wellbeing but for themselves.
- Leadership of learning: The lead teacher incorporated her work in developing the programme into her own practice and personal appraisal process. She is incorporating new practices into her own pedagogy while becoming increasingly confident in her ability to facilitate inclusive dance opportunities that grow student agency.
The data indicates the following shifts for students:
- Learner engagement and willingness to take risks: Students enjoy the opportunity to express themselves through movement. They are more independent, creative, and willing to try new things, including making up new dance moves and trying them in front of others.
- Positive self-image: Students are more confident, including students who were initially ‘shy’ and reluctant to engage.
- Empowerment and agency: Students are using their bodies to explore different shapes and ways of moving. They are enjoying opportunities to lead others and even present alternatives for their peers who may require some differentiation. Students at the Senior Dance were observed making connections with their peers and initiating dances in pairs and small groups without adult intervention.
- Self-expression: Students are developing new ways to express themselves. There is a growing acceptance that people dance in different ways and it’s fine to explore what works for your own body.
- Collaborative learning: Students from more able classes are dancing with PMLD students in regular movement sessions and are engaging with a wider variety of peers and adults. All students enjoy learning with and from each other. For some, this may mean increased eye contact and smiling. For others, it can mean helping and encouraging each other. Overall, there has been improved participation in classroom programmes.
- Health and well-being: Students are developing increasingly positive attitudes towards the dance sessions. They have developed their gross motor skills and body awareness and teachers observe an increase in general fitness. The improvements extend across class programmes. Students are more settled, focused, and persistent and teachers have noticed an improvement in some student’s observation skills.
- Dance curriculum: Students have made improvements in relationship to their practical knowledge of dance and ability to use dance to develop and communicate ideas.
What did they learn?
This project offers clear evidence of the valuable contribution that an inclusive dance programme can play in fostering engagement and agency for all students. Students who may be reluctant to engage in other activities can be drawn into the fun of dance and learn to express themselves, take risks, and persevere. They gain in terms of physical, social, emotional, and mental wellbeing. The benefits are there for all students, no matter how profound the disability. Teachers need not be dance experts when they are supported by people who are and by the construction of resource materials that provide clear guidance.
Interestingly, Covid 19 meant that the term of the project was extended and, as a result, the learning process was slowed down for both students and teachers. The project team judge that this has had a positive impact, enabling the learning to become more embedded in teacher practice and embraced in student learning.
Inquiry team
The project lead was Renee Manning. The rest of the team consisted of Cameron Sharp, Tania Hamman, Christina Bartlett, Chris Walker, and Elsabe Fleming.
The project’s critical friend was Sue Cheesman from University of Waikato.
For further information
If you would like to learn more about this project, please contact the project leader, Renee Manning, at renee.manning@patave.school.nz
Reference list
Cheesman, S. (2011). A dance teacher’s dialogue on working within disabled/non-disabled engagement in dance. The International Journal of the Arts in Society, 6(3), 321–330.
Benjamin, A. (2001). Making an entrance: Theory and practice for disabled and non-disabled dancers. London: Routledge.
Burridge, S. & Neilsen, C. (Eds). (2017). Dance, access and inclusion. London: Routledge Cone.
Cone, T.P., & S.L. (2011). Strategies for teaching dancers of all abilities, Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 82:2, 24–31.
Hills, P. (2003). It’s your move! Birmingham: The Questions Publishing Company Limited.
Kaufmann, K. A. (2006). Inclusive creative movement and dance. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Ministry of Education. Practical knowledge in dance wall chart. https://artsonline.tki.org.nz/Teaching-and-Learning/Secondary-teaching-resources/Dance/Reviewed-resources/Key-collection/Dance-Wall-Charts-Teacher-Support-Material/Chart-1-Developing-Practical-Knowledge-in-Dance
Munsell, B, D. (2015). Preventing school failure, Dance and Special Education 59(3), pp.129–133.
Zitomer, M. (2013). Creating space for every-body in dance education. Physical and Health Education Journal, 79 (1), 18–21.
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