Movement and Dance in the Inclusive Classroom – Stacey N.
Skoning (2008)
This journal article I found while researching inclusive dance and
benefits for adults with learning disabilities. I was initially getting
frustrated that I couldn’t find anything that is specific to adult learners. I
then began reading this article, it is about the use of dance as a teaching
tool within the classroom and so its subjects are children, however it had some
very interesting and transferable points that I felt still make it relevant to
my line of enquiry.
Its first area of discussion in the article is that of Gardener’s (1983) multiple
intelligences, as discussed in module one. The idea that we are all intelligent
in different ways; special, logical, mathematical in this case the important one
is bodily – kinaesthetic. The fact that some people may learn through movement,
different theories of learning are not only relevant to children but adults
also. This is particularly important when we think of those with learning
disabilities, as their disability is often defined as not being respondent to
verbal linguistic teaching or understanding. Using teaching methods that use movement and
expression could unlock new learning for those with cognitive disabilities. The
studies discussed in this article discuss improvement in the learning through
the implementation of creative session to explain mathematical and scientific concepts,
but implies that it could be applied to a range of subjects.
The article talked of Carter, Richmond, and Bundschuh (1973) who suggested
that children with learning disabilities might have “abilities and interests
not fully developed in a traditional academic program” I wonder then if this
might be true of adults, if opportunities to learn in any other way than
traditional methods have never been accessible then is it possible that
creative teaching may be able to unlock new learning and skills?
“Students with emotional disabilities took risks and participated in movement
activities as members of small groups which led to an increase in social skills”
These are results from a study discussed. If this is something that is possible
for children then I wonder if would be transferable to work with adults.
Increased social skills is something that would be of extreme benefit to adults
with learning disabilities as often not being understood or able to communicate
easily with the outside world is an isolating situation. Benefits of dance
education to help with other behaviours in children were also mentioned Skoning
makes reference to Griss (1994) who looked at dance allowing children with
disruptive behaviours to be able to take this disruptive energy and make it
into something creative and positive.
The journal article itself comments on the fact that this work is
related to children rather than the adult with learning disabilities that I am
looking to find benefits for.
“little research has explored benefits of teaching older students with
disabilities through more creative traditional approaches” (Skoning 2008) This therefore
is a gap in this research, but the ideas are linked, we always continue to
learn and so I would be interested to see if these benefits are transferable
into adult learners also. I think it provides good support for the subject of
my enquiry and shows that dance can have beneficial results in terms of
learning and social, emotional and expressive skills it is just whether this is
also able to be shown for adults, something that I am hoping to look into.
References.
Skoning, S. N. (2008). Movement in dance in the inclusive
classroom. TEACHING Exceptional
Children Plus, 4(6) Article 2. Retrieved [05/12/12] from
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