It was unanimous that the carers believed that, overall, the students had more energy and showed elevated levels of happiness and motivation during dance class. There was also no conflicting opinions that certain students with communication and social problems seemed much more willing to participate in dance classes than in other activities. I also discovered from the questionnaire that dance was one of the preferred classes of the students, who they believed viewed the lesson as an energetic, fun activity where the students got to reveal some personal creativity.
I had my own opinions about the students happiness levels during lessons, and their opinion on the participating in dance class, but what really intrigued me was whether that happiness and benefits were noted more in some students, if it was carried into other activities, if it had any effect on their behaviour or feelings to other activities, and if so did it transmit positively.
The results show that carers felt that some students, since beginning dance class, appeared more open socially, more expressive and showed improvement in posture and self expression. Results showed that some students were often calmer and more willing to maintain concentration after dance class. The carers felt that the students appeared to be more relaxed due to one hour of freedom to express themselves which meant higher levels of concentration in other activities.
The carers believed that the students benefit from dance classes, assisting with the learning’s of various competences such as movement, expression and communication.
Upon finishing this sector of research I have found myself wanting to look into other opening lines of inquiry within my chosen SIG.
I would be interested in taking the time to individually find out from students what they feel they have gained from dance classes. Whether it is mainly dance skills or a combination of skills. It would be beneficial to know if the students and carers view the benefits of the dance lessons on different levels, in a comparison of personal and professional.
If I were to further my inquiry within my SIG I would be very excited in choosing a specific disability group to focus on. I would be interested in recording ease/ difficulties during specific movements and how I could work around those, working on improving the difficult sections. I enjoy the idea of doing a research programme whereby as a teacher I would journal my findings, gain the opinions of the students and work alongside them in correcting movement issues.
As a teacher for APPACDM, I was always more focused on the levels of enjoyment the students were having, but I do feel there is a lot deeper I could go to reaching great levels of improvement within my students. Happiness just scratches the surface of the possibilities of the dance classes, happiness brought on by better mobility, improvement in strength, changes in personal attitudes and personal achievement will definitely be a focus of mine in the future.
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