Interesting Literature

By using Summon and the internet I have found some articles that have really interested me and may be taking me closer to my inquiry questions.  Tuesday nights session with Paula was great to voice questions and opinions.  She answered my question that we can use more than one question in our inquiry.

I have expressed my interest in previous blogs about the benefits of creative teaching in schools and most recently became interested in the quality of dance lessons in the school curriculum.

The first piece of literature I found is an article by Mandy Fouracre and is titled:

'Dance for young children can provide so much more than physical exercise.  Could Early Years Practitioners be the key to extending this learning opportunity to more children?'

Of course, Dance is a fantastic way to keep fit and exercise.  Tom Fry from Child Growth Foundation says 'Half an hour of physical activity should be a daily event for pre-school children.'

The article then goes on to talk about the benefits of dance on a child's learning development.  For example, teaching the child a simple and fun dance sequence about a caterpillar can teach the children about the life cycle of a butterfly.  And they are having fun and keeping fit in the process!

Then what interested me most was this:

'Parental choice and affordability are two main factors in deciding whether children are able to attend an extra curricular dance class.'

'Many Early Years children from low socio-economic groups are excluded and the benefits a dance programme can bring are denied to them.'

Therefore, should dance not be in the school curriculum at least once a week so that every child can experience these benefits on their development?  Personally, I think it should.  However, another area that needs to be addressed is that we need teachers confident enough to teach dance to children in schools.

Mandy Fouracre says:

'The confidence to teach dance is often lacking amongst those working in an early years setting because dance is considered to be a specialist subject and one which (incorrectly in my opinion) can only be taught by professionally trained and qualified dance teachers.'

As mentioned in my previous blog it seems to be an overall attitude that teachers will pass on teaching dance as their is a lack of confidence or knowledge in the subject.  Should it be that more workshops and teaching are provided to teachers in training or should a dance specialist be appointed to schools?

 Let me know your thoughts.