The purpose of this study was to construct a dance education program integrating critical appreciation with creative expression and to investigate the effect of this dance education program after applying it to five- year- old children. In order to ac...
The purpose of this study was to construct a dance education program integrating critical appreciation with creative expression and to investigate the effect of this dance education program after applying it to five- year- old children. In order to achieve the purpose, I conducted research to examine the effects of the program after performing a study to design it. The research questions set in this study are as follows;
First, how should the dance education program for children integrating critical appreciation with creative expression be constructed in terms of educational purpose and goals, contents, teaching and learning methods, and evaluation?
Second, what are the effects of applying the dance education program for young children integrating critical appreciation with creative expression?
In order to form the program, I examined the current situation of dance appreciation education in early childhood education centres and teachers’ perception of and demands for the program, after reviewing relevant literature first. There were 318 participating teachers and in-depth interviews were conducted with six of them. Based on the results of the literature review and preliminary research conducted with teachers, I decided the purpose and goals, contents, teaching and learning methods, and evaluation of the program. According to these plans, I designed specific activities, selected teaching materials, examined the appropriateness of the program by carrying out a preliminary study, and revised and complemented the program following consultations with experts in child education and dance education.
These processes helped to construct a dance education program which focuses on improving the dance appreciation ability and creative body expression ability of children aged five, enjoying movement and dance, and experiencing basic elements of dance and movement. The educational contents include appreciating various dances and having interest in movements and dances, appreciating various dances and finding elements of dances, appreciating various dances and sharing ideas and feelings, exploring elements of dances through movement, expressing oneself with creative dances by using situation, image and story, having interest in traditional dances and enjoying them, and treasuring one' own and other people’s artistic expressions and feeling the differences, in order to let children experience critical appreciation and creative expression. A course of teaching and learning consists of four stages: introduction, critical appreciation, exploration of basic elements and movements of dances and expression through creative dances. In addition, it includes teaching strategies including physical and linguistic self-expression, problem solving and application of audio and visual materials.
The program was carried out for 20 weeks from September to December, 2007. The study included 48 children aged of five in W kindergarten in Seocho-gu, Seoul(24 children in an experimental group and 24 children in a control group). The dance education program integrating critical appreciation and creative expression was applied to the experimental group once a week and existing movement activities were used with the control group.
In order to examine the effects of the program, I gave a dance appreciation ability test and creative body expression ability test to the children in both the experimental group and the control group before and after the program started. The statistics of the scores of the tests were taken by using the SPSS 15.0 program for Windows, and an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with the averages from the preliminary test as covariate variables was performed. For an analysis of the aspects of children’s responses that appeared in applying the program, data was collected through researchers' and assistant researchers’ participating observations, recording with VTR and photographing, and interviews with teachers, which were transcribed for analysis.
The effects of the program are as follows;
First, all the averages of the experimental group’s sub-elements of dance appreciation ability were higher than that of the control group. As a result of the analysis on covariance, there were significant statistical differences in interest and response (F=57.69, P<.001), description (F=249.57, P<.001), and understanding (F=162.83, P<.001). The results show that the dance education program integrating critical appreciation and creative expression has positive effects on improving the dance appreciation ability of children in the experimental group.
Second, all the averages of the experimental group’s sub-elements of creative body expression ability were higher than that of the control group. The analysis of covariance showed significant statistical differences in variety (F=55.56, P<.001), directness (F=35.90, P<.001), continuity (F=66.79, P<.001), flow changes (F=73.47, P<.001), and expression (F=74.86, P<.001). The results suggest that the dance education program integrating critical appreciation and creative expression has a favorable impact on improving children’s creative body expression ability.
Third, as a result of the examination of the changes in aspects of children’s appreciative and expressional responses which appeared when the program was applied, all the children showed general improvement. In particular, three children who belonged to high, medium and low level groups based on preliminary scores and observations, showed positive changes in the aspects of appreciative and expressional response. The child in the high-level group expressed himself more creatively with understanding of the basic elements of dances as the program progressed. Children in the medium and low-level group changed gradually as they improved their appreciation and expression.