At the beat of dance lessons: a classroom experience

Abstract

This research sought to understand and interpret the educational context in which a group of university students took part, in a popular dance course. The objectives of the study were designed to determine whether the methodology and teaching influenced the learning and leisure of the students, and to detect if the class work influenced the student’s interpersonal relationships. This qualitative study used action-research and ethnographic methods, participant observation techniques, field notes, video, response cards, oral and written reports from the class assistant and focal groups. During the data analysis, topics of interest were determined, then categories and sub-categories were settled for each technique and, finally, a triangulation was performed. The results showed that the course methodology promoted students’ leisure and the feeling of satisfaction and joy fomented physical activity, such as popular dance. It was also found that the teaching styles, structure of the lessons, and teacher´s work positively influenced the learning of the theoretical and practical contents of the class. Also, it was found that class work took part in the interpersonal relationships of the participant group, through the promotion of values, standards of hygiene, a pleasant environment and the projection of dance as a socio-cultural activity. The findings of this study are reported in order to transfer them to other educational contexts, in which the content of the program is to teach popular dance.