Name of lesson
Dance Performance and Media Arts in History
Content taught using creative arts as a pedagogical tool
Audio-visual information on dance as a cultural art form will be used as a pedagogical tool for this lesson.
The cohort
Levels 3 and 4, students from diverse backgrounds
Learning outcomes
- Students will be able to recognize the cultural significance of dance;
- Students will be able to communicate their cultural traditions related to dance;
- Students will be able to embrace the diversity of other cultures in relation to dancing practices;
- Students will be able to grasp the concept of cultural diversity, extrapolating it from their knowledge of dance as a cultural practice.
Learning Activities
The activity chosen for this assignment is dancing, particularly cultural dances, as an artistic expression of core beliefs and ideas underlying specific cultures and the relationships within them. The session will involve the active use of audio-visual media, specifically videos illustrating different dancing practices and their functions that they have. The teacher’s role will be expanded to those of an educator, a resource, and a listener. The student will be taught about the origins, meaning, and role of specific dancing practices in different cultures. Afterward, the students will be asked to share the cultural dancing practices of their communities. In the course of the lesson, audio-visual resources, including traditional media and digital ones, will be required.
Assessment tasks
To check that students have achieved the set goals of embracing the importance of cultural traditions and expanding their worldview, they will have to demonstrate changes in their perception of dancing as a cultural practice. To determine that students are aware of the cultural underpinnings and significance of dance, their perception of their cultures’ dancing practices will be assessed along with their general knowledge of dance as a cultural practice. For this purpose, a quiz will be used as the key tool. To embrace the experiences of diverse student cohorts, learners will be encouraged to share their unique cultural dance-related traditions, rituals, and practices.
Justification and discussion
The activity in question was chosen due to its universal appeal and the opportunity to examine unique and diverse cultural practices to enhance students’ understanding of diversity. Indeed, dance, both as a part of aesthetics and specific rituals, exists in every culture, which allows appealing to all learners and, thus, boosting their engagement and motivation to participate (Forehand, 2011; Poort et al., 2022). The specified point of view is actively supported by Dinham (2020), and Shenfield (2015), who posit that dance represents a topic that allows students to relate to the discussion on a personal level. Furthermore, the activity and especially the assessment take account of the needs of diverse cohort learners. Specifically, while the lesson introduces students to diverse cultures, expanding the bandwidth of their knowledge and acceptance of other cultural practices, the task of representing dance traditions from their cultures helps them share the unique and diverse elements of their culture.
Reference List
Dinham, J. (2020) Delivering authentic arts education. 4th edn.. South Melbourne, Victoria: Cengage Learning Australia.
Shenfield, R. (2015) ‘Literacy in the arts’, Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, 23(1), pp. 47-53. Web.
Forehand, M. (2011). Bloom’s taxonomy: from emerging perspectives on learning, teaching and technology. Web.
Poort, I., Jansen, E., and Hofman, A. (2022) ‘Does the group matter? Effects of trust, cultural diversity, and group formation on engagement in group work in higher education’, Higher Education Research & Development, 41(2), pp. 511-526.