Teaching Method and Philosophy

¶ … Klockare et al.'s "An interpretive phenomenological analysis of how professional dance teachers implement psychological skills training in practice." This article is beneficial to virtually anyone who is working as a dance instructor. Its area of focus is the psychological skills that are associated with dance (primarily implicitly). The original research conducted in the article attempts to determine what specific psychological skills dance teachers believe is important for their students to learn, and the desired outcomes that such skills engender.

The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with six different dance teachers to attain data to help them answer the aforementioned research question. Furthermore, the authors also analyzed these interviews through an interpretive phenomenological analysis method, which is "suitable for novel research areas" (Klockare et al., 2011). The results were extremely revealing. Firstly, they indicated that the instructors sought to implement psychological skills training at an organizational, and not necessarily individual, level. Granted, dance troupes or classes consist of individuals, but the instructors focused on implementing psychological skills training for the entire group.

This fact is explicitly denoted in the outcomes of these skills that these teachers sought to achieve, which include "group cohesion, self-confidence, and anxiety management" (Klockare et al., 2011). The common psychological skills that these educators strove to impart involved imagery (which is similar to visualization techniques) and goal-setting. Significantly, these educators also ascribed to the notion that feedback, preparation for performances, and evaluation helped to assist in psychological skills training. The reason that these are results are so valuable is because they are applicable to virtually anyone teaching dance.

The psychological component of this activity is nearly as great as its physical demands. Additionally, most dance teachers who work with students who are in high school typically feature them in some sort of performance. Teenage years represent a critical stage in the psychological and physical development of individuals -- it is pertinent to teach young people to contend with the psychological pressures they will inherently face as part of their performances.

By reading this article and incorporating some of the critical psychological skills training measures that these educators have identified within it, any dance instructor automatically becomes better equipped to prepare his or her students for the psychological pressures associated with this activity. As a dance instructor myself, I was able to glean a lot of insight out of this article. Moreover, I found that there were several facets of it that directly correlated to my own philosophy regarding dance.

One of the tenets of my philosophy that I have come to emphasize throughout the years is that my charge is to prepare students for a lifelong pursuit and enjoyment of art. Part of that pursuit is accommodating the various psychological pressures that accompany this particular art form at whatever level a practitioner happens to be at. I truly believe that I would not be fulfilling my responsibility as a dance instructor is I.