Dance Like Your Teacher's Watching
Teaching Dance and Building Community with PETE Students

written by Elizabeth Bell, Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois

As the Physical Education Coordinator, and the only full time faculty member for the Physical Education Teacher Education program, I found myself in a unique situation this past fall semester. One of the required classes for my PETE students was Teaching Basic Rhythm and Dance. I have limited previous experience teaching dance to elementary students (only after much research and learning new dance steps, myself), so I was by no means an expert. In addition, the PETE program was entering into its second year as a major program at the university, so we didn't have much awareness for the program.

Previously, our PETE students had experiences peer teaching through their team and individual sport classes. Many of the students had also completed, or were enrolled in, their first preclinical teaching experiences. So, for this dance class, I wanted to emphasize two areas: learning across the lifespan, and providing an experience where an instructor's "students" did not have previous knowledge of what would be taught. In addition, I wanted to shine a campus light on the PETE program to showcase the effort and creativity of our students.

As many of us in Physical Education have heard, "you've got to walk the walk, not just talk the talk," and this became the foundation of this class, almost literally. As the only faculty member, I was responsible for both the technical portion (learning and teaching dance) and making sure my students had an engaging experience learning how to teach it. And, as I told my PETE students, it is our job to promote physical activity among all populations, so let's start with our local campus community.

Students were assigned a dance style to teach during the last 5 weeks of the semester. These included swing, social, country/western, folk/square, and aerobic dance. Each dance style was taught in two 50 minute class sessions.

Now things got interesting. We didn't just want to teach one another and have a class full of "experts." This needed to feel like real teaching, and we wanted to express the value of dance as a lifetime fitness activity. Thus, flyers promoting the dance classes were emailed to all faculty and staff. In addition, PETE students recruited faculty and staff personally. As a side note, the practice of having students invite faculty and staff into their class was an amazing community-building tool, helping the students build relationships within the university community, and helping the PETE program display how it was engaging the whole university population in unique ways. In total, 12 faculty and staff members attended the dance classes. These faculty/staff participants ranged from 24 to 60+ years of age and had no formal dance training.

As with many teacher preparation classes, students were expected to develop lesson plans, create assessment tools, and utilize various teaching and motivational strategies. After the dance classes were completed, I asked both the faculty/staff participants, and separately the PETE students, to reflect on the experience through an open ended survey.

Ultimately, what the PETE students learned during this opportunity, teaching a diverse population was something that cannot be recreated in a formal classroom environment. Nor could any amount of lecture or example from me impart this experiential understanding. Most common in their responses, PETE students reported discovering the importance of not only knowing the content they were about to teach, but to be able to execute it in a way in which all participants were able to be comfortable in their learning the content.

Students who did not feel organized during the first day of instruction made sure that the second day was well organized, demonstrating an immediate response to perceived weaknesses in their own instructional techniques and methods. PETE students also understood the importance of showing enthusiasm for what they were about to teach. They witnessed the change in class climate if they, as the instructor, were not enthusiastic or energetic.

Many PETE students acknowledged a feeling of "nervousness" or uncertainty about the initial instruction of the dance. Much of this came from the fact that they did not always know the faculty/staff participants, or what previous experience of dance and/or physical activity they might have had. But they welcomed the challenge, and nervous or not, they gained tremendously from the experience.

Previously, in other teaching experiences, PETE students did not need to utilize many motivational strategies, since the majority of their experiences involved willing and able participants (fellow classmates). However, they learned that with a diverse population, motivation is critical to introducing and holding the attention of participants in dance. PETE students found that their enthusiasm and energy had to be paired with verbal positive feedback. It was essential for PETE students to set a classroom climate that was fun and comfortable, to initially get faculty/staff participants involved and dancing. However, individual interaction kept these participants wanting to perfect their dance steps. Additionally, PETE students wanted the faculty/staff participants to be creative with their dancing, but that too required motivation. Once these participants were motivated and comfortable, the creativity of the participants was seen throughout the class sessions.

Overall, the PETE students enjoyed the experience, especially seeing that the participants were smiling and having fun. A few PETE students commented that they learned a lot more about themselves as a future teacher. The PETE students felt this particular teaching experience provided them with the opportunity to utilize new teaching strategies they hadn't yet had the opportunity to explore. And as for the community-building, as one PETE student commented, they now see the faculty/staff members around campus and can comfortably exchange a "hello" and smile, each remembering this unique experience. Two fifty-minute dance sessions built a lot of bridges for our PETE students and the program as a whole.

The faculty/staff participants most frequently commented on the enthusiasm and high energy of their instructors (PETE students), as well as their professionalism. The participants felt comfortable during the class, since the instructors provided a lot of feedback and were subtle when making corrections. The participants felt that there was a sense of community among the members of the class. One participant commented, "while I am not a dancer and never will be, it was a very nice experience." Others commented on how active they were throughout the dance sessions. Many commented that they would love to come back again, which I hope will make this a recurring opportunity for future students, and perhaps flower into other avenues for lifetime fitness in our campus community.

Biography: Elizabeth Bell, Ed.D. is Physical Education Director at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois. She administers the Physical Education Teacher Education and Exercise and Sport Science programs. Her areas of interest include academic assistance for student-athletes, and physical education and fitness for under-served population segments.

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