Dance's Contribution To Literacy
Ecological Psychotherapy and the Value of Dance In The Curriculum
Psychotherapists can suggest healthy and wholesome experiences that will encourage optimal development of positive, participating and proactive students.
There are a range of therapies available to the Educational Community today. They point to the kinds of experiences that can be damaging to children, whilst at the same time making suggestions about healthy and wholesome experiences that will cause optimal development of the positive, participating and proactive child.
In 2003 F. Robert Wilson, Ph.D. wrote the paper “What is Ecological Psychotherapy?"
“Ecological psychotherapy is a model for assessment, problem formulation, and treatment planning which focuses on the development of the personal niche in which the individual can experience interpersonal effectiveness (Dawis, 2000; Willi, 1999).”
Programme Achieve for example was formulated by Psychologists who put together resources for teachers so that they could be sure they were providing the best cluster of experiences possible for the healthy functioning of the school as an ECOLOGY.
The ecological perspective is about looking at the environment of the student, the curriculum, the ethos or the environmental conditions (e.g. funding of the school or college ) and all other contributing factors that create the niche within which the student is expected to thrive. We are looking at the interaction of these factors.
Susan F Graham in her paper Developing Intellectual, Social and Emotional Literacy Through Dance Education refers to Vygotsky and other writers who support the idea that there is a pattern in literacy development.
“They suggest (here she lists a string of Psychologists) literacy is stimulated by
- interactions of a gross physical nature with ones environment and others,
- these experiences are then converted into internal or external verbal language and finally
- the concepts developed are reinforced and recorded through the more abstract mediums of reading and writing."
Many Psychologists suggest that PLAY is a valuable introduction for the child into the world of learning. Dance and Drama can be a part of this play. It is through play that children begin to explore their world. And while they explore this world they begin to interact with others whilst they talk about their playing. Dressing up is a wonderful introduction into dancing and drama. It is enhanced when Music is combined. All of these art forms have an aspect of Literacy that can exist alone (eg musical notation) or they can interact with the other styles of communication so that the forms of expression can interact and influence each other.
Graham concludes her paper by asking
- about the value of the artist/teacher practitioner
- whether it is essential to provide these kind of teachers to address the learning of ‘low’ self-esteem
- whether is dance a vital content area, because of its unique teaching approach?
She encourages teachers to think about the question, do "dance education programmes facilitate literacy development?" This article is one reply. When thinking about these questions you might like to read Why Do We Dance? Butterfly Released From Cocoon and Rudolph Nureyev.
If you have comments or questions please post them to the discussion boards.
