This storied account details a reflective inquiry of dance as an instructional tool in a preservice teacher training program. The case study follows a children's literature class as they use movement/dance as a way of making meaning in teacher selected literature. Student teachers learned basic movement concepts through BEST (Body, Energy, Space,…

The associate director of education at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago recounts her learning and teaching through managing the Movement as Partnership program. Included are detailed descriptions of encounters with teachers and students as they create choreography reflective of their inquiry into integrating dance and literacy arts curriculum in the…

Performing arts courses at research institutions such as Harvard University are often seen as extracurricular with only tangential or imperceptible effect on students' academic interests. Yet, when this author interviewed biology, math, or neuroscience concentrators who took Claire Mallardi's "Movement for Actors and Directors" course at Harvard…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was developed by the Arts Education Consensus Project to establish objectives for assessing arts instruction in elementary and secondary schools. The project identified objectives for arts education in general and individually for dance, music, theater, and the visual arts in grades 4, 8, and…

This book, which is geared toward K-6 classroom teachers with little or no experience in movement education, emphasizes the integration of movement with the academic subjects taught in the classroom. Movement experiences are presented through specific problems that children can solve by using their bodies in a variety of ways. The problems can be…

Recommends creative dance, as part of early childhood education, be developmentally appropriate, using exploratory movement and sensory awareness to teach children about themselves. From personal experience, describes dance work, based on Native-American dance and children's alternative realities, and designed to encourage future development of…

Studies indicate that arts education improves math learning in early elementary years, promotes significant cognitive gains, supports discovery, and builds knowledge. This conference paper indicates the importance of the arts in early education curriculum and provides an innovative way for teachers to bring constructivism into the classroom. It…