The effects of university dance courses on preservice teacher perceived self-efficacy

Abstract

Dance education is an integral aspect of the Arts curriculum as it offers numerous physical, social, emotional and cognitive benefits. Regardless of the many benefits, dance education is often excluded from the primary school classroom curriculum, even though it is a compulsory key learning area. The main reason behind its exclusion includes many contextual factors, most importantly, teacher self-efficacy. According to Bandura (1997), teacher self-efficacy forms during the early years of teaching and once developed, is resistant to change. Therefore, tertiary institutions can play a major role in the development of teacher self-efficacy. This study identifies the impact of university dance education experiences on the perceived self-efficacy of preservice teachers. A qualitative dominant mixed methods research design was utilised with participants from four initial teacher education courses, across universities in Sydney, Australia. Data were collected from each group, on a collective cohort of preservice primary teachers (N=208) using, document analysis, pre- and post-surveys, semi-structured interviews, and observations. The findings in this study represent the impact of current university dance pedagogical approaches on teacher perceived self-efficacy. Results show that all participants had a preconceived belief about the teaching of dance education. The preservice teacher perceptions, insights, and experiences, provide important contributions to extend on present understandings from the literature with regard to (a) how universities address these preconceptions of dance education, (b) what pedagogical approaches are utilised to cause a shift in self-efficacy, and (c) what specific factors influence the self-efficacy levels of the primary preservice teachers. The preservice teachers in this study attributed positive feedback, tutor influence, interactive teaching models, and practical learning strategies, specifically opportunities for performance and group collaboration, as critical to positively shifting self-efficacy for teaching dance. Based on the findings from this study, universities regardless of the time allocated to dance education, are integral in shifting negative perceptions of dance by creating positive learning environments and providing effective role models. This data offered insight into addressing the main research question: How do current dance education courses at university affect the perceived self-efficacy of preservice teachers? These results will have the potential to inform those involved in policy development, course structure, and Dance teacher education, on whether university dance courses have the capacity to build robust teacher self-efficacy to ensure the likelihood that dance education will be incorporated in the primary classroom and generalist teachers will feel confident teaching it.