American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD

 Issue: September 2004

Feedback in the Dance Studio
Elizabeth Gibbons

Abstract:
Feedback is one of the most important aspects of improving performance because it corrects, reinforces, and motivates. It can also create bonds and enable students to see that their performance is important. This article defines feedback, presents three important functions of feedback, identifies the four forms of feedback, gives examples of diverse types of feedback for a variety of dance genres, and discusses factors that will guide the dance educator’s selection of appropriate feedback. Feedback can be offered by the teacher to individual students or to the class as a whole. Students can also learn to provide feedback to each other by following criteria provided by the teacher, and students can use similar teacher-developed criteria to analyze their own movement and learn to self-correct. Feedback can be offered by visual, verbal, or kinesthetic behavior, and all feedback is one of four forms: value, corrective, neutral, or ambiguous. Different situations, student needs, and the chosen teaching style are all factors in choosing a form and type of feedback. Understanding the types and forms of feedback gives the teacher powerful information that can be used to apply the feedback that will be most appropriate to enable students to achieve success.

Article category: Dance