Child led or teacher led?

Sometimes teachers teach but sometimes the children teach them!

There is a difference between:

intentional teaching = teacher-led (the teacher instructs the children in a concept or “breaks it down” for them); and

spontaneous learning experiences = an environment is set up in an open ended way and the children lead the learning by making choices or decisions and asking questions.

Both types of learning are possible through dance, which is one of Kate's favourite things to do with the children.

In our first dance learning experience, Kate did some intentional teaching - teaching the children new hip hop steps.

Another type of learning experience would be to set up a speaker outside and the let the children choose the music and just dance. This would be a spontaneous learning experience.

Kate could also make up dances together with the children where the children choose the steps which would be what is called guided participation or co-choreography.

Intentional teaching is an important tool to scaffold the children’s learning until they are confident enough to dance freely. Then it could be enough for the teacher to simply join in the dance with the children to model to them what is needed to be free.

See the Scaffolding post to learn more about teachers' roles in children's learning