Miscommunication or Interpretation?
As a child I attended dance classes and took numerous exams with the examining body ISTD for ballet, tap and modern, I now teach these grades as a qualified teacher. It wasn't until I learnt and taught the grades that I realised there are differences in the syllabus, in the way it is learnt, taught and performed. The ISTD is a syllabus written in books, word for word, black and white, count by count. So where do these differences come from?
One of my classes is grade 6 tap, which I have recently just taken over. Whilst observing the class prior to teaching, there were a lot of differences in the way the students performed some of the exercises. The students weren't doing it wrong but it certainly looked different to what I teach. Me being a conscientious person started to question myself, did I learnt it correctly or have I modified it to what I think it is? Has the previous teacher put on their own twist to give the performance factor? It started a whole trail of thought about interpretation, which spiraled off to the thought of the way we speak in every day life, which can also be misinterpreted depending on where we are from. Some things that we say might come across as rude depending on our background and upbringing. Before losing my train of thought I returned to the original idea. I reached out to fellow teachers for their take on the same syllabus, as I didn't want to be teaching my students the wrong material. I then realised that this was a slightly bias process as they went to the same dance college as me to take their teaching exams, so we would have learn this from the same person. I observed videos that the ISTD release for the syllabus work and also attended a course for the set work. My conclusion was that neither of us were wrong or right. Even on the course the leader taught some things different to how i teach them and also different to the way my new students were taught. Some things that I learnt from my teachers was different on the video, but others the same. The masterclass for the grade 6 tap course was different to the video, and my students were doing slightly different things which came from a different teacher. Is all of this miscommunication in the way we learn it? We might be learning material from resources like watching a video, or by reading the syllabus? Is this enough or should teachers be attending courses to learn the work from an ISTD employee, or is there any point in this as they also teach it slightly different? Or is this different due to the way we interpret the work and perform? Add in interpretation and performance on-top of a step and it can look completely different on two students int the way they perform it.
I don't think that there is a right or wrong way to perform syllabus work, at the end of the day the students are judged on points like technique and performance. But if this is the fact then why do we have to pay to attend courses to learn new work and travel to the course? Are we better just learning it off videos and peers nearby? If we follow this route then are we ethically fulfilling our responsibility as a teacher to deliver the correct work?
I am currently researching into where these differences are coming from to determine how teachers keep up to date with material. Do they regularly attend courses and keep with the syllabus changes that are released on the ISTD website? Another thing I am researching into is cost and affordability of the courses, can they make it financially viable to attend?
If anyone is a teacher and could give me any feedback on their attendance to courses, updates and new teaching techniques please comment.
One of my classes is grade 6 tap, which I have recently just taken over. Whilst observing the class prior to teaching, there were a lot of differences in the way the students performed some of the exercises. The students weren't doing it wrong but it certainly looked different to what I teach. Me being a conscientious person started to question myself, did I learnt it correctly or have I modified it to what I think it is? Has the previous teacher put on their own twist to give the performance factor? It started a whole trail of thought about interpretation, which spiraled off to the thought of the way we speak in every day life, which can also be misinterpreted depending on where we are from. Some things that we say might come across as rude depending on our background and upbringing. Before losing my train of thought I returned to the original idea. I reached out to fellow teachers for their take on the same syllabus, as I didn't want to be teaching my students the wrong material. I then realised that this was a slightly bias process as they went to the same dance college as me to take their teaching exams, so we would have learn this from the same person. I observed videos that the ISTD release for the syllabus work and also attended a course for the set work. My conclusion was that neither of us were wrong or right. Even on the course the leader taught some things different to how i teach them and also different to the way my new students were taught. Some things that I learnt from my teachers was different on the video, but others the same. The masterclass for the grade 6 tap course was different to the video, and my students were doing slightly different things which came from a different teacher. Is all of this miscommunication in the way we learn it? We might be learning material from resources like watching a video, or by reading the syllabus? Is this enough or should teachers be attending courses to learn the work from an ISTD employee, or is there any point in this as they also teach it slightly different? Or is this different due to the way we interpret the work and perform? Add in interpretation and performance on-top of a step and it can look completely different on two students int the way they perform it.
I don't think that there is a right or wrong way to perform syllabus work, at the end of the day the students are judged on points like technique and performance. But if this is the fact then why do we have to pay to attend courses to learn new work and travel to the course? Are we better just learning it off videos and peers nearby? If we follow this route then are we ethically fulfilling our responsibility as a teacher to deliver the correct work?
I am currently researching into where these differences are coming from to determine how teachers keep up to date with material. Do they regularly attend courses and keep with the syllabus changes that are released on the ISTD website? Another thing I am researching into is cost and affordability of the courses, can they make it financially viable to attend?
If anyone is a teacher and could give me any feedback on their attendance to courses, updates and new teaching techniques please comment.
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