Research Regarding the Development of Dance Performance Measurement Instruments: A Review

Abstract

Despite the fact that dance programs in the public schools are housed within the physical education curriculum, the documents that include dance teaching instructions do not provide information regarding of processes of valid and reliable recording of student performance. Undeniably, the establishment of dance performance assessment instruments would give dance teachers and researchers the opportunity to share, compare and study the results of student learning and teaching methods. The purpose of the present research is the presentation of inquiring efforts with regard to the development of valid and reliable assessment instruments of movement generally and specially dancing movement, as a basic parameter of dance performance. Through the terms assessment, performance, criterion, dance performance, the methodological orientations relative to the systematic
record of dance performance are critically presented, in the more general frame of student evaluation. From the review it proved that the research with regard to dance as object included in the educational process up to today has been supported mainly in individual observations, case studies and efforts of researchers to draw or to apply lists of criteria of evaluation without however proceeding in controls of validity and reliability. At the same time, the importance and need of developing a valid and reliable dance performance assessment instrument was confirmed, as an integral part of the Greek dance educational process. Only in this way might the weaknesses of dancers, students and teaching methods be located, so that the learning is promoted and the forecasted from the curriculum dancing skills are consolidated more effectively.