Complexity thinking: Creative dance creating conditions for student teachers to learn how to teach

Authors

  • Timothy Frank Hopper University of Victoria

Abstract

This paper will draw on Davis and Sumara's (2006) idea of complexity thinking to understand learning as an emergent process for (1) students in a creative dance lesson, and (2) generalist elementary pre-service teachers within a school integrated teacher education (SITE) course. Focused on a two-term generalist physical education preparation course, images from digital video clips, course materials and pre-service teacher reflections are presented as evidence to show the creative dance process and the pre-service teachers' responses to this material. The paper introduces complexity thinking to the reader through ethnographic fictional representation of an actual creative dance lesson analyzed through a complexity lens. Drawing on pre-service teachers' insights, this paper will conclude with speculations on how teacher education course experiences could be informed by how creative dance and SITE based courses create recursive tasks that allow bottom-up, peer-shared, decentralized and emergent learning experiences.

 

Cet article s'inspire du concept de Davis et Sumara (2006) portant sur la complexité de pensée. Ce faisant, il enchâsse l'apprentissage dans un processus émergent qui vise (1) les élèves qui suivent un cours de danse créative et (2) les étudiants-maîtres qui se destinent à une carrière de généraliste à l'élémentaire et dont les cours de formation sont intégrés au fonctionnement d'une école. L'auteur présente des images de segments vidéos numériques, ainsi que du matériel pédagogique et des réflexions d'étudiants-maîtres recueillies lors d'un cours de formation axé sur l'enseignement de l'éducation physique pour généralistes étalé sur deux semestres dans le but de démontrer le processus de danse créative et la réaction des étudiants-maîtres à ce matériel. L'article initie le lecteur à la notion de complexité de pensée à l'aide de représentations ethnographiques fictives d'un véritable cours de danse créative analysé sous l'angle de la complexité. Partant des réflexions des étudiants-maîtres, l'auteur termine en indiquant en quoi les cours de danse créative et les cours intégrés engendrent des tâches récursives favorisant l'apprentissage de bas en haut, la mise en commun entre les pairs, la décentralisation et la nouveauté, ce qui contribue à enrichir les expériences des étudiants-maitres en formation préalable à l'enseignement.

 

Author Biography

Timothy Frank Hopper, University of Victoria

Dr. Tim Hopper is an associate professor and faculty member in the School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education (EPHE), Faculty of Education, University of Victoria. He received his Masters and PhD from the University of Alberta. Dr Hopper’s research projects and publications focus on PE and teacher education, in particular, conceptual approaches to teaching such as Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) and Movement Education.

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Published

2010-01-29

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 1 (2010): PHENex

Section

Feature Articles / Articles de fond

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