I have, therefore decided to pursue the topic of the mature teacher. I am hoping to learn from this how people perceive the older dance teacher, both students and younger teachers, and also maybe challenge my own thoughts on how the more mature teacher is perceived.
Therefore:-
- Do older dance teachers command more respect from the students? Do they command respect from younger teachers? Should older teachers EXPECT to have more respect shown to them?
- What are perceived by mature teachers as the pro's and cons of being older?
- How do younger teachers perceive older ones and vice versa?
- Is physical ability essential to be a good teacher or are limitations acceptable?
- Should age be seen as a negative in a teacher/choreographer?
- Why do many advertisements for teaching vacancies apply an upper age limit?
I am certain that more questions will develop as I start to speak to other colleagues. I am not certain how many other students on the course may find this line of enquiry relevant to them, but I will be using other teaching friends and colleagues as targets for my enquiry.
Please feel free to comment on the relevance to you and your teaching. Thank you !
Hi Kym! Looks like you're getting on well with the course, how did you find module one?
ReplyDeleteJust looking through your questions, my thoughts are that with maturity comes experience so as a young teacher myself (do I count as young??!! ha) I look up to older teachers and often see the way they work as something to aspire to. I think perhaps certain age groups look up to younger teachers and like to see the way they demonstrate as it gives THEM something to aspire to. However, I really don't think that it is the be all and end all and there is a huge amount to be said for experience. I also think we can get carried away with demonstrating and can forget to sit back and watch sometimes which is important to do as a teacher. I always think about Miss Gray at college..to me she is the perfect teacher..she didn't demonstrate a lot full out but she had different ways to communicate perfectly what it was she wanted from us... Just my thoughts :)
Hi Clare, nice to hear from you! Thanks for your comments. Its a tricky one I think because in my situation. I came to teaching late in life,so although I am an older teacher, I probably do not have as much experience of Teaching as others. However, I have performing experience and life experience which may count for more. I agree about Miss Gray, I think she commended respect from every student regardless of age, there was never any nonsense in her lessons. There are some very mature teachers that I have experienced in the last ten years who may be stuck in their ways, but are fabulous and highly respected ballet teachers. This seems to be far more the norm in ballet teaching and I think it is because of the discipline required for ballet. I am wondering though if the old ballet mistress/master characters are on their way out, or do we aspire to become those fabulous characters of teaching as we get older.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually part of what I am trying to discover in my inquiry now Kym. One of my questions is do we as dance teachers simply teach the way we were taught, in a 'traditional' way, and is this a good thing? I think there are aspects of the old school way that are brilliant such as the discipline as you said. However, I don't believe personally that this way of teaching caters for all types of students and can sometimes be very harsh. My latest post discusses the need for emotional engagement in learning from the perspective of a a neurologist...I don't know how much the 'old school' way emotionally engages students, and how much it teaches through fear. However!!! I personally think there are good and bad in both methods, and every teacher is different..just like every student is.... Just my blabbering thoughts again :)
DeleteHi Kym,
ReplyDeleteI hope you're well.
I like your topic of inquiry and it's relevancy to my thought process recently.
For me the question is do we gain more respect from students as we get older, particularly with teenage students. Do they see younger teachers as inexperienced and not old enough to gain their respect and trust?
It is silly that age should come into it, for it should be about the talent of the teacher and of the experience. When I was a student, age didn't really play any part into how I thought of the teachers. There were young teachers at college who had less experience in teaching than the older teachers but had more performing experience so therefore could give the advice that us students craved at the time. We needed this advice and information from somebody who had experienced it. Sometimes this worked the other way around though. Several of the older teachers had a long list of performing experience and this combined with their years of teaching made them highly respected. I found though, the older teachers and the younger teachers could have differing opinions and give different advice. This could be confusing. Who's advice do we take? The advice from somebody who has been in the profession for over 20 years but may have not moved forward with the times and is unaware of the current dance trends? Or do we take the advice from someone who is fresh out of the system, who knows what it's like out there in today's world but at the same time has only a little experience?
Carla x
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ReplyDeleteHello Kym
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that Ballet teachers tend to command more respect that that of a Modern or Tap teacher. Completely agree that Ballet being so disciplined that the command of the teacher must reflect this.
However I once went to a Teachers Day at Arts Educational and watched a Ballet class and was so refreshed and inspired by her command of the class and ability to communicate ideas and methods so successfully without coming across as a Matron figure. That is the type of Mature Teacher I would aspire to and learn a great deal from.
In regards to young teachers I feel that they bring a fresh, new and exciting view of dance however can learn through guidance and support from a mature teacher whom they may be working alongside with, as I did within one of my first teaching jobs I had.
To include my Questions within your Inquiry, what do you feel a mature teacher and younger teacher would bring to teaching dance within the Curriculum?
Natalie X
Hey Kym,
ReplyDeleteJust having a look at your question.. I agree with Natalie in that I as a fairly new young teacher really aspire to older teachers with a huge amount of experience. I think there are pros and cons to all ages for teaching. I think the thing you habe to be careful with is being in touch with whats required of dancers these days and not getting stuck in your methods from years prior ( I have definitely had teachers who have been like that!) I don't think limited flexibility etc matters as long as the teacher has good communication skills and more importantly knows how to draw the best out of the students even if they can't necessarily do it anymore. I think certain age groups maybe relate to certain teacher ages better? For example, I currently teach a class with has a vast age range of 9-14. I think they relate well to me and my age and probably respond better than if they had strict really old ballet teacher, because I can relate to them easier and therefore can access their skills better. However when you get older, you tend to see past things like that and find major respect for people who have worked in the industry and now pass on that important wisdom! xxx
Thanks for all your comments. It has been interesting reading them. Although I am a more mature teacher, I still do not perceive myself as a matronly figure! I would like to think that my age does not impact on the students that I teach. I do try to limit the amount of physical demonstration that I do if I have a long day, however, this is not always possible as some children learn best from visual prompts. However, I do feel its important to be able to define the quality of performance and execution that is expected, for example, the ability to really use the metatarsals to achieve a beautifully stretched strong foot.
ReplyDeleteIona talks about being able to relate to the mixed age group of students that she has, which I don't think is related to age rather the teaching and communication style of the teacher.
I completely agree with Natalie that young teachers can bring a fresh approach to the lessons, but should the older teacher not be able to learn from this and try to use the ideas? The issue is, I think, that some teachers, regardless of age will find methods that suit them and that is it for the rest of their career. I am continually meeting teachers who do not invest time and money in updating qualifications, attending CPD courses, attending courses where they can observe other teachers and expand their knowledge.
Anyway, I digress, I am not utterly convinced yet that my line of inquiry will come from these base questions, however, it is certainly making me ask even more questions!
Heading off to the campus session tomorrow hoping to come back full of ideas or at least with a clearer vision of module 2.
Kym,
ReplyDeleteHi, I wanted to make the following comments to your possible questions:
Q: Do older dance teachers command more respect from the students? Do they command respect from younger teachers? Should older teachers EXPECT to have more respect shown to them?
Comment: From whose perspective? You ask this question as if it were a natural science question (i.e. a physical law). Is there a fundamentally true answer to this? If not, then we need to ask a relative or contextualised question like ‘what do young ballet students in extra-curricula class think about respect for older teachers? Here we set the relationship (relativity) and context (extra-curricula) that helps to refine the question, and define the context. This is important because you are asking a ‘social science’ question, i.e. using scientific methods of rationalism and argument to draw out an ‘understanding’ of something within the human sphere. ‘Respect’ is a human, and not a natural, phenomena. So we can’t use a natural science method or frame our question as if a natural answer exists. It does not because it is a question about humans. So we need to frame it as a human-centric question.
Q: What are perceived by mature teachers as the pro's and cons of being older?
Comment: Ok, this works because you are asking about people’s ‘perceptions’ we can truthfully and accurately report on other people’s perceptions. This is a straightforward and answerable question. It coud of course carry what age is applied to, ‘of being a more experienced teacher’.
Q: How do younger teachers perceive older ones and vice versa?
Comment: Good, this is a relative question (it relates through the verb ‘perceive’) but lacks the context to give it definition and focus. You could address this by defining what the young teachers teach, e.g. focus on ballet tachers.
Q: Is physical ability essential to be a good teacher or are limitations acceptable?
Comment: Ok, Here you have two things working against you firstly, it is loaded because it implies a position you already hold, i.e. you know the answer. Secondly, it has no relative points … to whom is it essential, what does ‘essential’ mean? What does ‘limitations’ mean? Too general and contorted to answer effectively.
Q: Should age be seen as a negative in a teacher/choreographer?
Comment: Interesting despite its overly general position. Many of my points in question above applies here. Except this is more intriguing. It is a current idea, ‘Age as wisdom? Age as over-the-hill? If this question was crafted a bit better, it could be quite intriguing.
Q: Why do many advertisements for teaching vacancies apply an upper age limit?
Comment: Relates to above, a sub-question.
Ok your area is about older teachers, and this is really interesting, especially here this links to wider cultural perceptions of age. Your question are developing nicely, now craft them like you would a fabulous piece of choreography!
Thanks Alan. I shall rethink and repost my questions and my approach to my inquiry. Looking forward to meeting everyone tomorrow!
ReplyDelete